Consulting
Forgive the cliché, but I believe people are
your greatest – and sometimes only –
real asset.
They can also be your greatest source of criticism if they aren’t engaged, led, developed or recognised in the right way. Consulting is about working from a problem or challenge. Perhaps an engagement survey has raised an issue. Perhaps you want to change the way you recognise and reward great work. Perhaps a merger or acquisition (or both!) is in the offing and you need a fresh people strategy. It’s my job to ask, ‘What’s really going on here?’ And, of course, ‘What’s the solution?’ I identify the systems, processes and structures that allow the people stuff to be done well.
My clients know it as ‘Consulting’ but it might just as easily be called, big picture thinking and meaningful doing.
For information about my specialities and rates, download thisAnd for my creds and full CV, visit this
How does consulting differ from facilitation?
Glad you asked. In facilitation, I use my expertise to draw solutions from the participants in the room. In a consulting context, there will almost always be an element of facilitation, but I also use my experience to advise. The object is to find a different way of doing something.
My consulting superpower
I can process lots of complex information, and summarise it in a simple way
Consulting in action: Building a better board
British Wheelchair Basketball (BWB) is a national governing body in sport and also a registered charity. In 2018, they proposed a question: how do we build next-level non-exec capacity at board level? The team wanted to go beyond the typical trustee type, and gather a team that would help them execute a big, bold strategy; a board that, in the words of CEO Lisa Pearce, would ‘enable us to redefine the boundaries of what’s possible in para sport and really reach for the stars’.
The challenge came in three parts:
Create an attractive offer for potential trustees
Figure out the best route to market so the right people saw it
And create a values- and skills-based assessment process for candidates
There was something else, too. After an initial meeting with the Chair and CEO I quickly came to see the opportunity for BWB to align on its values, then bring them to life to unlock the huge potential at the heart of the organisation. I developed a plan and scheduled a series of meetings with team members. Over a period of three months, I designed the recruitment and assessment process for new board members and created all the necessary collateral. On time. Within budget.
Today, British Wheelchair Basketball has one of the most respected boards in sport, with high-calibre individuals from sport, broadcasting and the military. The organisation was able to attract investment of more than £8m to deliver on their strategy, and has gone from strength to strength. BWB was named Inclusion Charity of the Year in 2020, and in 2022 launched the Women’s Premier Wheelchair Basketball League – the first league of its kind in its world, and first professional para sports league in the UK.
