What I do …
My consultancy specialises in organisational development in the arts and heritage sectors. This includes a wide variety of services, including: strategic development, feasibility work, business planning, research, company formation and governance, project direction, change management and human resources development.
Based in London, for over 12 years I have worked with many different cultural, community and development agency clients of all sizes across the UK. My clients include: the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, national and community museums, community groups, local and national charities, artists’ cooperatives, Local Authorities, higher education institutes and start-up creative companies.
I have a real passion for volunteering. For many years I have worked to raise awareness of the power of culture to reach, engage and empower people to mutual benefit.
How I do it …
In the mid-1990s I came to London from Edinburgh to cut my consultancy teeth. I worked with a private firm of business psychologists best known for their success in transforming customer service and managing change. The principles involved in these crucial aspects of business operate at the core of everything I do: creative clients with great ideas need to consult and take their staff, partners and clients with them as they progress from A to B; and organisations, new projects or ways of working invariably succeed if they’re focussed on understanding the needs and motivations of their public.
As an independent consultant, I have the freedom to be flexible in the way I work. Sometimes I provide an external, objective view to help crystallise ideas. At other times I work as part of a management team, or take sole responsibility for delivering a piece of work. I am sometimes asked to help teams to recover failing projects – taking stock, resolving conflict and creating a new action plan.
I only get involved with a client if there is a clear consultant need and I think I can help. At the outset, I like to spend time to clearly define our mutual expectations, the tasks involved and duration of the consulting engagement. I always aim to make myself redundant as soon as possible, transferring knowledge and skills along the way when needed.
I’m comfortable working at a strategic, tactical or operational level, and enjoy listening to and working with people involved in every aspect of an organisation, understanding how it functions as a whole.
Occasionally I help clients fundraise as part of their organisational development. I often take the lead on developing relationships with, and applications to, organisations such as Arts Council England or charitable trusts and foundations. Usually there is a training element in the process, to help develop the organisation’s internal fundraising capacity.
Why I do it …
I love working in this sector because I’ve seen how creative activities can enhance people’s quality of life. For example, at Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, we involved over 200 Trafford residents in visitor services volunteering, helping many rebuild confidence, develop new skills and gain qualifications and employment.
I only work with organisations which have sound core values, particularly those which - in addition to the development of creative talent - genuinely aim to diversify their audiences, increase access or expand public services. Many projects I work on have a social regeneration focus.
Part-time, I pursued post-graduate research in philosophy for 10 years – mainly in the area of ethics, but also aesthetics and political philosophy. I’m interested in the reasons we give for valuing things, and the connection between those reasons and how we should act. My interest in ethics provides part of the rationale and values base for my work and the analytical training informs my approach.
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