• Consulting to organisations• Training consultants and coaches

Discover what’s really going on

I am really notmanaging thesetargets, butdaren’t say

I went for theCEO’s job, butdidn’t get it

Contents

(click to visit each section)

Our beliefs 4Key principles 5Our approach 6Services 8Consultancy – core focus areas 9

Effective leadership 10High-performing boards and executive teams 12Successful mergers and integration 14When work goes wrong 16

Executive coaching 18Executive education 20Meet the team 24Contact details 27

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Discover what’s really going on

I want to merge the business within 3 years

When things gowrong I alwaysget blamed

Our beliefs

• The heart of any organisation is its people. We believe thatorganisations succeed or fail on the basis of the individuals that work inthem. The best strategies and business plans will not yield results andeffective leadership if staff are not behind them. This is particularly trueof organisations where the success of the enterprise depends wholly onindividuals who are able to work reliably, responsibly and collaboratively,bringing to their role both technical expertise and sensitivity to others.

• Relationships matter at work – not just in order for individualsto get along, but to ensure effective and creative working practices thatdeliver measurable outcomes. Successful team collaboration is crucial toorganisational success and the leader-follower relationship can make orbreak effective delivery. Unacknowledged differences (in opinion, power,perspective, experience) can derail the best strategic plans.

• Learning from one’s own experience is the most powerfultype of learning. Experience matters and the way we work with clientsis ‘experiential’. Typically in our work we involve clients in an ‘experience’ – itmight be as simple as asking a group to divide into two smaller groups toundertake a task. How the group goes about the task of dividing into two isimportant – what happens, which groups form? Why? What do people feel?These questions – this experience – is treated as a key indicator of the stateof the group, the department and ultimately the organisation. Feedback andreflexive learning are also intrinsic to our methodology.

Key principles

• Working below the surface – addressing the emotional dimensionsof organisational life, which are often unconscious or unexpressed, makingit possible to manage deeper motivations and resistance to change.We uncover and tackle the root of dysfunction rather than simply itsmanifestations. This adds a unique dimension to our understanding andformulation of how an organisation is or isn’t working.

• Contextual thinking – helping people to see the links between andwithin the different layers of an organisation’s system and its widercontext, leading to a broader picture of the issues and a greater rangeof possible responses.

• Co-creating solutions to organisational issues – we don’tprescribe ready-made answers; we work with organisations to achievesuccess on their own terms.

• Working with turbulence, chaos and stress – evidence suggeststhat organisations are complex and not entirely rational; we work with theconfusing, irrational, emotional and messy elements of organisational lifein order to facilitate change, release creativity, increase flexibility and buildresilience.

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Our approach

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Illuminate and make meaning

Assess andmake links

Listen andunderstandrequestEvaluate and

understand outcomes

Services

As a not-for-profit business unit of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, we bring clinical expertise and business acumen – a powerful combination of skills – to work with leaders. Our consultants will help you focus on the relationships between individuals, their roles, the work of your organisation and the environment in which it operates. This in turn can help you manage organisational change and development, as well as issues around leadership, authority and delegation.

Tavistock Consulting works across sectors, boundaries, organisations and roles to deliver:

• Organisational Consultancy

• Executive Coaching

• Team Development

• Board Development

• Leadership Development (with an emphasis on system leadership)

• Specialist Mediation

• Action Learning Sets

• Organisational Development and Change Management

• Training and Programme Facilitation

• Group Relations Conference

Consultancy – core focus areas

We have four core focus areas. They are effective leadership; high-performing boards and executive teams; success with mergers and integration; and when work goes wrong. The following pages describe the work we do in these areas in more detail.

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Effective leadership

Securing the best leadership for an organisation is a challenge. How does an individual lead with energy, empowerment and creativity? How does a leader encourage co-operative endeavours and manage destructive competition?

Understanding leadership has been an integral part of Tavistock thinking since its foundation. In the early twentieth century Tavistock pioneers worked with the army and the government to study the attributes necessary for effective leadership and followership, and to transform the processes that had led to so many unnecessary deaths in the trenches of the First World War. We’ve been using our particular understanding of group dynamics to help transform leadership in all sorts of organisations – from the NHS to large corporates – ever since. Whether your preoccupation is culture change at a macro level in the private sector or a desire to work more effectively with your team in the NHS, or even if you simply wish to help promote creativity in your organisation, we can help you take up your role in a different way. Working with us, you will become a better leader and develop an unfolding sense of your organisation and the part you – and everyone – plays.

The individual as leader How do your own history, preoccupations and context interlink with your leadership role and your organisation? How do you authorise yourself effectively and get authorised in your role? We offer role consultation and one to one coaching to support you in understanding the different levels of authorisation required. We help clients to understand themselves as leaders, take up their role effectively and discover their potency in their organisations. Coaching provides leaders with a space to think clearly under pressure and to take a look above, below and within in order to identify the many factors that impact their role.

Looking above:• Interacting with boards• Managing your boss

Looking below:• Intelligent delegation• Promoting involvement• Listening to your teams

Looking within:• What makes you tick• Understanding your own history and context• The unconscious CV – avoiding pitfalls

Here’s what clients have said following our work together:“I feel I have a much better understanding of my key drivers and how they influence my behaviour at work and beyond.”

“I usually arrive at our sessions beaten up by the demands of a busy and stressful executive job, and I generally leave with far greater clarity and motivation than when I arrived. I would recommend Tavistock to anyone who is genuinely determined to become an excellent leader of people and organisations.”

The expert as leader What qualities do you need to be a good leader? Do you excel in your field? Have you been ‘rewarded’ with a senior leadership position? You might be a fabulous teacher or a gifted software engineer, or be enjoying a successful career at the bar, in finance or in research. But what about leading an organisation?

We work with leaders, boards and organisations to develop an understanding of the process of leader selection and the dynamics that often accompany the promotion of a particular discipline to a management or leadership position.

Here’s what clients have said following our work together:“Tavistock Consulting supported me through a difficult transition and helped me manage a very tricky difficulty with my team. This helped move our company into a new phase.”

“Nothing I have undertaken has had such a lasting active impact on me and my work.”

Leadership across the business You may be the new CEO of a troubled London borough or a struggling high-street brand. Or perhaps you are the new broom at a government department renowned for its challenging culture.

At the heart of our ‘Leadership across the business’ approach are bespoke events, designed in association with you, to enable your organisation to better understand its culture. The values, norms and tacit assumptions of the organisation will be revealed through experiential learning.

Here’s what clients have said following our work together:“The programme provided me with the opportunity to think about my part in the group – what I contribute to the dynamic and what I might be drawn in to, inadvertently or otherwise.”

“…dynamics and tensions being played out [in] real time. I was able to observe what was going on in organisational life, the way factions are created, splits occur – all observable in the way the event unfolded.”

“…compelling and hugely enlightening in terms of group and organisational processes.”

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Paying attention to how your team is working will improve your strategic focus and performance. You’ll experience greater participative leadership, openness, trust and communication. Our experience is that teams that work this way are able to understand their organisations more holistically, work across boundaries and manage change more effectively. We regularly observe that attention paid to the culture of the team and relationships within it will help it achieve its goals.

High-performing boards and executive teams

The concept of high-performing teams was pioneered in the 1950s by Tavistock thinkers who understood that to be truly ‘high-performing’ a team must be aware of not only what it is achieving but also, crucially, how it is working together.

Assessing and making links When we are invited to work with any executive team or board we analyse what is going on beneath the surface by spending time observing the group as they go about their business. We thus become aware of the dynamics that are being played out in parallel throughout the organisation.

• We may witness unspoken and conflicting personal agendas. These impact upon how effectively teams are able to work together and may prevent them achieving what is expected.

• We notice trigger points when organisations are changing and their structure and systems are inadequate for the task.

• We observe the emotional undertow that precludes a rational approach to challenges and we encourage teams to reflect on what is happening –allowing members to reframe their issues in a fuller understanding of what is actually going on and what might be the root cause of team dysfunction or failure.

Managing emotionAn executive board should ideally be the containing hub. It needs to manage complexity, change and uncertainty on behalf of the organisation. The huge challenge of this responsibility means that individual board members must be resourceful, resilient and open to whichever difficult emotions are impacting upon staff. An inability to be so can directly affect the organisation’s capacity to carry out its task. Failure to manage emotion and the dynamics of difference surfaces as lack of trust, rivalry, prejudice and exclusion and leaves teams vulnerable and ineffective. The resulting negative behaviours may then emerge throughout the organisation, leading to stagnation, a failure to reach potential and, at worst, to disintegration.

Understanding the team dynamics Tavistock consultants create the conditions in which it is possible to examine difference and stimulate curiosity and tolerance for individual perspectives. At the Tavistock we have spent more than sixty years understanding how group and organisational dynamics within boards and executive teams directly affect their ability to achieve success. By identifying and working with difference, overt or hidden, we tackle the thorny problems that may have been preventing teams from becoming truly high-performing.

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Some of the activities you might experience during a Tavistock intervention:

Pre-integrationAudits and assessments help Tavistock consultants to understand how well the existing teams will support the upcoming change, based on how they are working now and how similar or different their opinions and approaches are toward tensions/issues. This helps to identify what must be addressed at a team, board and cultural level.

In the thick of itThe most important part of the change itself is to acknowledge and let go of what is painful and to rally around new possibilities for the sake of the team. We work with teams at varying levels of acceptance, from newly formed leadership teams supportive of the change – where the focus may be on readying to lead the charge – to underperforming teams damaged by the restructure. In the latter cases we support the healing process and help members let go of what has been and refocus on what could be.

Post-integrationAfter the main changes are complete, we can work with you to review lessons learned and to design an organisational strategy that will ensure the important integration work is built upon. This can include Tavistock Consulting continuing to work with different levels of leadership to support everyone in this crucial phase, ensuring trust, a shared vision and a robust and open way of working.

Successful mergers and integration

Changing any structure is a complex process. At Tavistock Consulting we help leaders to grasp the difficult human aspects of transition so they can lead change with understanding and emotional intelligence.

Integration, restructures, mergers – so often they don’t work out or deliver value because the personal experience of individuals is overlooked or discounted. This often shows as:

• a feeling of takeover rather than merger – one culture feels more dominant, the other feels ignored, and performance suffers

• a new culture, identity or brand is driven through and doesn’t take hold – the new organisation or department gets stuck

• interpersonal dynamics feel difficult, strong emotions seem to drive leadership decisions and behaviours and relationships break down – a divisive culture of blame and accountability-avoidance ensues

Our role is to reveal what’s really going on for your people during an organisational restructure and to help you lead them successfully through your chosen change – enabling you to start something new as one team. Ultimately, the following key business measures are effected:

• improved retention of staff

• higher employee engagement

• more effective leadership teams

• more aligned and thus more motivated workforce

• improved customer service

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When work goes wrong

Life at work does not always run smoothly – when it goes wrong, it can have devastating and unseen effects not only on individuals but also on the business as a whole. We support and develop organisational capabilities to get work right when it matters most.

GrievancesOrganisations experiencing tension and conflict are often forced to deal with an inbox full of internal complaints and grievances. Not only is this highly disruptive, it’s also expensive and time-consuming. If left over time, grievances and complaints can become a dysfunctional way of communicating among staff, revealing what is increasingly described as a culture of bullying and harassment.

Bullying and harassmentAll too frequently a culture of bullying and harassment can show itself in a workforce:

• governed by fear – not willing to speak up or keep others accountable

• sown with disengagement – with a growing disrespect for authority, suffering performance and skyrocketing rate of absenteeism

When disputes or difficulties are located in individuals, there is a real and practical need to resolve these issues quickly. While we may offer specialist mediation to seek resolution, what we often find is that individual or team disputes can be indicative of a bigger problem in the system.

Our strength at Tavistock Consulting lies in offering a multilayered approach to what can be a complex and endemic problem. Using a combination of diagnostic tools, we widen our attention from the individual(s) to look at the context of the whole organisation and seek to understand what’s actually going on underneath this culture of conflict.

• Is there an unhealthy divide between management and ground-level staff?

• What’s it really like to work in the organisation at the present time?

• What recent or historical changes have taken place that might have sown seeds of unease or discontent in the staff?

Changing the culture of an organisation does not happen overnight and quick-fix solutions simply do not exist. It is necessary to consider wider organisational issues to set a real and sustainable shift in motion and to bring about lasting change in the behaviours and attitudes across the workforce.

A crisis at work A sudden crisis can have a shocking and devastating effect on an organisation. Such a crisis could include the sudden death or suicide of a work colleague, a serious incident involving a service user, patient or client, or any other unexpected event that has a serious impact on the whole organisation and its staff. The implications can be far-reaching in ways that may not be anticipated from the outset.

In the public sectors, serious clinical incidents can be devastating. In situations when the necessary legal investigation can come to dominate, staff can feel paralysed, blamed and under scrutiny. The human factor can be forgotten and the opportunity to understand, analyse and learn from the event is lost. Tavistock consultants act at the heart of the crisis: the psychological impact of organisational crisis and the resulting implications for staff and the service.

Our phased approach is both immediate and long term. We move to swiftly respond to the needs of individuals and groups affected by the event, before commencing a bespoke set of short- and medium-term interventions that consider the wider and long-term implications for the organisation.

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Clients are given frequent feedback and we review the work as it proceeds, ensuring a goal-directed approach. Meetings are confidential, unless it is agreed that there would be benefit in offering feedback to the organisation itself.

All Tavistock Consulting coaches are trained and experienced as practitioners, teachers and supervisors of coaching. We are members of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and adhere strictly to their ethical and professional practice guidelines.

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We recommend executive coaching for business leaders and senior managers who may be managing high levels of uncertainty and complexity in a context of organisational change.

Clients may be newly appointed or promoted, reviewing their development or preparing for a new role – perhaps a move from a functional specialism to a more strategic leadership position – or they may have identified personal challenges that are holding back their progress or contribution to their business.

Our approach Tavistock Consulting coaching focuses on developing leadership capacity. Creating a space for individuals working under pressure to reflect, the sessions are designed to help leaders improve their capability to think clearly under difficult conditions, to act creatively and collaboratively and to take up their leadership or management role with maximum effectiveness. Our coaches offer clients support in managing the impact of change and transition on themselves and others.

Our approach builds on our tested method of organisational role consultation, which has been part of the Tavistock repertoire since long before the current interest in coaching took hold in the wider culture. The distinctive competence we offer is in helping clients focus on the less apparent feelings and responses in themselves and in others that may be influencing their decisions and actions. Often clients are struggling to manage difference – not necessarily visible difference, but the subtle yet powerful manifestations of difference that lie under the surface around every boardroom table and which, if not faced, can not only result in unhappiness and lack of fulfilment at work, but may also have the power to destabilise the entire organisation.

Executive education

We offer Masters and Doctoral level qualifications in Consulting and Leading – these university accredited courses form part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust’s wider training portfolio. We also offer training in Executive Coaching, which is accredited to senior practitioner status with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, and professional development courses through our open programmes, bespoke courses and Group Relations Conferences.

Why train with Tavistock Consulting?Our unique approach The Tavistock approach to consulting and coaching enables students to work at a deeper level with their clients or as managers within their own organisations. Our systems-psychodynamic approach brings together thinking and practice from three sources – psychoanalysis, systems thinking and the group relations tradition.

Experience and expertise Students benefit from engagement with staff who work as consultants and coaches in a wide variety of different contexts, many of whom have published books and papers about their work. Students often comment how much they value feedback from faculty regarding their assignments, and the supervision of the often complex projects they undertake during their training.

Style of learning Students value the small study groups and the space these provide for the introduction to, and participation in, experiential learning and reflection. Students undertake live assignments, delivering coaching or consultancy to develop skills through practice-based study. The prospect of sharing a learning experience with fellow students who have different sector expertise and roles, or who may be at different life stages, also attracts many people to our long courses.

Start of a journey Our training programmes, which typically run in two-day blocks, can lead to a Masters or Doctoral Tavistock qualification in consultancy. Once students graduate they become part of an ongoing academic and practising community, with opportunities throughout the year to reconnect with the Tavistock and fellow graduates through alumni networking meetings and talks.

Helping organisations change from within We facilitate the growth of powerful leaders through our on-site training for leadership teams in a variety of ways. Our bespoke short courses, which typically last three days, include: Learning for Leadership; Leading Change; Decoding Team Dynamics; Introduction to Consultancy Skills; and Understanding the Wider System.

Course overviews

Consulting and Leading in Organisations: Psychodynamic and Systemic Approaches (D10) Duration: The MA takes two full years, with the dissertation written during the second summer for submission in October.

This Masters programme develops consultants, managers and leaders so that they have a full understanding of the human dimensions of organisational systems. It gives students the skills to work more effectively with the unconscious processes that affect working life. As leaders or consultants, graduates can expect to make significant contributions to the better leadership and management of boards, executive teams and whole organisations, thus improving productivity and quality of service for clients and stakeholders.

Here’s what students have said about this course:“One of the most challenging and interesting learning activities of my life so far in education and work.”

“My attitude to work is changing as I understand the dynamics driving my organisation and my reasons for selecting it more clearly.”

“Have found the written feedback very thoughtful and helpful both from my tutor and on the essay marked.”

Professional Doctorate in Consultation and the Organisation (D10D) Duration: Three-year (part-time) taught component. The research component varies. Registration must be within sixty months of submitting research proposal. A professional training in consulting to organisations from a Tavistock systems-psychodynamic perspective, providing an opportunity to undertake scholarly research and to contribute to the knowledge base in the field. This Doctorate course offers an advanced and sophisticated training designed to equip consultants to work with the complexity of contemporary organisations in private and public sectors. Students gain the capacity to train others in organisational consultancy and to deepen their understanding of organisational issues.

Here’s what students have said about this course:“The Doctorate certainly does what it says on the box. I feel much more able to take up my role as a consultant, and near the end of completing my research, have been offered several senior positions in the consultancy world. Delighted.”

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Executive education cont.

“Teaching is consistently high quality; the course design is a strength.”

“As an independent practitioner I have been able to think more clearly about my work.”

Tavistock Qualification in Consultation Duration: Three years, part time.

The course, which supports the development of consultancy practice, is integrated across year groups

– students join those studying for the Professional Doctorate in Consultation and the Organisation. You will carry out consultancy projects in different settings, across sectors, either working alone or as part of a team. The course includes a work-focused professional practice seminar together with consultancy work and theory-led discussion groups and individual consultancy supervision. Students become part of a learning community of consultant practitioners and researchers based at Tavistock Consulting, and upon completion will have fulfilled almost 50 percent of the requirements needed to undertake the Professional Doctorate.

Executive Coaching programme Duration: 18 months, part time.

Accredited by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council to senior practitioner level, this practice-based course is rooted in a systems-psychodynamic approach to organisations. This approach allows coaches to work in depth and to tackle the hard-to-reach issues that sometimes limit the performance of organisations, teams and leaders. This method of executive coaching helps to uncover and successfully work with what’s going on below the surface.

Here’s what students have said about this course:“I do think this is an excellent programme and for me, absolutely essential to bring to fruition my previous learnings. The Executive Coaching programme has really enabled me to integrate what I previously learned at the Tavistock into my practice. I would recommend it strongly to anyone who wants to apply systemic psychodynamic thinking to coaching and consultancy.”

Group Relations Conference Duration: Three or four days, non-residential.

A personal development programme that works to increase personal effectiveness in any organisational role. The conference is designed to be a miniature organisation – a range of events take place that mirror typical organisational situations, and participants experience leadership and followership in unrehearsed ways in different group configurations. The conference and its activities seek to examine organisational behaviour as it happens, and incorporates a process of ongoing feedback from staff and other participants.

Here’s what students have said about this course:“I experienced the conference as rich and intense learning, which I anticipate I will be learning from for a long time. It was particularly useful not to be given ‘answers’ and sometimes to be offered possibilities. This enabled me to find my own answers. Early learning is that I have a much clearer understanding of my own leadership and what can get in the way. I feel tangible change on a personal level, which I have taken into my professional life.”

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Meet the team

Dr Judith Bell (Director)Judith is the Director of Tavistock Consulting. She is a Chartered Psychologist and since 1997 has been an Organisational Leadership Consultant, working with individuals, groups, teams and organisations across all sectors. She specialises in executive coaching to board level across all sectors and leadership role consultation to senior leaders, bringing an approach informed by psychodynamic and systemic thinking so that the work is firmly rooted in the current organisational context.

Bev Thomas (Health Sector Lead)Bev has worked as an Organisational Consultant since 1996, across all sectors. With a previous background in Clinical Psychology, she has extensive knowledge of the NHS and has consulted to a wide range of clinical services in Acute, Mental Health and Primary Care Trusts. She has expertise in team development and facilitation, and in particular, working with multidisciplinary teams and management groups on leadership in clinical services. Trained in mediation, Bev has a specific interest in managing conflict within the workplace.

Dr Kay Trainor (Executive Education Lead)Kay is Director of the flagship Masters programme: Consulting and Leading in Organisations: Psychodynamic and Systemic Approaches. She is an experienced Organisational Consultant and Executive Coach working in equal measure across public sector, health, corporate and cultural organisations. Her portfolio includes leadership conferences and courses in leading change, working effectively with groups and teams, and developing consultancy. Her focus is on helping improve leadership effectiveness through one to one executive coaching and ‘live system’ events.

Jennie McShannon (Organisational Consultant)Jennie has twenty years leadership experience in the voluntary sector, with seven years as Chief Executive of a national membership organisation. Her interest is in assisting organisations to understand how the work is often unconsciously ‘formed’ or ‘arranged’ or ‘systematised’ in such a way to prevent them achieving their task and purpose, and then guiding them to act upon their understanding to become more effective and create a more sustainable and healthier working environment.Jennie is a graduate of Tavistock’s D10 Masters programme (‘Consulting and Leading in Organisations: Psychodynamic and Systemic Approaches’).

Dr Robyn Vesey (Organisational Consultant)Having spent more than ten years as a Clinical Psychologist and manager in the NHS, Robyn brings knowledge of health service structures and public sector organisational life to her role. Her particular interest is the relationship between different levels of wider organisational structures, including the context in which an organisation exists, and the emotional life of an organisation. She works with individuals and groups to address the complexity inherent in contemporary organisational life, using a systems-psychodynamic approach.

Jiten Barot (Marketing and Communcations Manager)Jiten is responsible for all components of the marketing mix and for supporting business development. Since 1996, Jiten has worked within various sectors, including medical devices, retail, publishing and professional services. His broad experience includes strategic and digital marketing, targeting businesses and consumers. Jiten holds a BA Hons degree in Business Studies and a diploma in Direct and Interactive Marketing from the Institute of Direct Marketing.

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Tavistock Consulting 94 Belsize LaneLondon NW3 5BE

+44 (0)20 8938 2475

email:TC@TavistockConsulting.co.uk

www.TavistockConsulting.co.uk

Contact details

Nerea Erausquin (Office Manager)Nerea is the Office Manager, Finance Lead and PA to the Director. She holds a Management diploma from Navarra University in Spain. Her varied experience includes working with Community CAMHS in London in activity management support, and providing customer services and accounts management to an international facilities management company. As a fluent Spanish and Basque speaker, she has worked extensively in export-related businesses active between the UK and Ireland and Spanish-speaking economies.

Naiara Labaca (Administrator)Naiara supports the core team and is the primary contact for Associates and Students. She is responsible for organising events, assisting with co-ordinating courses and dealing with general queries, while also playing an integral role in administering the website and supporting the wider marketing function. She holds an English and Media certificate from Ballsbridge College (Dublin, Ireland) and a Musical Education degree from University of Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain).

Meet the team cont.

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