The journey begins ...

I have a background as an entrepreneur having co-founded a number of businesses: my largest and probably the greatest learning curve being a £16m software consultancy that I started when I was 27 and left ten years later. I’ve also worked independently as a facilitator, mentor, executive coach and even a phobia therapist.

The truth is since leaving the software consultancy I’ve been rather stuck between a rock and a hard place. I’m a lousy employee because I need to be personally accountable and empowered and most companies that I’ve worked for could never provide this and the prospect of building another business left me feeling emotionally drained. And until recently I didn’t know why.

You see, when I was building the software consultancy my instinct said build it around the people. I wanted to create empowered people, empowered teams. I wanted my staff to love their jobs and work for the fulfillment and purpose that it gave them. I knew that I shouldn’t be at the top, leading from the top.

All the ‘experienced’ people around me said build it according to a traditional management structure. Unfortunately instinct didn’t manifest into a tangible argument for going the people route and neither were there concrete examples of how you could build a competitive, profitable, people focused business and I’m disappointed to say that I relented and did it the traditional way.

I was never happy with that decision and I eventually left because of it. That time has stuck with me ever since and I’ve been quietly kicking myself in the pants that I didn’t trust my instincts all along.

They say that emotions stay with you until you extract the learning from them. I had to wait 10 years for the learning to arrive. And that learning came in the form of a book called Reinventing Organisations by Frederic Laloux. When I read about his Evolutionary Teal organisations it rocked my world. It was just the kind of thing I had been striving for.

I realise now that 10-15 years ago there were no concrete models for building an organisation like my instinct said I should. I would have had to invent it myself. Maybe that was my calling in life. Anyway - I missed that one!

My light bulb moment was suddenly realising that the many interests and frustrations of my life to date coalesced into a calling: to rescue the workplace. Knowing that there were concrete models available made all the difference. I could see how my experience in business and technology and my on-going interest in personal development and work as a coach and therapist would come together.

I went onto discover Holacracy and I’m now determined to become an expert in this field.

I’m now a visiting partner at Evolving Organisation, a Holacracy training and consulting company in the UK - which of course uses Holacracy as their organisation model. My plan is to cut my teeth here and progress to a Holacracy Practitioner and then onto a Holacracy coach.  And I’d like to see EO create opportunities for me to work on the front line of organisational change.

This blog is my journey. My opportunity to share my learning and learn from my readers.

I hope you find it useful.