Evolving Enterprises: Stories of Growth Transformation

Today I am talking to Benjamin Taylor who is Chief Executive of the Public Service Transformation Academy and Managing Partner of Red Quadrant. I asked Benjamin about what led him into consultancy and we talk about his first job as coordinator of a youth development program, aiming to fill places on exciting expeditions, which would have been more straightforward if the cohort of people were very...

In this episode I talk to Houda Boulahbel about her journey towards finding ways of dealing with complex projects. For people who are new to this area there is always the difficulty of where do you start when the problems that you see are complex and the systems methods take time to master? It all feels overwhelming. Houda has founded the Institute for Systems Intelligence which places a systems m...

I this episode I am delighted to continue my conversation with Adam Townsend, founder of Viewit DataLabs Limited. Today we look beyond the data and consider the drivers for improving patient outcomes in hospital. We consider why is the system driven away from improving patient outcomes before people get to the hospital. One of the metrics that we talk about are hospital stays for respiratory condi...

There is a lot of discussion about what is happening with our public services, a lot of newspaper columns are dedicated to attention grabbing headlines, but in this episode we dig into what is really going on. I am very pleased to introduce Adam Townsend, founder of Viewit DataLabs Limited. We talk about what the data really tells us, and from the data we can see that the NHS system is getting les...

Today I am very privileged to be joined by Lindsay Scott and Eileen Roden who are co-founders of the House of PMO, a professional body for PMO professionals working to support Project, Programme and Portfolio Management (P3M). We talk about the need to brigade multiple projects underneath a programme level, the ways that portfolio management can enable change, and the value of PMO. We talk about h...

Today I am joined by Donnie MacNicol who is a director of Team Animation LTD. Donnie is an advisor to the UK Major Projects portfolio and has led an innovative approach to cutting through the complexity with human centric data. Donnie talks about the challenges that people face in a transformation activity and how it is important to get underneath the emotions and politics. Donnie and his team use...

Today I am thrilled to introduce Suzana Barbosa as my guest. Suzana encourages people to change in her work as a facilitator of a popular method known as Psych-K, which aims to change limiting beliefs – things that people are usually unaware of and limit or hold them back. Suzana talks about her own journey of change and her experience of complex systems. Suzana also considers how we can learn fro...

Welcome back to the Evolving Enterprises podcast. I have just returned having spent some time with my family at Easter.  In almost every consultancy assignment I have worked on people usually start by blaming the wrong people for the situation. Why is this? I will look at what drives people to do this and how this helps us to improve our public services, and to campaign appropriately for changes w...

Working from the approach that I suggested in the previous episode, Sophie Jackson and I work on planning the early stages of the Auto Consultant project. We look at how we can structure a complex business problem so that we can find a way forward using a systems approach. 

In this episode I look at how systems thinking get help to deal with a complex and unbounded problem. I look at the ways that we can view the problem and the different stakeholders that are involved.   This leads on to next week’s episode in which we will apply some systems thinking approaches to structure a business problem.

Today I will talk about the rise of systems thinking and how an increase in demand for systems thinking and increase in supply of systems staff has changed the way in which complex projects are delivered in the UK. This change has been gradual and there is a big difference from when I started using systems thinking 20 years ago. Now systems thinking is welcomed across the public sector and private...

Today I am joined by Seb Hargreaves, the Executive Director of the Operational Research Society (ORS). Seb talks about the recent highlights in the journey of supporting strategic decision making using scientific methods. There is great news. Some of the society’s journals are becoming open access, meaning that it will be much easier for busy professionals to access full text papers. We talk about...

I am so pleased to welcome Orian Mendes a business development manager with a vast experience of evolving businesses in Europe and Africa. Orian has worked in engineering, publishing and the clothing industry. We talk about what makes a business grow, how businesses evolve to match market need and the continual pushing and pulling of demand in the ever-changing business landscape. We contrast this...

I am delighted to welcome Ani Magill as my guest. Ani has provided inspirational leadership as CEO of a growing Multi Academy Trust, and in her previous roles as head teacher and “super head",  turning around failing schools.   Ani's journey as a transformational leader in education illuminates invaluable lessons for CEOs and aspiring leaders across sectors. Through her unwavering commit...

Today we look at the important topic of Systems Thinking. Is it useful for most problems and why? What does systems thinking do to help us move complex project forward? Hope does it help us manage risks and opportunities? 

In the UK the Post Office is being investigated after the system that it introduced to 18,000 branches in the 1990s was found to be faulty and did not report the correct figures. Between 1999 and 2015 the Post Office prosecuted 700 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses. Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies including the Crown Prosecution Service. Most, probably all of those people are i...

I am very happy to welcome Professor Mike Bourne, who is well known to anyone in the field of Business Performance and Governance within the UK. Mike is based at Cranfield University and is Director of the Project Leadership Profession Programme (PLP).     Mike shares insights into his journey in the metrication of organisations, exploring the challenges and opportunities that come with designing...

I had a really interesting conversation with Sophie Jackson, a seasoned systems thinker with a biology background, bringing profound insights into the world of strategic thinking and organisational change.     We also talk about:    Challenges of Strategic Thinking: The common struggle with strategic thinking, identifying biases and evolutionary traits that hinder our ability to focus on long-term...

Happy New Year.  In this episode I will look back on how some of the interviews from 2023 fit within the context of Systems Thinking. We will particularly look at learning journeys and how we can use good systems approaches to change people, and therefore change organisations.    I will also look forward to 2024, to my discussion with Professor Mike Bourne about applying organisational metrication...

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you. For the last episode of the year, I am exploring a timeless classic – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What does this have to do with Evolving Enterprises? Well making changes involves changing people. It is really worth considering how was the transformation of Scrooge so effective, and so quickly executed. Can we learn and apply a little bit of t...

Georgina is one of the most passionate and empowered people I have met. Georgina shares the story of the beginnings of her journey towards becoming CEO of BUD Leaders. Georgina began by understanding the people and the market place that BUD would one day work in. Based on this immense knowledge of the marketplace, Georgina found her passion for inspiring and enhancing leadership. Georgina has buil...

Today I am immensely pleased to introduce Ruby Lyon a famous actress on stage and the small screen. Ruby was a core cast member of the popular New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street, playing the role of Ashley Whitley. Moving organisations forward involves changing people’s view of a situation. This is exactly what an actor does – during a performance the actor engages us and we journey with them...

I am delighted to be joined in this second episode by my friend and colleague Jim Scholes. Jim is well known as an academic and a highly successful consultant, who has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world. Based on his academic work with Peter Checkland, Jim has spent much of his career helping some of the biggest names in the world achieve growth strategies.   Jim talks about...

Today I am delighted to be joined by my friend and colleague Jim Scholes. Jim is well known as an academic and a highly successful consultant, who has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world. Based on his academic work with Peter Checkland, Jim has spent much of his career helping some of the biggest names in the world achieve growth strategies. Jim talks about how he set up his c...

This week I'm going to talk about Matthew Perry and a couple of things that have come to light following his sad and untimely death. Soap operas were a pretty crowded market back in 1994 when Matthew Perry and friends first hit American TV screens. Friends brought together comedy and a soap opera and the concept of bringing together two things which are quite different to form something bette...