For a very long time, I have held a desire to update and improve my website to reflect and honour the wonderful people that I have been privileged to work with and to tell some stories that help make more visible some of that work….. and for a very long time, it hasn’t quite happened.

There are a lot of reasons why I think that is the case, that I think shed light on the nature of the work.  Here’s three to start with:

(i)  “you had to be there” – words, pictures, even videos never seem to do the work justice (that’s a problem !!).  The Work exceeds expectations and takes people to places they didn’t think were possible.

(ii)  “client confidentiality” – the best work (in my opinion) comes from situations when a client shares (safely !) their vulnerability.  Working with colleagues, we create some extremely safe spaces to do what can be extremely challenging work that makes complex change easier, where if we didn’t address raw vulnerabilities, we wouldn’t be doing the work properly – who would want all that exposed on someone else’s website ?!

(We negotiate appropriate and safe enough ways of working with difficult things.  We are not reckless.)

(iii)  “not knowing quite what to call it” – as soon as I put a label on something, you project associations on to that label.  If I say I am a facilitator, you will have ideas of what you think a facilitator is like and what you think they do.  I will probably resent being put in that box.  There is probably some truth in what you say and there is probably something missing or not quite right too.

(In the search for good labels, a colleague earlier this year called me a ‘Systems Whisperer’ – i.e. like a horse whisperer, but working with systems – I like that, as it is harder to project onto….)

Everything is always a work in progress.  The visual image above has been produced as a draft, by a friend, to express that I take people on deep dives towards better places, that we do things together, that we can be elegant together in unfamiliar environments and that I like penguins.

My latest deep dive has been with Martin, Mary and others at the Burren College of Art. (working alongside Esther, Joan, Paul and Valerie too and with Martin Hayes also on the team – yes that Martin Hayes !)  Last week, we gathered 60 people or so from across the system to look at what it would take to shift Education in Ireland towards a more creative place.  It was a remarkable experience with an important and challenging agenda that will produce remarkable results.  For more details, look at this link:

Creative Education Symposium

If you are part of a system that could do with some whispering, give me a call.  I like drinking coffee with people and having interesting conversations about what might be – invite me for coffee !