Summer, for me, is an opportunity to take stock. My workload reduces during July and August as most of my clients are taking holidays of their own. I avoid scheduling training programmes during the peak summer months, enjoying a slower pace with travel for pleasure rather than business and catching up with family and friends. It has also been a time of reflection and renewal.
I took the opportunity this year to reflect on my journey with Turning Tides, the company I founded in 2014 and to update the content and look of the website. In the ten years since the company was established, our work has evolved in response to the changing organisational contexts. The latter half of the decade has seen social change of a magnitude that I wouldn’t have believed had I been shown a movie preview of it five years ago. It would have seemed like a futuristic thriller with the post-pandemic paradigm shifts and the burgeoning of Artificial Intelligence.
Ralph Stacy, writing on complexity, speaks about ‘unknowable but recognisable futures’. I understand what he means. Life is familiar now that we are here, and that’s because of the iterative nature of how the changes have unfolded, coupled with our innate ability to adapt as a species.
While our founding purpose at Turning Tides in ‘helping people and organisations navigate change’ remains the same, our services have become more attuned to what leaders and teams need in these turbulent times. We have strengthened our approach and commitment to systemic approaches and facilitating compassionate, generative dialogue. We create the safety for leaders and their teams to consider their current challenges within the context of the wider human system rather than focusing too much on the part of the individual. As John Muir, the Scottish naturalist and environmental pioneer said “when we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe”.
Supporting the professional development of other coaches has been a gratifying area of growth over the past five years, particularly in delivering training in systemic coaching and facilitation for Coaching Constellations and for Henley Business School on their Team and Systemic Coaching Programme. Individual and group supervision for coaches and organisational consultants is another significant development since 2020. Accompanying peers through moments of reflection and growth is a soul-enriching experience.
I’m grateful to Simon Logan at Arcas for designing the new look of the website and to Ema Pruteanu for the brand photography. Importantly, my gratitude goes to our clients past and present who have entrusted us with their most pressing challenges in times of turbulence and vulnerability. I am also indebted to my business partners – Robert Kemp and Andy Moir – for their support and wise counsel and to the associates who have worked with Turning Tides over the years. Much gratitude also goes to my wider professional network who have sustained me with resourcing conversations and inspiration to keep on learning and growing. Thank you.