Exploring Relational Practice

Relational practices support connection: connection with one’s self, and with others in relation to the challenges faced within and between individuals, organisations and their environments.

My work takes me into organisations: with people leading and governing them, or taking professional roles within them, who require a capacity to maintain judgement, and establish credibility. These might be teams or individuals in executive, managerial or specialist operational roles, or HR/Internal change agents who are working to effect change, learning from their experiences as they do so.

I work from a pragmatic position, exploring what it is that actually happens, trying to construct some meaning and create understanding with others, and experimenting in the moment to bring about change in the way people think about and organise themselves for work.

This is a practice that is:

Led by experience: what is happening now, in this place, how can I make sense of my thoughts, feelings and behaviours in this moment? (see case examples)

Informed by research-based methodologies which engage with organisational and professional dilemmas through participative exploration – drawings, narrative, improvisation and delivered in creative interventions designed with both planned and emergent developments in mind.

Underpinned by a range of theories ‘the Relational Terrain’, where the questions ‘who am I’ (identity) and ‘who am I here? (place) help to orientate ourselves in shifting ecologies of work-place and societal systems.

Relational Practice and Change

Change is an ever-present aspect of living and working in these times. Although changes and developments might be anticipated and planned for, working on change involves engaging with shifting and unpredictable human processes, technologies, economies and the emotions they generate.

Consulting to change - I enable individuals and working groups to surface and manage their complex business and organisational concerns, finding and establishing conditions needed to risk doing things differently. Change can be brought about by shifts in the way that we think about things and through experimentation with new structures, processes and behaviours. See case examples

Consulting to change agents –specialised behind the scenes consultancy to change agents working on organisational development projects, helping to conceptualise change and explore areas where they, and their clients get stuck or come unstuck. See case examples

Professional development –professionals working with change look for opportunities to update and evaluate their practice, hone their skills and approaches, and find ways to support their practice within their organisations I work in creative partnerships with fellow consultants and organisations to design and certificate professional development programmes to meet specific organisational needs. These include bespoke programmes or workshops for companies, or professional teams. See professional development examples

Research-based interventions

All consultancy and professional development work involves an ability to notice and find out what is going on, in one’s self, and in the organisations we work in and consult to, it is a continuing process of following our curiosity, using our knowledge and imagination, and being attuned to the emotions that are being evoked.

Research is: working in the moment to make sense of experience, hearing from different voices, having conversations, using creative media to surface and illuminate the factors that are influencing the way we organise ourselves for work. And bringing our knowledge and experience to bear to make sense of what we encounter.

Experiential learning programmes bring together the capacity to research an organisational or professional dilemma, with the opportunity to experiment with different ways of relating to it. Designed to intensify awareness of what is going on in the moment, participants work with research questions at a content level, whilst also noticing emotions, and behaviours that emerge as they do so, and developing capacities to innovate.

Clients who find this way of working helpful include:

A secure mental health facility exploring its admission and discharge practices (UK).
An executive education school wishing to engage with its external stakeholders, staff and associates to design its coaching offer, and to find improved ways of relating to each other (EU).
A start-up information systems company working on its market positioning and branding, (UK/EU).

Coaching

Coaching is both a developmental and educational activity designed to support the effectiveness of individuals or teams in the work that they are undertaking. It offers a chance to analyse and bring about change in one’s own behaviour in relation to others, and to explore and experiment with different perspectives and behaviours. Usually part of a wider organisational change strategy coaching can additionally help bring ‘just in time’ awareness to professional practices.

Situations in which I offer coaching often involve:

Helping to clarify roles and responsibilities, whether those arise from imposed external changes, or the difficulty of finding one's place and authority in relation to others.
Enabling diverse interests to surface and flourish, particularly when relations are conflictual, and working to re-establishing collaborative relationships.
Creating the means to improve management of risk and anxiety particularly in situations of uncertainty and change.

Aside from direct coaching of teams and individuals I engage in wider practice issues: supervision and professional development of coaches; evaluation and generation of learning from coaching initiatives, and the development of models and theories for best practice. (link with Henley business school).

My approach, as with consulting, is practical, analytic and experiential. This is a highly participative and challenging approach, increasingly focussing on how individuals and their organisations work with their identity, presence and brand, and manage themselves and others in continuing processes of change.

Clients

My consultancy, research, coaching and professional development work takes me into organisations in the UK and internationally: in financial services and banking, higher and executive education, government and politics, health and social care, and in professional partnerships and practices.

Always with a base in systemic and psycho-dynamic perspectives but easily moving on to organizations, society, culture, science and art, Karen is at home in many different settings and cultures. Effortlessly she comes to the core of the matter, enabling people to move forward from their own authority and role. I have learned from and with her and have first-hand experience of how useful it is to me in roles as manager, coach, teacher and citizen.
Client: Stockholm

Exploring Relational Practice

Relational Practice and Change

Research-based interventions

Coaching

Clients

Themes