Adaptive Perspectives:
The Power of Seeing Things Differently in Service of Navigating Change & Uncertainty.
A Story of Service
“It’s early afternoon in a conference centre that is so well air-conditioned I almost regret not bringing a jumper, despite the fact that the air outside is baking hot and what I’ll really need is sun protection cream, not thick layers to keep me warm.
I walk down the steps at the side of the stage I’ve just spoken on, gripping so tightly to the clicker in my hand that I forget to hand it to the next speaker who is ascending the steps at the same time.
As I pass them, they turn to me - hand outstretched to request the small remote control that controls the conference screen - and say, “Fantastic talk - you did your colleague proud.” These last words were the ones I needed to hear. I thank them, apologising quickly as I hand over the device and tell them to ‘have fun’ — “I will” they grin at me, and I know they mean it.
For those of us who love public speaking, being on stage and talking to a crowded conference is some of the most fun we can have! So is speaking to a small room of leaders, or a group brought together to learn, or an organisational development session to multiple teams all with slightly different reasons for being there.
There’s something about the power of sharing your ideas with people through the medium of story and spoken word that is simultaneously exhilarating, humbling and an absolutely enjoyable privilege that, apparently, only about 10% of the general population actually like experiencing.
Today I got a glimpse of what the other 90% might be feeling when they get up to speak.
I was here because a colleague had asked me to attend the all-expenses-paid trip to this major international conference. There’d only been a handful of weeks to arrange it, but despite the last minute logistical challenges, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse: the location was incredible — a part of the world I’d always wanted to travel to; the conference was attended by so many inspiring people; and the content was incredibly interesting and would give me a chance to learn from world-class leaders, researchers, and service providers.
The ‘catch’ was I was attending on her behalf, which meant not only representing the department we worked in, but also representing her and the years of work that she had put into the project she’d led and had been planning on sharing the findings of. Unexpectedly, and very unfortunately, she couldn’t attend. And so she asked me to attend in her place and present her work for her.
So, as I’d got up on the stage I’d felt slightly more nervous than I usually do when presenting my own work.
Thankfully my love of public speaking and idea sharing had won out over any nerves that I had, and as I messaged her to let her know the talk had gone well, I felt confident that it was true. I had delivered her findings through a combination of her presentation and my approach and it had worked really well - authentically me enough to feel like genuine engagement with the audience, but focused on her and her work such that it wasn’t about me at all. People had listened, asked questions, and engaged with her research and conclusions in a way that had felt meaningful, despite the fact that she was thousands of miles away!
I felt like the ‘lead out cyclist’ in pro-cycling races… the racer whose job it is to set up the team sprinter, positioning them for success and providing a cover until the sprinter is ready to unleash their power as they go for the win.
So, as I read the ‘Thank you so much!’ message that flashed on my phone screen, I felt privileged to have been asked and proud to have been able to represent her and her work in such an major forum. Now, to get warm again in that sunshine!
Dedicated to your reputation (as well as your mission)
This experience was several years ago and I’m still grateful that I got to attend that conference in such a fantastic part of the world.
I’m also glad that I went to represent someone else. It solidified - through a fantastic experience - that speaking and presenting are always about more than just the topic and how it’s received by the audience.
It’s about the person, teams and organisations that stand behind and with them. This thought is something I actively and intentionally bring into every single speaking and engagement I do, even when I am delivering my own work in my own way. My talk is only ever as successful to the extent that it brings the person, team or organisation closer to their vision for the session, event, or meeting. That’s why I strive to provide fantastic sessions and designed experiences, as well as a great service that helps bookers and commissioners achieve their vision and goals too.
I’d love to talk to you about how I could help to make your gathering or event the best version it could be.
Most of my work is about helping people to think about familiar things differently, so they can design change more effectively.
My keynotes focus on:
Navigating change,
Managing uncertainty,
Creating the conditions for effective work,
Creating the conditions for inclusion and belonging,
Perception, communication and interaction.
I also design, deliver and facilitate bespoke workshops and applied insight sessions - please get in touch to discuss what would help you. I’m always happy to provide advice and guidance, even if we decide working together isn’t quite the right fit.
Think Adaptively
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Change Effectively
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Think Effectively
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Change Adaptively
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Think Adaptively • Change Effectively • Think Effectively • Change Adaptively •
Adaptive Perspectives are discrete pieces of work designed to help people see familiar challenges differently — and make responses that fit purpose, current circumstances and the wider context.
Built from the Adaptive Navigation System, they are designed for situations where a new perspective, sharper inquiry or more applied way of working can create movement without requiring an ongoing partnership.
There are three levels of focus within the Adaptive Perspectives family:
Keynotes — Perspective, Distilled
Discovery — Inquiry Before Action
Applied Insight Sessions — Awareness, Practiced
If you need… Choose…
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Keynote
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Discovery
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Applied Insight Session
Giving an audience a new lens on something that matters.
And something to do with at after they leave.
Through stories, live experience, ideas and practical reframing, I make familiar assumptions visible and show what changes when we look at the same situation differently.
The aim is not simply to entertain or provoke thought. It is to improve how people notice, interpret and respond to the situations they encounter.
People leave with language they can use, distinctions they can recognise and questions that continue shaping their judgement, problem-solving and adaptability after the event is over.
Keynotes are 45–60 minutes · £3,000
Keynotes ·
Evidence-based problems before responsive solutions.
Who is Discovery for?
Discovery is for situations where there is something important to understand before deciding what to do with it.
That might be an internal organisational issue, a piece of work involving clients or communities, an attempt to understand and articulate existing practice, or a personal situation where the usual ways of making sense of things no longer quite fit.
Within organisations.
For organisations trying to understand something happening inside the system itself.
For example:
A recurring problem that has resisted previous attempts to solve it
Tension between teams, roles, priorities or ways of working
A change in structure, leadership or direction that has produced unexpected effects
A process or practice that works well in some contexts but not others
A sense that the presenting problem is only part of what is actually going on
A decision that has become difficult because different people are defining the situation differently
The purpose is not simply to identify what is wrong, but to understand the relationships, assumptions, patterns and contextual factors shaping the situation.
Before an external project or intervention.
For organisations that need to understand a problem, population or context before designing a response.
This can include:
Pre-project scoping
Needs analysis
Early-stage programme or service development
Understanding why an existing offer is not landing as expected
Exploring what different groups need from the same service or intervention
Testing whether the problem being commissioned is actually the most useful problem to solve
Identifying the contextual conditions that may affect whether an intervention works
Discovery can help avoid designing a sophisticated answer to an insufficiently understood question.
Understanding and codifying practice.
For teams or organisations that know something works, but want to understand more clearly how, why and under what conditions it works.
This might include:
Theory of Change development
Articulating an existing model or approach
Identifying the principles beneath successful practice
Making tacit expertise more explicit
Understanding variation between practitioners, teams or contexts
Distinguishing what needs to remain consistent from what can adapt
Developing language and frameworks that help good practice travel without reducing it to a rigid formula
The aim is not to standardise practice for its own sake, but to understand its function well enough to preserve what matters while allowing the form to adapt.
For individuals.
Discovery can also be used for personal questions where something significant is changing, recurring or becoming difficult to make sense of.
For example:
A relationship or relational pattern
A major life-stage transition
A change in work, identity or direction
A decision that feels disproportionately difficult
A recurring experience that appears in different parts of life
A sense that something no longer fits, without knowing what needs to change
Wanting to understand a pattern before trying to “fix” it
Sometimes the most useful outcome is not a plan for becoming different. It is a clearer understanding of what is happening, what it depends on, and what might fit better from here.
The common thread.
These situations can look very different on the surface.
What they have in common is that the quality of the next step depends on the quality of the understanding that comes before it.
Discovery creates the space to find out what you are actually dealing with.
Organisational Discovery · £5,000 — A bounded piece of inquiry, scoped around a specific question, problem or area of uncertainty. The precise shape depends on what we need to understand and may include conversations, workshops, document review, observation, analysis or assumption-testing.
Discovery for Individuals varies in the approaches I take. Please get in touch for a chat — I’d love to understand your situation and how I can help. I have several ways I work with individuals: from conversations at no cost, through self-guided work, to 1:1 work with me.
Applied Insight Sessions are about insight in action.
They are where a new perspective meets a real problem.
Rather than stopping at explanation, we use the session to work directly with a live issue, decision or challenge — exposing assumptions, identifying patterns, testing interpretations and developing practical responses.
Participants leave with more than insight. They leave with clearer choices, better questions, practical experiments and a stronger basis for action.
The aim is not simply to tell people what good judgement, problem-solving or adaptability looks like, but to give them structured practice in using those capacities on something that matters to them.
What happens in the session.
Depending on the topic, an Applied Insight Session may include:
an experiential keynote or perspective-setting element;
a practical framework or model;
structured work on a live issue or challenge;
guided reflection and application;
and practical experiments or next steps.
Particularly useful for:
Leadership teams, away days, strategy sessions, development programmes and groups who need more than inspiration but do not need an ongoing partnership.
Up to 3 hours in person / 2 hours online · £4,000