We work with organisations that want to change how they work. Drawing on modern twenty-first century change approaches we help you energise people into co-creating change with you, saving you time and money.  

We do this using several techniques, including appreciative inquiry, that help people see change as something they can influence. This means they can become your partners in change rather than the source of problems to be overcome.

We bring a strengths-based approach to all our interventions at an individual, team or organisational level, helping you release the untapped potential of individuals, teams and the whole organisation.

This approach recognises that superb performance comes from using our unique strengths both individually and collectively.

We work by helping you to identify, develop and increase your unique and collective strengths, using these to overcome weaknesses.

At the individual, team and organisational level a focus on strengths delivers results. We have been showing organisations how to do this for over twenty years.

A co-creative strengths based approach to changing organisations has several advantages over a top-down approach:

1.  It makes the change more likely to actually happen - if staff have real input, there is no reason to resist the change

2. It makes the change more sustainable - as the energy to change is largely self-generated

3. It makes the change more motivating -  people want change if they really believe it will be for the better

4. It makes the change more successful - early involvement means there are less unexpected problems later on

The consultancy we offer reflects our approach to change; it is positive, engaging and involves the whole system to help make the change not only effective but sustainable. If members of the organization or team aren't part of the change from the beginning then it might not even get off the ground - and it won't be half as effective. 

 If you and your organisation need this kind of help with change please ring 07973 782715 or email jemsmith@acukltd.com to arrange for a free 30 minute initial consultation.

Some examples of Sarah explaining how our approach to change works

Positive techniques and tools we use

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

How can we help organisations grow towards positive futures? Appreciative Inquiry can be can be combined with other approaches or used alone. Almost any organizational activity benefits from an appreciative approach.

WORLD CAFE

The World Café process is designed to encourage relaxed, informal yet purposeful conversations to take place in small café style grouping of six or so people who regularly move around between tables. Useful in many contexts to reduce the intimidating effects of speaking up in large groups, it excels when the objective is to have discursive and exploratory conversations.

Simureal

By recreating the whole business process in one room, and speeding up time so that the activity of months can be observed in a day, this technique allows people to see how their behaviour affects other parts of the organisation and the outcome as a whole. This is a really effective way of encouraging co-operation across the organisation, not just within departments. Simureal brings the whole process together in one space to bring into sharp focus the departmental interconnections and inter-dependencies so the organization can adapt and grow.

OPEN SPACE

Open Space allows people to set their own agenda and then to move freely from one discussion to another following their interests. This means they can spend 100% of their meeting time listening and talking about topics that passionately interest them.