Collaborative Coaching
I like this phrase! I heard it a couple of weeks ago and started looking into the subject. The basic notion is a group of people convened to help someone tackle a problem. A group of people with different backgrounds and different skill sets, but all focused on helping someone solve a problem, move something forward, or answer a question. Where does the coaching come in? Well you don’t have to do it just once, the group can be reconvened at any time to review ideas, developments and progress, and secondly the group is asking open questions, without prejudice or preconception in order to give an independent view and perhaps provoke thoughts and feelings that would otherwise go unnoticed, undiscovered, and not considered in the journey.
As the opportunities for personal development get bigger and bigger the area of coaching is an interesting one. Quality is important; you must choose a coach that is right for you on many levels – perhaps intellectually, socially, and in experience, etc etc. Chemistry is important – you must be honest with your coach and feel comfortable to share anything and everything. I think a coach should be objective, impartial and balanced. I have often been sceptical of substituting reading and structured learning for these softer personal development tools, but I do think they can be a useful part of someone’s toolkit.
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Throughout the general election the national media has led us, or certainly me, to focus on national issues when trying to decide who to vote for. Now before I go any further I want to state that this is not a political blog, (it is about my thoughts as a 
There is much written about change. People who want us to change, things we want to change, and people perhaps we would like to change. Throughout the election campaign we seem to constantly be hearing about the need for change, the opportunity for change, and even when is the right time to change. Businesses are always grappling with change. As markets change businesses have to respond. Even the widest macro economic conditions are always changing, and these affect how markets behave, which in turn affects the way that organisations have to respond. Look at how cigarette companies have had to change their advertising and marketing over the last forty years – changing advertising styles, messages, and even markets. For a more current, more rapid example, look at how banks have had to change their products and branding to reflect both the products that they can actually offer and the reputation of their industry as a whole. 
Many people in business often seem to be asking what is the secret to success, or how can I become more likely to succeed. In recent years this seems to have created a new industry called business coaching. Largely unregulated there seems to be a massive variance in quality and approach of offering in this area. I have never been particularly interested in this subject area, and have been concerned when it appears to spill over into getting people to adapt or change their personality in order to fit into a particular culture or assume a particular personality or persona.
Why might someone in the private sector, a 
Last week I was looking around the new parts of the Norwich Cathedral Building – The Reflectory!! What a terrific example of modern architecture responding and respecting what has been in place for many hundreds of years. The Cathedral is an iconic building in Norwich. It is a focus point for all kinds of reasons including religion, history, tourism, community, education and sport. With the recent improvements, restorations and new building, the Cathedral has added a local food focus and new ways for the community to use the buildings as place to meet and exchange and share ideas. It struck me that like so many organisations the Cathedral has a clear and obvious primary purpose, but by making the best of its resources (both people and buildings) it has been able to position itself at the very heart of the community it is striving to serve (as well as playing a big part in 
Common Purpose took us over to Thetford last week. So what’s special about Thetford one might ask? Well, as I have driven past it so many times on my work to work or to business meetings I should probably know, but for whatever reason I have never been drawn to Thetford!
Yesterday was the second day of the Common Purpose matrix course in Norwich. For much of the day we were listening to leaders in the city and the challenges that they are currently facing. Perhaps one of the most interesting topics was the question of how a business built on the reputation of a founder can stretch the ethos and culture behind that individual to represent the whole business as it begins to evolve. Internal marketing and ensuring that people inside the organisation understand the brand as well as external stakeholders have become a growing part of the marketers role. I wonder how many people in large companies understand their brand to be the same as the understanding their customer have?