POSITIVE DYNAMICS - OD, HR, BUSINESS COACHING & PEAK PERFORMANCE EXPERTS
Bespoke programmes designed and delivered in partnership with you
We believe organisations thrive when people are provided with the right conditions and connections to develop.
At Positive Dynamics we excel at helping our clients create a positive, powerful and sustainable difference to their performance.
Every member of our team is curious and ambitious about people’s untapped potential, and we love generating the kind of energy that fuels organisations to grow. We enable our clients to become the very best they can be, propelling them to achieve things they never thought possible.
CULTURE CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION
Our tailored programmes will ensure your company culture benefits long term organisational growth.
EXECUTIVE & BOARD PERFORMANCE
We work with senior teams, empowering them to significantly raise their game, define strategy and direction.
TEAM & ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE & IMPROVEMENT
Our creative approach supports teams to accelerate trust and develop a collective focus on results.
LEADERSHIP & TALENT DEVELOPMENT
We develop current and future leaders, helping them to confidently deliver what is expected of them.
HR STRATEGY & PROJECTS
We enable HR teams to build organisational environments that match the overall vision and purpose of the business.
BUSINESS COACHING
Our 1-1 programmes unlock and implement potential. Our team coaching harnesses the power of collective performance.
I am under considerable pressure both externally and internally and therefore need an opportunity to reflect on the challenges I face, my leadership qualities, skills and techniques. My coaching sessions with Steve provide an excellent opportunity for this. He is a skilled listener and has an excellent ability to entice the right level of detail out of me to focus on individual challenges or issues, with then an ability to discuss solutions or ways that I might be able to counter these challenges. This, I believe, is based on his wealth of experience and knowledge of the working environment, particularly of those in leadership roles.
Sam has an unrivalled quality that simply allows people to be themselves. He was quick to understand my challenges, yet made no assumptions about what the best solution might have been. His very natural style put me at ease which meant I could lead the conversation. The result was a clear understanding about what was important to me in considering my next career move.
I believe that coaching with Jill has enabled me to achieve a higher level of influencing and negotiating skills, helping me considerably through a turbulent time at work when I needed to consider the impact of the change process on my own position and the team I manage.
As a senior executive it’s difficult to keep time free for reflection and to get relevant and useful regular feedback from peers and team members. Working with Jill allows me to stop and think about my ways of working and how they impact on others, it gives me time to think about how I will manage a live or future issue not just what I will do; and to plan how I can be more successful in my current role and future career. Jill prompts me to find my own solutions but has the depth of knowledge to expand my ideas with a vast range of academic models, theory and experience.
Sharon, you have made a tremendous difference, so much so, that I struggle with how to articulate it to you in a way that could possibly convey the impact. I am hugely, tremendously grateful to you and for the amazing wisdom, empathy, intelligence and sincerity you bring to our work together.
I have worked with Linda in a period where I as a leader had to start up a new department/unit. The talks and discussions with Linda gave me valuable insight about my own priorities and helped me to be much clearer about my own goals and objectives with the future state of the department. Some of Linda´s questions have provoked me in a good way, and some of them still "haunt me" and I thereby use them as guiding principles for me.
Anne had a great gift of being able to offer very simple but effective practical tools for dealing with the day to day tactical challenges, whilst inspiring some big shifts in my outlook and personal style to help me really develop on my leadership journey. Without doubt, while I was seeing Anne I became a better leader for my direct reports, far more effective at influencing my peers and I believe my organisation got a really good return on its investment in our coaching relationship’
Helped me think differently about the way we approached our HR service offering; the end result is a slicker, more efficient and effective HR offering.
Outstanding HR professionals able to inspire confidence in the messages and in brokering acceptance of the practical solutions they proposed.
Highly professional, passionate, down to earth and prepared to roll up sleeves and get stuck in! I very much enjoy working with the team.
My first port of call when I need additional support or resources, whether it is strategic direction, supporting organisational change, or providing HR people on the ground at short notice.
Through the wide experience of their consultants they are able to offer real depth, challenge and gravitas to their interventions.
Demonstrated the ability to get to the core of business issues and develop pragmatic solutions to meet real needs.
Provided excellent coaching and support to our Leadership Team during the formation of a new School. Their individual coaching style is developmental and was tailored to our situation, and the group sessions they facilitated had real and immediate impact.
Provided us with the support, guidance and flexibility we needed to deliver our development centre. Their expert approach and quality materials helped us deliver a professional product for our staff.
Their team consistently provide quality tailored solutions in the spirit of genuine partnership.
Their thirst for knowledge and understanding of the latest thinking and research in organisational and personal development makes them an exceptional networking partner.
Flexible and adaptable to client needs which results in solutions that not only meet the business needs but are positively embraced by senior leadership and delegates alike.
I am always impressed with their ability to understand the commercial situation quickly and tailor a solution in a way that adds business value.
Provide high quality, commercially focused coaching support for our senior leaders; we are seeing a positive impact in terms of personal growth, motivation, and strategic focus.
Great people; they listened to our needs, understood the business environment, were creative, proactive and worked in close partnership with our team to deliver a number of great programmes.
They listen carefully to our needs and always deliver high quality, practical solutions. They share our values and are a pleasure to work with: professional, positive, supportive and genuinely client-focused.
Developed and supported the roll out of a Leadership Development programme which addressed a number of core business challenges, most specifically the need for high performance teams.
I have very much appreciated Annie’s help as a coach. Her style is warm and engaging but she is also tenacious in probing me to be honest about the challenges I face. The approaches she has encouraged me to take have been really targeted and as a result really effective for me personally and of real benefit to my employer
I have worked with Positive Dynamics on a number of assignments where areas of discomfort have existed within senior teams. Their style of facilitation and support for these more knotty challenges is exceptional, and have helped open up key areas of discussion that have directly led to gaining greater business success or advantage. Positive Dynamics understand that it is people who make successful organisations and people who can hold back their success
Positive Dynamics are a creative and dedicated team of professionals who’ve enabled us to make a step change in leadership & governance across Olympic & Paralympic Sport. Thank you
Positive Dynamics developed and supported the roll out of a Leadership Development programme which addressed a number of core business challenges, most specifically the need for high performance teams. They demonstrated the ability to get to the core of business issues and develop pragmatic solutions to meet real needs. Positive Dynamics are flexible and adaptable to client needs which results in solutions that not only meet the business needs but are positively embraced by senior leadership and delegates alike
Inspiring and thought provoking! A catalyst for positive change. The coaching sessions have helped me to view some sensitive scenarios from a different viewpoint. It is refreshing and really helpful to listen to a different perspective and helps me make informed decisions
Positive Dynamics have provided excellent coaching and support to our Leadership team during the formation of a new School. Their individual coaching style is developmental and was tailored to our situation, and the group sessions they facilitated had real and immediate impact. We have made substantial progress and built some much needed resilience during the past year with their help
Through the wide experience of their consultants they are able to offer real depth, challenge and gravitas to their interventions
Positive Dynamics are a creative and dedicated team of professionals who’ve enabled us to make a step change in leadership & governance across Olympic & Paralympic Sport. Thank you
I have worked with Positive Dynamics for a number of years now and they always deliver their promises. They understand our business, are challenging at the right times, and are a pleasure to work with.
Always deliver high quality, practical solutions. They share our values and are a pleasure to work with: professional, positive, supportive and genuinely client-focused.
Provided high quality, commercially focused coaching support for our senior leaders; we are seeing a positive impact in terms of personal growth, motivation, and strategic focus.
Positive Dynamics are a creative & dedicated team of professionals who’ve enabled us to make a step change in leadership & governance across Olympic & Paralympic Sport. Thank you.
They always deliver their promises. They understand our business, are challenging at the right time, and are a pleasure to work with.
What is the future of flexible working?
This is a plea to Exec teams and HRD’s not to fall into the trap of mandating the work location patterns of their organisation. Surely the pandemic has taught us that those of us with ‘office jobs’ can be flexible, communicative, productive and responsible employees when working from home? Throughout the last 12 months workplace surveys overwhelmingly indicated >75% of employees enjoyed being able to work from home and found themselves to be equally or more productive as a result, and the organisational leaders we speak to concur.
Similar surveys tell us our staff want to work in flexible ways beyond the pandemic, although nearly half are worried this will not be supported by their organisation and are considering leaving if this is true. There is a perception some ‘office roles’ are not suitable for home working; we have to challenge this as much as we can. For example, we have spoken to many ‘call-centre’ and ‘support’ workers worried they will be forced to return to the office; yet the service we have received from them has been excellent and we would have had no idea they were home-working, other than a curiosity to ask them and enquire about how it is working out - so far everyone we’ve spoken to has been loving it.
Naturally, when we are in a more mixed economy of working protocols it will be important for organisations to acknowledge this and find ways to ensure some kind of two tier system does not develop. We hope employers will encourage other flexible working options alongside home working, which can be one of the many ways to ensure as level a playing field as possible, and we are sure more creative ideas will emerge. We will almost certainly need a more flexible and creative approach to our reward structures.
Some organisations are seeking to ensure both collaboration and fairness by mandating ‘2 days in the office, and 3 at home.' However this is not going to satisfy employees according to our research.
It will take away the trusted and empowered ways of working which have been so valued by many during this COVID-19 pandemic, and prior within some organisations. We need a global shift in focus to output rather than input, and a significant evolution in how we ‘manage performance'. For those organisations who have not experienced positive productivity during lockdown home-working, we would argue there is an opportunity to learn from those who have. Of course not everyone can or wants to work from home, and very few people want to work from home every single day. There are lots of benefits of being together in one space to build relationships, collaborate, connect, innovate, and solve problems through deep dialogue. Many people want to see and be with colleagues, have fun times together in teams in the daytime, and perhaps socially in the evening. Physically being together can relieve us from the sometimes endless and draining screen time of online meetings, or from the unsuitability of some home environments for home working. Blending work in the office, with work at home, as well as from cafes, cars, client-sites, community-centres, gyms, parks or anywhere with Wi-Fi is what people want, to be able to be productive with their work time, and to live a balanced life. The key to success is CHOICE, in the same way Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle) built their successful flexible 'anytime-anyplace' trust and outcomes based work culture across EMEA nearly 20 years ago.*CHOICE is about allowing individuals to fluidly choose where it is most productive and convenient to work on different days, and indeed during different phases of their lives; and to ask them to blend this with the (genuine not control led) requirements of their role, colleagues, and organisational purpose and goals.
We believe teams can be encouraged to discuss and work out the 'office v elsewhere' patterns for themselves, in a similar way that happens now when organising the rhythm and dates for internal and external meetings. We appreciate this will be a revolution in working patterns for some organisations. This may feel overwhelming and is triggering some ‘denial’ responses in some leaders and organisations. However we urge those struggling with the concept to think again. Insisting people are ‘office-based’ or mandating employees to travel into the office twice a week, is counter to the purpose lead empowerment workers now expect. There is of course a balance to be stuck – the psychological contract between the needs of the organisation and the needs of the individual must come together in a harmony which works for both. Organisations should rightly expect their employees to organise and attend important purpose-led collaborative meetings with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders. Internal communication and engagement will require a rethink, based on what we have learned from experimentation this year. We will continue to use more social channels. We have an opportunity to pre-plan an annual calendar of ‘gatherings’ which combine 'physically present for all' and 'virtual for all' events. Many employees described a phenomenon of ‘hierarchical equalisation’ and feeling ‘more connected than ever’ to their senior leaders because of regular virtual briefing & Q&A sessions, in which their leaders felt more accessible and personable; let’s keep this benefit by keeping some of the virtual sessions. Conversely some leaders felt more disengaged from the people outside their immediate teams; so how do we find creative, and some virtual, solutions to this challenge such as the ‘virtual fireside chats’ and ‘virtual birthday breakfasts’ some have experimented with?We can be agile and encourage our teams to regularly review what is working and not working and keep adjusting accordingly. Let's make it our aspiration to learn how to create high performance cultures in this flexible world of working.
We can build and nurture team relationships from close and afar to ensure everyone stays in good relationships with one another. New collaboration tools and technologies are coming along all the time to help us. If we keep experimenting, listening, and talking (face-to-face and virtually) we can successfully evolve to do this. We can employ a 'pull factor' to bring people together through exciting choices about ‘office’ design. We hope to see inclusive hub-style spaces where people can collaborate, innovate, connect, have fun; and some spaces for ‘concentration or desk-work’ too if this is what is productive for them. We can create 'neighbourhoods' of ‘drop in tables’ and we might even keep some ‘allocated tables’ for those who might want them now, or those who might want them in the future. Flexible meeting room structures can allow café spaces & meeting rooms to be reconfigured for lots of different sized meetings from two people to hundreds of people. It will take time to evolve our policies and collective working spaces, so let’s ask our employees to be flexible and patient and collaborate with us on this journey, and in return gain true flexibility in their working locations and patterns. Let’s get creative, embrace this flexible working pattern and unleash the innovative thinking we need for our organisations to thrive today, tomorrow and in twenty years’ time.Will your organisation continue to evolve the flexible working options after the pandemic?
*We played a leading role in this project and can share the learning with anyone who is interested. We have operated as a virtual organisation for over 25 years, with the corresponding benefits including enjoyment, flexibility, and productivity.
We need to humanise the virtual work place
It has been an interesting time in the back-to-the-office debate about how we can humanise the virtual work place if it continues in the future.
Our Virtual Future: it’s time to ditch performance management
During lockdown we have seen and heard about brilliant examples of senior leaders being more engaged than ever with front-line workers, and of many other great initiatives including inclusive colleague-family-pet virtual coffee meetups.