The Stargazer and the Navigator: a new collaboration

You know that feeling when you work with someone and it just clicks? In the early days, it can be hard to explain why, but before long you’ve developed a shorthand. You instinctively know you “get” each other, share values and can get stuff done. That’s how my new collaboration with Helen Boyle began.

Helen was Programme Director at NWADASS and commissioned me to deliver workforce transformation, culture change and learning work. We found ourselves co-facilitating numerous events and workshops, where our complementary styles, skills and approaches quickly came to the fore.

I enjoy helping people think differently about work: drawing on evidence from pioneering organisations, trying innovative approaches and keeping an eye on the future while tackling today’s challenges. Helen is adept at turning that thinking into action and delivery.

I bring behavioural insights and workforce expertise; Helen brings transformational leadership and programme management. Oh, and she’s funnier than me — as she likes to remind me regularly!

I tend to navigate people through a conversation to “out” what’s important but not being said, Helen tends to take a more direct approach….  There’s been a number of times when I’ve been gently steering a group discussion towards the important thing that’s going unsaid, only for Helen to come right out and say it. “OK, so we’re going there,” I’ve thought, and between us we’ve facilitated a discussion about whatever thorny issue has come up.

Whilst we bring different, complementary skills and approaches, we definately have more in common than sets us apart. We both have lifelong careers in local government, similar values grounded in social justice, and experience across a wide range of roles and functions that helps us connect the strategic with the operational and see things from a holistic, systems perspective. We are both coaches who start from strengths and prefer to help people find the solutions that are right for them. At the heart of our work is a shared belief that frontline staff often hold the key to solving the challenges organisations face. By bringing workforce voices into the heart of change, we help organisations build trust, strengthen workforce involvement and create solutions that people are committed to delivering.

If I’m the stargazer, Helen is the navigator. I help organisations to think about what could be different, Helen helps them to chart a practical path to delivery. And together we bring a combination of challenge and support, reflection and action, evidenced insight and practical realism.

Collaboration is a really important part of who I am and how I work. I remember, many years ago on a leadership development programme, being encouraged to grow my strengths rather than feel I had to be good at everything to become an effective leader. It was a real ah-ha moment. I realised I didn’t need to clone the leaders of the time; I could develop my own style, rooted in my own strengths and rely on others for those things I’m less good at.

That was a pivotal moment in helping me recognise the value of collaboration. Alignment of values matters, of course, but beyond that I love working with people who bring different perspectives, experiences and qualities. It’s also simply more fun working with people you click with.

So I’m delighted to say that now Helen has retired from her NWADASS Director post and become a freelance consultant, we’ll be continuing the magic we like to create when we combine our skills, experience and approaches to help organisations deliver human-centred organisational change, learning and transformation that people believe in, own and sustain.

Find out more here https://www.kathsmythecollective.co.uk/kath-smythe-helen-boyle