Too many meetings
Too little thinking.
Under relentless pressure and intense scrutiny, everything feels urgent.
When everything is urgent, we lose sight of what is important.
Under these conditions, clear, independent thinking — and the discernment that comes with it — is often the first thing to go.
How I work
I work with leaders and teams in a small number of focused ways, depending on what’s needed — supporting clearer thinking, sound judgement, and more grounded leadership.
A diagnostic to reveal what’s really happening in your meetings
Bespoke work with teams and organisations on live challenges
Structured programmes to strengthen how people think and lead
At its best, this work goes beyond effectiveness — to the quality of attention, judgement, and courage leaders bring to their decisions.
Ways to work with me
Diagnose your
meetings
Meeting Intelligence
Index
A simple way to see how thinking is really happening in your meetings — individually and collectively.
Start a conversation
Bespoke programmes
II work with leadership teams, boards and NHS groups to improve how thinking happens — in real situations, under pressure.
Learn the
approach
Programmes and pathways
Structured courses, from introduction through to accreditation, for those who want to apply fresh ways of working.
“Our management meetings became more inclusive and productive. We left with a real sense of collective ownership and achievement.” Former COO, NIHR, Cumbria
While many examples come from NHS work, the approach applies across sectors where thinking, decision-making, and collaboration matter.
What is really happening in your meetings?
The Meeting Intelligence Index is a short diagnostic developed from years of working with senior teams, boards, and organisations where the quality of thinking matters.
It shows what is actually happening in your meetings — not just activity, but the quality of thinking, participation, and decision-making.
Example insight
What this reveals:
Most organisations measure activity.
Very few can see the quality of thinking.
Meetings feel busy, but not useful.
Decisions get revisited.
Meetings are about more than efficiency.
They reflect the level of trust, the quality of connection, and whether people can really think and contribute.
The way I work
Alongside structured approaches like the Thinking Environment, I sometimes bring in material from outside traditional leadership development — including literature, poetry, and philosophy.
Not as a theory, but as a way of helping people think.
In practice, this might mean:
using a short piece of writing to open up a difficult conversation
introducing an image or metaphor that allows people to approach an issue differently
creating enough space for people to see something for themselves, rather than being told
This often allows thinking to move in a way that more direct approaches don’t — particularly where issues are complex, sensitive, or stuck.
Much of this work draws on a long-standing interest in writers such as Thomas Merton, C. S. Lewis and Parker J. Palmer — though the aim is always practical: helping leaders think clearly, act wisely and stay grounded under pressure.