Consulting

– the visioning, the idea of what the business will look like and the outcomes you are hoping to achieve, the product.

Using visualisation tools and techniques involving images of gardens, explorations of components of the business (using prompts and examples) as well as traditional creative brainstorming methods, a ‘plan on a page’ can be created, or at least some timebound descriptors of the look, feel, outcome and delivery state desired.

– undertake an assessment of the positive and negative attributes you want to keep or remove from where you are currently, and what is your ‘climate’.

From checking and challenging, a ‘what do we have now?’ discovery phase, as well as ensuring the current ‘garden’ is recognisable to all who reside in it as well as will resonate to those outside it, this is the ‘as is’ element and assessment.

(which gardeners knowledge you will need, what tools will be useful) and what you have already

Here we look at what needs to be true to go from now to the vision. Or at least identifying the beginning tools and techniques to be applied, as there may still be aspects to unearth. The model looks across the multitude of organisation development method, culture and behaviour and ‘used before and not worked’ tools to choose something appropriate, best practice and most useful to get the right result.

– including weeding out what you don’t want and replanting or for the compost and adding hard landscape (boundaries, strategic objectives, requirements for the business)

At this point, you have to have to really stick to the plan, as in the preparation of the ground you are setting the principle, the clear intentions for the next steps, and you although you can change it later on, it is better to get this piece right once. The mechanisms and methods for mapping the trajectory to success will need to be resourced, understood, communicated and visibly driven. Using a change method of choice this can be the most important stage of change, to be ‘change ready’, trained up and confident in the ‘this is it’ stage of decisions.

(social area, productive garden, open areas for collaboration, and quiet reflective corners)

Most businesses have spaces for coming together (virtually or actually), places for quiet work and ‘front of house’ places where the public, customers, clients, patients, guests see the business from. These are all important shapes and spaces, to be sized in your garden in terms not only of physical space but also how they will be used, expected and accepted behaviours, and what needs to be done to improve the experience of all.

for success – make the investment in ensuring that you are only putting in what you need and want and in the right places

Looking for the right people to lead on change, noticing the quiet but highly productive ‘seedling’ or those blousy flowers who are highly attractive but don’t last. They are all different in their way to add value to the initial vision and business purpose. Or why did you plant them? Indeed, maybe you need to begin a bit of succession planning now in planting a few seeds and growing them over time.

the plants (fertilizer) – investing in your teams, communications, giving support to those who need it the way they need it to grow.

Change and growth doesn’t happen on its own, in fact the most common failure of tomatoes is inconsistent watering! Not too much or too little but inconsistent! So, different people and teams will need different inputs, group time, and information (fertilizer). Here we focus on what who needs, how and when!

the garden – regular check ins and course corrections to how the garden is growing.

A vital step in the model – and one in which true gardening style makes plants stronger, happier, more prolific and able to take cuttings from and grow more! We know grass stops growing if its too cold of too hot, so do people. Here deadwood might need cutting out, or plants moved into bigger areas to create colour or structure. This is a highly detailed step, which can be delved into on its own, always with the intention of moving forward and growing.