Who Are Those Guys?
A Little Something On The Practitioners Behind Group Partners
A Context
The way the typical 21st Century business works can bear an uncanny resemblance to the Wild West. Cowboys running loose — rounding up the wrong herd. A whole lot of furtive rustling going on in the middle of the night — too many innocent scalps being taken. And someone please tell me who the hell shot the sheriff? Yep — the good the bad and the ugly.
John Caswell — Head Of Crayons
I used to be what was known as — ‘on the client side’. A particularly bizarre and ugly definition that makes no apology to the divide between a ‘supplier’ and client. A canyon might be a better way of putting it. And whether I worked in large or small enterprises I got to witness a lot of shoot outs, hangings and bank robberies.
But not all of it was that good.
Banned Wagons
Many a shady traveller dropped by in their covered wagons — slinging their biggest guns. Advisers, consultants — agencies of all shapes and sizes — each potion designed to help a business ease its pain — solve a challenge.
The large proportion of them were of low value — some just plain stupid wrong — some far worse and full of risk and hidden expense.
It may just be me but every business I’ve worked with saw me marooned within a tornado of misunderstanding and confusion around how stuff got done. There’s this absurd frustration — an inefficiency around how companies seem to think about the future of their operations.
To most people involved it was better simply to nod and get on with it because hardly anyone knew what ‘it’ was. Many white men in awful suits talking with forked tongues.”
Whether strategy or tactic — transformation or change —I felt it just needed to be thought through differently.
I decided that my experience as a creative person and therefore totally ‘anti-authority’ that I could serve business better.
I saw that by cutting through the crap and drawing a picture of what everyone was saying I could make rapid progress and not want to gnaw my own leg off.
I learned that by being a little irreverent about the traditional bollocks I could make people see that there may be a new and better way of doing things. I saw that logical and visual frameworks could help people think with higher quality.
I proved that by being utterly impartial we could avoid our clients unintentionally creating yet more problems.
I got away with it.
Hazel Tiffany
Chief Wizard
I rode into town many moons ago as a client of Group Partners seeking answers to challenges of a very similar nature.
I knew there had to be another way to wrangle the complex organisations to the floor and deal with their challenges. Stumbling into Group Partners was my first breakthrough into finding the answer.
Over the last 10 years I have been a partner in the development of the Practice. For me, that means constantly exploring the new territories. I spend a lot of my time finding fresh ways to maximize the use of our approach.
The Program
And The Platform
No More Tumbleweed
In the early days there wasn’t the powerful medicine — the technology we have today. So a big part of my focus today is centred on creating new tools and their structures — using them to deal with the most complex of issues — helping to properly answer the questions our clients ask.
Interpreting Smoke Signals
I’m a true believer in the power of data. The patterns and clues that lay within it is my passion. The aim is always to divine genuine meaning from the mass of information that already exists within our clients’ world. I’m driven to help them understand how to unlock the value that it holds.
“It’s time for organisations to take ownership of their future and enjoy the luxury of quality thinking.” — Hazel Tiffany
In today’s world, we all need a greater consciousness.
That means achieving a far more genuine purpose and meaning and in every aspect of our lives. This can only happen if we can re-engage and embrace the complexity that exists all around us — seeing it as a dynamic part of the wider system we live in.
And that’s something that we ALL belong to and without doubt have an undisputable accountability for.
