Are you looking to transform or shift something, to find a more sustainable outcome?
Do you need to try something different?
You may have a clear idea of what would count as success, or it might be vague, opaque, a little out-of-reach.
You may need a brilliant strategy - or have one already and be struggling to implement it.
You may have tried other approaches with varied success.
"I've never had so much clarity in three years of running this business."
Catherine Balaam, Wellbeing Therapy Rooms
"Over four days I watched Lycia transform a disparate group of individuals
from across Europe into a dynamic, united and motivated team with a clear
direction and focus."
Louise Gardner, Head of Communications and Development, Watershed
"Lycia is a rare and high-impact combination of left and right brain."
Manny Amadi, CEO of C&E Advisory Services
"We are now in a much better place to grow and progress, and most
importantly meet the needs of our users in a more effective and efficient way."
Jenny Perez, Director of ERIC
"The honesty in the process ensured that whilst it was not an easy journey,
it was the right one."
James Vaccaro, Head of Market and Corporate Development at the Triodos Bank
"An amazing experience. The constellation was the push we needed to take
stock and look at where we should focus to move the business to the next
level."
Stephanie Kitchen, Into Latin America
Glow helps people transform their teams and organisations and the impact of their programmes.
We are facilitators and strategists specialising in sustainability. Our approach is based on understanding how complex systems - like human relationships and organisations - behave.
We have expertise in
Helping clients to envisage and articulate their ambition, and how it can be realised.
For organisations, partnerships, groups and community programmes.
An efficient way to illuminate the dynamics of a situation, gain insight and test strategies.
Giving insight about a client's position and opportunities, including issue and sector mapping.
Redesigning the 'mechanics' of delivering value to customers and stakeholders.
Frameworks and analysis of impact for stakeholders, including social return on investment.
Glow provides facilitation and strategy services within a complex systems framework. That is, we hold a 'complexity worldview'.
In our culture, we tend to think of organisations as predictable
and controllable (like machines), and base our planning and
expectations on this.
In fact, they are complex systems, and complex systems
are messy and unpredictable. They can't be controlled
and we can never know everything about them.
Developing our understanding of complex systems can revolutionise our thinking and our impact - and mean letting go of some beliefs about organisational life.
Research plays an important role in gaining insight about a client's position and opportunities. It usually forms part of a larger project, as an input to visioning and strategy work, for example.
We undertake a wide range of tailored research, from small projects such as interviewing a dozen stakeholders, to more extensive work such as mapping activity in a subject or geographical area.
A vision is the dream or ultimate aspiration for a project or organisation. It acts as a 'guiding light', helping to ensure everyone drives towards the same outcomes. Articulating a vivid and tangible vision can inspire and motivate great things to happen.
Strategy is about defining how you are going to realise your vision: the framework of goals, policies, structures and resources that will lay the path for success.
Organisational development takes us into the practical side of moving a group or organisation forward.
Clients are often interested in developing more effective teams and partnerships, and more resilient and sustainable organisations.
Organisational development supports your strategy and helps illuminate the hidden dynamics that shape policy and behaviour - so you can better 'see' and understand your system.
A constellation is a way to map out and explore a question or situation that feels complex, stuck or sensitive, and where the way ahead is unclear.
It uses our whole (hence, 'systemic') sense of a situation and can be a very efficient way to get to the root of a problem and show a way forward.
Constellations work is hard to describe, simple to do, and quite addictive once you've experienced it.
A business model tells the story of how value is delivered to a customer or stakeholder, and how revenue can be realised.
Business modelling can be an insightful tool for strategic planning - particularly for clients with more ideas than resources - and for spotting new opportunities. It's an important part of developing more sustainable organisations where the exercise is a little like taking apart a jigsaw and putting it together in a new way.
Evaluation helps you track your progress towards a goal and capture what is being learned along the way. It tells a story about how change happens.
We help clients design measurement frameworks and processes that establish the full impact of their intervention, and equip them to report robustly on what is achieved.
We evaluate social investment and partnership programmes, team working and performance and organisational change.
None of this is as scary as it sounds. Measuring things is fab.
"Lycia's lightness of tone, perceptive questioning and joyful manner make
working with her a valuable and enjoyable process that I would highly recommend."
Clare Reddington, Director, iShed and The Pervasive Media Studio and REACT Executive Producer
"It felt like we were going on a voyage of discovery rather than merely
'stepping through a programme' and as a result the outcomes were more
substantial and went deeper."
James Vaccaro, Head of Market and Corporate Development at the Triodos Bank
"Lycia combines the intuition and creativity to unlock rich insights,
with the clarity of thought and structured frameworks to turn great ideas
into winning strategies and programmes."
Manny Amadi, CEO of C&E Advisory Services
Here's our recipe for success.
First, define an ambition or craft a good question, and hold a vivid picture of how success will look.
Draw up a plan - and be prepared not to stick to it.
Take a step in the right direction and see what happens; expect some surprises.
Use what you now know
to review and refine the plan.
Agree next steps.
Fold in some group work - because relationships matter.
Pay attention to feelings. They can be systemic phenomena and give important clues to what needs attention.
Repeat steps 3 to 6 and keep moving in the direction of your ambition.
"Glow played a pivotal role in shaping and managing the
process of developing the vision - ensuring the active
participation of a very large and diverse set of
stakeholders."
Stephen Hilton, Director of the Futures Group at Bristol City Council
"I came to see the limiting patterns in the operation of the
organisation, and my own place in this. As a result, we have been
re-defining our objectives and we are now in the process of significant
change."
Andrew Baker, Bristol Foundation Housing Trustee
"The constellation was incredible, I learned a lot about my situation
which hadn't occurred to me before but is helping me move forward."
Jill Bell, teacher
"Lycia's contribution to the success of Engage was
invaluable - her quiet strength and extreme professionalism
were key to creating the culture of respect and unity that
ran through the entire project."
Louise Gardner, Head of Communications and Development, Watershed
Glow works with commercial organisations, not-for-profits and social enterprises to design and implement change programmes, transformational community partnerships, and more sustainable working practices.
Our clients include some of the best-known organisations and brands, along with some amazing outfits and enterprises you may not have heard of.
What they have in common is an appetite for change, and a need for solid technical and planning skills combined with highly-skilled facilitation.
Wellbeing is a space for healing and rejuvenation on the 4th floor of Hamilton House in Stokes Croft, Bristol.
In September 2012, Catherine Balaam and Lioba Fezer, who run Wellbeing, sought help. They were frustrated, reporting that the business was very hard work, that it wasn't flowing and not sustaining itself as it should.
We set up and ran a constellation. It showed there needed to be more explicit recognition of Wellbeing, a maturing of some aspects and associated shifts in responsibility. It suggested this would increase confidence and support and take Wellbeing to the next stage in its development.
After the constellation Catherine Balaam said, "I've got a different understanding now, and I've never had so much clarity in three years of running this business."
Six months later, she reported, "Wellbeing is flying. It's so much easier, it's flowing, and running like a dream."
Glow will shortly be offering constellations as part of Wellbeing.
The Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone is a project to reimagine and develop 70 hectares in the centre of Bristol.
In October 2011, Glow was asked to design and facilitate a workshop to develop a shared 'vision' for the zone that would define the best possible space for Bristol and reflect the city's character, culture and aspirations.
Two hundred people from a wide range of business and community interests attended the vision workshop. Together, they defined how the zone will contribute to Bristol, what it will contain, and how it will be experienced by people living and working there.
This vision is being used to inspire and inform work with developers, investors and businesses, institutions and community groups.
Glow is currently supporting work on the marketing of the zone.
Barclays is a client of C&E Advisory Services, which was commissioned to conduct a strategic review of its global community investment. Lycia led the C&E project team in a two-year programme of detailed design and the first stage of implementation, equipping staff around the world to implement the new strategy.
Lycia's work included:
Mark Thain, Vice President for Social Innovation at Barclays, said, "Lycia is a pleasure to work with. She has the unique ability to bring together a diverse group of people, often with very different agendas, in a way that helps us see through the complexity and ultimately achieve great results. She also comes with a real pencil case - which I feel, in this day and age, adds a certain degree of authenticity to her work."
The TIM UK team is a group of highly-motivated, passionate individuals committed to financing a sustainable future for individuals, the community and the environment.
They called in Glow in 2011 to help them make a step-change in their way of working.
We ran a series of four workshops over six-months with a focus on team dynamics and processes, and including visioning and a systemic constellation.
James Vaccaro, now Head of Market and Corporate Development at the Triodos Bank headquarters, said, "The journey that we went on with Lycia brought the issues that we needed to talk about to the surface. The honesty in the process ensured that whilst it was not an easy journey, it was the right one. It felt like we were going on a voyage of discovery rather than merely ‘stepping through a programme’ and as a result the outcomes were more substantial and went deeper.
"The insights we gained from this process helped to un-stick the team from habits that weren’t moving us forward. The new structure that emerged meant that everyone in the team feels in a better place - both in their roles and working practices.
"For me personally, it was the opportunity to step through the thought-process about a big transition - one that has been very positive in terms of the impact I can now make and for giving the team greater clarity and responsibility in their new structure."
Triodos Investment Management website
Triodos Bank Corporate Finance website
Triodos Renewables PLC website
C&E Advisory Services is one of the leading 'business & society' consultancies. I have worked with C&E for six years for clients including Accenture, AstraZeneca, Barclays, Breast Cancer Campaign, E.ON UK, Greenpeace, Microsoft EMEA and NSPCC.
According to Manny Amadi, CEO, "Lycia is a rare and high-impact combination of left and right brain. She combines the intuition and creativity to unlock rich and powerful insights, with the clarity of thought and structured frameworks required to turn great ideas into winning strategies and programmes.
"I have often sat in awe, watching Lycia in facilitation mode with clients. She has an incredible capacity for listening and hearing, and a great talent for asking the unheard questions that unlock great insights. Her participative approach enables her to then work with people to own, deliver and assess the impact of the change that results from the shift in thinking which she helps to catalyse."
ERIC is the UK's leading childhood continence charity. In March 2012, it sought Glow's support in evaluating and monitoring its information and helpline department.
We began a series of regular workshops, working in an emergent way with what was hottest for the team. This was supported at appropriate points with stakeholder research, visioning, business modelling and impact measurement.
This helped the whole organisation gain the insights they needed to shift how they worked. A year later, the ERIC team is happier and more cohesive, working and planning in a more integrated way. They are clear about where they should focus their resource and tell a much more compelling story about the impact they make.
According to ERIC director, Jenny Perez, "Working with Glow has had a positive and invaluable impact on ERIC and the ERIC team. We were taken on a journey which has enabled us to work in a closer, more effective way, to challenge and listen to each other in a way we all feel happy with. We are now in a much better place to grow and progress, and most importantly to meet the needs of our users in a more effective and efficient way."
REACT funds collaborations between arts and humanities researchers and creative companies.
Glow was commissioned to design and facilitate the Books & Print Ideas labs, part of their Sandbox process to identify and fund eight innovative collaborations that explore the future of the book.
The client wanted to reinvent the Labs and use them to give an experience of the Sandbox process that would help participants evaluate if it was 'for them', and equip the REACT team to identify where resource would have most impact.
The three Labs took place in June and July 2012, attended in total by 180 people.
According to Clare Reddington, REACT Executive Producer, "Lycia expertly unpicked what we thought was her brief and gently guided us towards a different series of workshops that have genuinely built new relationships and understanding of what we are trying to do."
Glow is currently working with REACT on the Future Documentary Ideas Labs.
Steph Kitchin, co-founder of this Latin America travel agency, wanted a systemic constellation to help her rethink and reorganise her growing business. She wanted to drive more sales and run the business more efficiently, but said she "couldn't see the wood for the trees". This didn't fit with her very clear articulation of what needed to happen, so we explored what could be impeding progress.
We discovered that Steph's sense of herself had not kept pace with her achievements in providing amazing experiences for her customers and tourism income for the communities she cares so much about.
We used a constellation to explore this and shift Steph's sense of her achievement and place. She then felt able to put into action the plans she had in mind.
Steph continues to use constellations to help develop her business and understand what might need to change.
Engage was a project run by Watershed in 2010 to help European youth workers use digital tools to encourage participation and active citizenship amongst young people.
Glow facilitated the opening four-day workshop, helping the group form and build trust, and define how they would operate and what they would deliver over the course of the programme. We established the programme as a space for creativity and experimentation, with defined outcomes and shared responsibility for ensuring a meaningful and productive experience.
According to Louise Gardner, Head of Communications and Development at Watershed, "Over four days I watched Lycia transform a disparate group of individuals from across Europe into a dynamic, united and motivated team with a clear direction and focus.
"Lycia's contribution to the success of Engage was invaluable - her quiet strength and extreme professionalism were key to creating the culture of respect and unity that ran through the entire project."
"The new structure that emerged meant that everyone in the
team feels in a better place - both in their roles and working practices."
James Vaccaro, Head of Market and Corporate Development at the Triodos Bank
"I have often sat in awe, watching Lycia facilitate. She has
incredible capacity for listening, and a wonderful talent for asking the
questions that unlock great insights."
Manny Amadi, CEO of C&E Advisory Services
"Today was such a refreshing day in so many ways and I left
feeling very positive and optimistic."
Jenny Perez, Director of ERIC
"Our work with Glow was clearly the point of transition for the
team. It's incredible to reflect on how big the change is now."
Team member, Triodos Investment Management
Glow is a small consultancy established in 2004 by me, Lycia Harper.
I worked in marketing and operations for 14 years for charities, consultancies, AOL and Vodafone before moving into sustainability and change. I'm fascinated by how organisations and teams operate, and how we transform situations we'd like to change.
I hold a degree in Physics, and an MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice.
Complexity was a profound discovery for me. Cycling, photography, dogs and cake are also essential.
I sometimes work in partnership with the following (very talented and charismatic) people when our clients need more expertise or resource than we can provide individually.
We all hold a similar ethos, we spark each other, we have fun working together, and we're friends.
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Envoy specialises in in measuring and demonstrating the value of social, economic and environmental impacts.
We met during their time developing and rolling out Social Return On Investment (SROI) frameworks and social impact monitoring tools, and have continued to work together on projects that use robust evaluation as part of a change process.
Happy City is a not-for-profit organisation, helping people and their communities to focus on happiness, and put their energy into the things that support and increase it.
I've known the founders, Liz and Mike Zeidler, for years as friends and colleagues. We facilitate events together and have worked behind the scenes on a range of projects.
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"It feels like we've been injected with a surge of optimism and enthusiasm again."
Lioba Fezer, Wellbeing Therapy Rooms
"I don't have all the answers but what we do have is a unified team
and processes for looking at change."
Jenny Perez, ERIC
"Working with Lycia was incredibly useful and rewarding."
Clare Reddington, Director, iShed and The Pervasive Media Studio
and REACT Executive Producer
"Very uplifting; it brought clarity to things that had seemed confused and
ill-defined."
Andrew Baker, Trustee of Bristol Foundation Housing
