"People love change when they feel in control of it."

Julian's approach means getting people talking - specifically the people with potential to make real change in an organisational system. He prefers to immerse himself in an organisation, working simultaneously in several parts, and at all levels. This lets him spot systemic connections and opportunities to make a real difference that otherwise might get overlooked.

He also knows that making change happen means helping people take control of it, and that this depends upon first understanding what's happening - systemically. He's developed a tool for this, called BaseLine©. It's a software package that helps people make more of their numbers, kicking off really powerful conversations.

We use it within Performance1 to help people think about the systems they're working with. Pasting time-series performance data into BaseLine instantly shows up the exact moments when a system is changing, which helps people think about the factors which have triggered each change. It's especially powerful when people can talk about genuine root causes, rather than spurious, illusory or unimportant events.

Julian is a coach and a highly experienced facilitator – sometimes of events involving over 100 people, if that’s what it takes to get the whole system set up for action. He pays particular attention to the underlying theory of organisational intervention and development, and applies the principles of Action Research. The often-overlooked third-person research means helping people understand events from an external perspective – which is where BaseLine’s analysis is particularly powerful.

Most of Julian’s projects run for at least three years, and he has worked extensively with both private and public sector organisations - notably Clarks shoes, BMW, Corus Steel, Shell, the Environment Agency and the NHS.