Learning built into the work, so teams keep learning after I leave
posted 21st October 2026
I've coached teams since the 2000s. Today I build coaching into every project. Your team learns while we do real work, and carries on when I leave. Most of my work is with teams, and I also coach leaders one to one.
I'm trained in Gestalt, an approach to change that pays attention to what's happening in the environment as well as what's being said.
When to bring me in
- A new service is in place but people aren't using it
- Teams keep having the same debate and nothing moves
- Different groups blame each other, such as regional and global teams, or sales and technology
- Your team has heard the same customer findings so often that nobody reacts any more
- You want your team to learn research and design skills while doing real work
How I coach
A long practice
I've been coaching since the 2000s. I've led customer experience and culture change for B2B businesses, and built train-the-trainer programmes across Ireland, the UK and the US.
What Gestalt brings
I trained at the Gestalt Centre, with an advanced diploma from London Metropolitan University and a master class in supervision for organisational development. In Gestalt we talk about "what's in the field": everything present in a group, including what nobody is saying. My job is to give voice to it. I make the ambiguous real and visible, so the team can work with it.
I listen for what sits behind objections
"We know this already" or "I can't" often means "I'm not convinced" or "I don't want to". People usually have good reasons. I find out what they are and work with them.
I turn ideas into bets
When a team treats an idea as a bet to test, nobody has to win the argument. A concept that "doesn't work yet" stays open to change. This keeps people learning instead of defending.
I make customer problems matter again
Teams that hear the same findings for years stop reacting. I link customer problems to what each stakeholder cares about, such as adoption, churn or revenue. Then I make sure they see their input change something.
Bringing people with me
Change sticks when people work it out for themselves. I design sessions where they do.
Design sprints
A 4-day sprint takes a team from user problems to ideas ready to test:
- Day 1: understand users and the root causes of their problems
- Day 2: turn problems into "How might we" questions about user outcomes
- Day 3: generate ideas grounded in real tasks and behaviour
- Day 4: shape concepts to test, each with a measure of success
In one sprint, the conversation moved from "they won't use it" to "they don't trust it". That changed what the team built.
Deep-dive learning sessions
- Weekly or fortnightly sessions on live work: what we learned, what it means and what to test next
- Retrospectives that treat learning as progress, including when an idea fails
- Open lists of ideas being tested and ideas ready to build, with clear reasons when something is dropped
Facilitated conversations
- Bringing groups who rarely talk into the same room to hear each other's frustrations
- Separating what we saw from what we think it means, so disagreements become useful
- Moving the tone from blame to shared understanding
Learning on the job
- Pairing with team members on real projects
- Show and tells where the team presents its own work
- Coaching researchers and designers to run studies themselves
What you get
- A team that can run research, sprints and tests without me
- A shared language for user problems and behaviour
- Regular learning habits, such as reviews and retrospectives
- Measures that show whether the change is working