We have been supporting clients to manage change for many years, but it certainly brings it home to you when you have to change yourselves.
After 30 years in 4 Fitzroy Place in Glasgow, we have decided not to renew our lease and have moved round the corner to 20-23 Woodside Place, Glasgow G3 7QL. It will reduce our costs considerably and play to the strengths we have built in the virtual environment. It also contributes to our commitment to sustainability for us and our clients.
However, moving 30 years of accumulated “stuff” has been a daunting task. Anne has managed this admirably with help from us all and in particular Fiona and Linda.
Having been at home for the last year, near enough, has meant that the wrench of leaving somewhere you have spent your working life for 30 years has been lessened, but endings is never easy.
There are many key coaching conversations, many pivotal discussions of the core team and design debates for our work with clients, locked into the walls of 4 Fitzroy Place.
As we cleared the building, I came across things that triggered memories of seminal moments in our practice:
§ Work plans for the Our Culture Transformation programme for Yemen Liquid Natural Gas, to bind 60 different cultures into one unifying Yemenisation project that involved 10 of our consultants for 18 months in Yemen.
§ A Graduate Goals Oriented Skills course that had the now CEO of Wood plc on it. (A fascinating blend of experiential outdoors learning and classroom based sessions)
§ Our Train the Trainers “Assertiveness” manual that we developed jointly with Northern Telecom in Belfast.
§ The Workbook for the Scottish Government’s Leading to Deliver course for 500 Social Services leaders in Scotland.
§ A picture of the Taylor Clarke team from a teambuilding 20 years ago at the Lochgreen Hotel in Troon
§ A strategy document laying out how we would develop an Organisation Development offering marked “Secret”!
§ The case studies we were asked to develop by Scottish Enterprise to set up IiP Scotland.
§ The Manual for the Clarity of Purpose Exercises that we ran for Mobil in the UK and Indonesia that were piloting that aspect of Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Scorecard during their early research towards the Balanced Scorecard.
§ A copy of “Failure to Learn” that was the course reading for our “Safety Leadership” Programmes that we have run throughout the world.
§ An electronic pen, still in it’s wrapper, that purported to convert your writing into printed text. (We have always been up for trying new things but this obviously didn’t make it beyond the idea stage!)
§ A hand written note from my PA in 1992, reminding me to phone a client. That PA is now my wife!
We are storing many of the memories as we move to a much more sustainable model in our new premises.
I and the rest of our community of over 60 consultants and project support, look forward to creating new memories with you as we all pivot to deal with the challenges of today and tomorrow.
Taking care of potential for another 30 years!
Laurence J Clarke
