With some clients I work longer term to develop their organisations so that they have a clear vision and know what they need to do in order to achieve that vision.
After acting as Director of Organisational Development at Birmingham Hippodrome I continued to develop a number of projects with them, including management and leadership training programmes, staff protocols and team training.
With Soul City Arts (where I have been acting Executive Director) and Artistic Director Mohammed Ali we have successfully raised funds from the Said Foundation’s Amal programme and £100,000 from the Elevate programme to develop Soul City Arts as a year-round arts organisation. This has been a long-term programme of work and will result in a new board and the appointment of an Executive Director.
Theatre practitioners The Bone Ensemble appointed me having raised funds from Arts Council England to again, shape their work and create a more robust organisation. We have looked at long term artistic plans, articulated vision, values and behaviours and gained a sense of which relationships are needed to fulfil that vision.
Fierce Festival used Catalyst funding to clarify and articulate their artistic vision following a change of artistic director. I went back to the organisation I had left in 2010 to create a fresh approach, a set of values and behaviours that then informed how they talked about the festival and some new relationships to embed the festival in the life of the city.
With Lara Ratnaraja I have been appointed joint Transition Manager of Unlimited as the highly successful project strand of commissions for artists with disabilities seeks to become an independent organisation.
What Helga did that most other consultants wouldn’t have, was actually work out what the real problems were, rather than try to tackle what we had told her were the problems…
Mike Layward – Director, DASH
Everyone is totally aware of the strategy and was able to articulate it to me without any prompting, it was never done in a ‘Stepford wives’ manner in that everyone was able to articulate in a way that showed their understanding but also what it meant to them… The way [a staff member] was able to articulate it was one example out of many that demonstrated a very impressive and aligned group of people across all levels who are extremely passionate, committed and loyal to the Hippodrome and its future objectives
Suzanne Roberts – Ignite your Talent, report on employee engagement at Birmingham Hippodrome (my emphasis)
Helga Henry 