I work with non-governmental and similar organisations to support them to evolve and grow, helping put the finger on the issues that are holding them back, co-creating robust pathways for the change they want, and making that change less painful.

I spent 15 years building the organisational strength and leadership culture of Greenpeace—an organisation that I am proud of for its uncompromising principles, its passionate people, its willingness to confront the status quo, and its ability to evolve and adapt its strategies, always focused on making the world a better place. I learned the importance of strategic and structural clarity and integrity, and the power of collaboration and collaborative leadership, to enable an organisation (and each of the individuals within it) to be flexible and innovative.

I will always be deeply interested in what makes people tick, individually and when working together in groups. I hate to see waste of talent and creativity, knowing how empowering and vital it can feel to be part of a diverse group of people all working to a common goal. I believe the world, more than ever, needs a diversity of leaders and organisations seeking to make change for a sustainable and just world.

The back story…

I was 25 years old, and I had been assigned to co-lead a Greenpeace expedition to Antarctica to fight for its protection as the world’s last great wilderness. It was a heady time for the campaign: the geopolitics were complex, and whether or not we would succeed was by no means certain. It was also a challenging assignment for me. A shipful of passionate activists is a wonderful thing to be part of, but daunting to lead, especially when the role model for Greenpeace expedition leaders was decidedly of the older, male, charge-the-barricades variety.

It was worth it. From that first expedition, we brought back proof that longline fisheries in the Antarctic were killing too many albatross, leading to strong regulation of the fishery—previously resisted by fishing nations who claimed that no such deaths were occurring. Other evidence we exposed helped to strengthen the case for the need for Antarctica to be properly protected.

This, and three subsequent expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic, taught me how to lead teams operating in fast-paced and challenging conditions, where decisions had to be taken quickly, taking into account both the expedition’s mission and the politics of the messages we were generating, as well as the physical safety of people operating in one of the most physically hostile environments on the planet. That, and also how to lead in a way that was authentic to me, rather than trying to copy the leadership styles of the expedition leaders that had gone before me.

Since the wonderful experience of helping to protect a whole continent, I have led the campaign to bring public and political attention to the threat of climate change in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, before moving into a new phase and a new set of interests in organisational development, leadership, and culture.