Woodhouse May Ltd is the Limited Company that owns Counselling West Bridgford. Woodhouse May is also the brand name for Michelle’s business consultancy:
Woodhouse May
Relationships
Strategy
Delivery
Freedom to Move
Relationships
Ever feel like you want to speak to someone about how things are going or discuss your ideas before unleashing them on the world?
Business Coaching tends to be a one to one meeting, typically once or twice a month for one to two hours. There are various approaches, and Michelle works with a person-centred philosophy. This means she supports you to work out the best course of action for yourself, rather than giving advice. We have “toolkits” to support your thinking if it fits in with what you are aiming for but primarily business coaching allows you to explore, confidentially, all your business and leadership ideas, concerns, hopes and vision. We are also able to provide counselling support.
Would you like someone to manage a group discussion on your behalf? Would you like to be able to focus on the content of the session rather than how it’s going?
Facilitation tends to be with two or more individuals, usually for a one-off project although it can involve one or more sessions, depending on how difficult or complex the challenge. There is usually some pre-meeting preparation so we can understand the dynamics of the group and individual challenges but the focus is on the session. Often an exercise may be developed that encourages creativity but not always. It could be, for example, delivering training, developing vision and strategy or chairing regular meetings.
Do individuals in your organisation have conflicting ideas on the way forward? Like the idea of a neutral third party to help improve relationships before they go too far?
With Michelle’s person-centred psychotherapy training, she can support those individuals / teams who are struggling to have a conversation. Similar to facilitation but with emphasis on improving relationships and achieving a mutually agreeable way forward. There are usually individual one to one sessions with everyone involved to understand their perspective with the aim to bringing all parties to the table and hopefully achieve consensus. As mediator, it is important we are and are seen as unbiased and supportive rather than attempting to influence anyone to a pre-determined outcome.
Strategy
Have an idea but want to make sure you know what you’re letting yourself in for? Need to do a business case? Got a problem to fix?
We aim to facilitate those decisions by helping you establish what information is needed, then how to gather and analyse it. This tends to involve both words and numbers. Tools can include exercises to generate more ideas, or a root cause workshop, for example. It could take just a few hours coaching or an extensive project requiring several weeks of coaching, facilitated workshops, financial modelling and documentation. It depends on the nature of the project and skills within the team so we meet with you up front to understand what you need and prepare a plan of action.
Want to think about the future of your business, perhaps develop a strategy or need to prepare something for a bank loan or potential investors?
Business planning includes: working out where you want to be (vision), understanding how things stand now, steps to get to your vision (strategy), financial forecasts (we love a spreadsheet), an outline project plan and preparing a document or presentation to explain it all. Usually combined with business coaching or facilitation, we have the “toolkit” to support you in any or all of this. We work with you to understand which elements you need our help with and which tools will be useful to provide a bespoke solution.
Convinced things could be more effective or efficient? Faced with a challenge or a problem that needs to be fixed but you’re unsure how to go about it?
We usually approach process improvement with a facilitated workshop that not only helps teams deliver improvement on a specific project, but leaves them with the skills to do it independently in the future. We use proven methodologies, drawing from the likes of six sigma and lean. We take time with key members of the team up front to plan the workshop and ensure the improvement project is scoped well. The subsequent workshop can be delivered in one day although taking two days allows for more reflection both during and between the days.
Delivery
Would you like someone with experience and gravitas to challenge your team and provide an external viewpoint? Would your senior leadership team benefit from mentoring?
We can provide non-executive support either to the board room or on a one to one basis. See here for our individual experiences and expertise which will help you determine if we seem like a good fit. We meet you to understand what you perceive the gap to be in your organisation and work out if it is something where we feel we can add value. It may be that we attend your regular key meetings. One to one sessions can be in person or by telephone, and tend to occur once or twice per quarter.
Would you like to be able monitor how things are progressing? Heard of “KPIs” but no idea what they are?
We usually approach Key Performance Indicators with a facilitated workshop involving those accountable for delivery of the results. In addition to understanding key aspects of KPIs and working out which measures would be useful, the mechanism for data gathering and analysis is usually explored. We often support the design of reports / communications and aim to encourage creativity. Expect some pre-meeting preparation so we can ensure the appropriate people attend and understand any challenges or group dynamics that exist. The workshop is usually delivered in one day, sometimes with follow up coaching to support implementation.
Wondering how you can keep your project on time and on budget? Delivering your project turning out to be harder than you imagined?
You can select from a number of options to support project delivery. We can deliver project management training, help you work out how to ensure the appropriate checks and balances are in place (governance), chair key project meetings, lead a workstream or even do some of the project management and admin for you. The training (group or individual) tends to be delivered over three half days one week between each. The scope of all the other things we can do is extensive so we meet with you to understand where the gaps are so we can provide a bespoke solution.
Contact
To explore further how we may be able to support you, get in touch, we welcome even tentative enquiries:
michelle@woodhousemay.co.uk
07968 767232
Michelle Briggs BSc MSc FCA UKCP
Relationships. Strategy. Delivery.
Woodhouse May | Freedom to Move