TECHNICOLOUR
“Working with Irene was a great success. Having recently taken over as head of the UK business it was important to both galvanise the team and also get across a strong message about our purpose for 2012 and beyond. We achieved this on the day through a combination of shared thought, and discrete steering from Irene. Of particular benefit was the recommendation to meet with all participants in advance of the day so that the team were familiar with Irene from the start, and also to give her a flavour of the challenges. We would certainly look to build on our relationship with Irene and her excellent team. Her colleague Don, an artist, captured a lot of the content of the day in drawings so we were able to keep physical momentos as well as strong imagery in our heads as to what we had achieved on the day. For us, this was very much the start of the beginning, and we feel stronger about building on those foundations.” - Tom Cotton, MD, Technicolor UK
L’OREAL
“In Irene’s work with us at L’Oreal she has brought innovative thinking and excellent relational consulting practices into our business. She has been part of a team working on our induction programme, developing new ways to convey information and engage staff in a way that is far more congruent with our company culture.
Irene has also facilitated some high level management meetings including external clients. She is able to work with managers at all levels and inquire into the business with a challenging mindset and decode politics and culture in order to unlock further potential. She understands what motivates people and tunes into the areas that need attention whilst building confidence within teams. She is a highly energetic practitioner and brings enthusiasm and fun to her work. It is a great pleasure working with Irene and her expertise has been most valuable.
“Our recent senior management team day in London was a hugely productive day with excellent facilitators, Irene and Margaret, where we achieved a deeper understanding of our core purpose and worked through some very knotty issues – a much needed session of corporate osteopathy.” - Fabiola Pizzagallo, HR Director, L’Oreal UK & Ireland
SONGKICK
“Irene designed and facilitated a fantastic Brand Exploration and Clarification workshop for the whole company last autumn. We had tremendous fun and got some really good insights into ourselves. It energised us and made us feel very positive about the future with lots of innovative ideas to act on. Songkick is still a young company and as the product grows so does our team, we’re fortunate enough to be growing at fair old pace. About three years in to our life it occurred to us that we needed some brand thinking, a way of describing who we are, what we’re doing and why we’re doing it – it felt like the right time for these things to be set in place. We needed to set a foundation that the company could build upon, a brand philosohpy that could grow with us. We realised pretty quickly that this kind of work was best done in collaboration with people who didn’t know the ins and outs of day to day life in Songkick, people who could look in and observe our thinking and attitudes.
We were fortunate enough to find Irene and Daniel to guide us through this process. We held exploratory initial meetings so they could get a handle of our requirements. These meetings lead on to in-depth white boarding and brain storming, we felt like we were in experienced, safe hands. Irene and Daniel new the right questions to ask and were wonderfully adept at untangling and clarifying our thinking. This exploration work was laying the foundations for a day that would include the whole team at an offsite location, our Brand Day.
We like to look back here at Songkick, we learn from our mistakes and importantly celebrate our achievements. Without fail every time we look back as a team we all recall how great our Brand Day was. We explored our brand together with Irene and Daniel leading the day and taking us all through a journey of discovery, it brought us all closer to each other and galvanised what we care about and why we care about what we’re doing.
Its hard to put in to words how much impact this work has had on our team and our sense of what Songkick is to us and the outside world. It runs through the heart of everything that we do, it feels good and it feels right. We have Irene and Daniel to thank for that.
– Gideon Bullock, Design Director, SongKick.
ROYAL COLLEGE OF NURSING
“Irene facilitated three large group workshops for the RCN last year. I was both surprised and delighted with the design and the result. We had great fun but more importantly the events changed what we usually talked about. They changed how we saw ourselves. Irene has worked with the Royal College of Nursing Learning and Development Institute on team development for 18 months in a consultant capacity. Throughout the duration of the work she has worked creatively to get the best out of people. She has excelled in balancing challenge and support in every event that she has facilitated. She co-created the design of each piece of work with the Learning and Development Institute staff and this has ensured that the work can be sustained.
Irene uses multiple styles and approaches to get the most from team members. Irene is also fun to work with and not afraid to deal with more sensitive and difficult issues. Her style and approach allow staff the freedom to express their views, be creative and challenge perceptions within a safe environment. The RCN Learning and Development Institute look forward to working with Irene on future projects. - Geraldine Cunningham, Director of the Institute, Royal College of Nursing.
PERSONALLY SPEAKING
“Irene brings a great sense of energy and possibility to any group, and is very skilled at getting people to step out of their comfort zones to experiement creatively. She is one of my key speakers on innovation in business.”
- Frances Keane, Founder and Managing Director, Personally Speaking Ltd.