Like keeping your balance on a floating raft

imageToday’s climate is turbulent to say the least.  It is ever changing, fast moving and unpredictable, with the underscore of seeming never ending layers of bureaucracy and dwindling sources of funding.  In my doctoral research, I explored what it is that enables people and organisations to not only survive but to thrive in such uncertain situations. What is it that contributes to the resilience that provides the stability to counteract what can feel like what one of my research collaborators referred to as ‘keeping your balance on a floating raft’.

The main and consistent feature was, perhaps unsurprisingly, flexibility and responsivity.  Interesting.  In changing and challenging times, it can be difficult to simply ‘change gear’, especially when reliant upon commissioning others to help you to reach your business goals.  Often, at the point of commissioning services we can have an agenda in mind and feel clear about what and where to invest time and money.  However, the process needs to be exploratory….it needs to be reflective, enabling a change of direction and detours as necessary to respond to the unfolding dynamics and narrative twists.

Consultachameleon is a one-stop-shop for people who seek the responsivity that is necessary in the current changeable climate. It’s a flexible resource that enables the resilience to ride the waves and survive the storm and even to maximise the energy of the undercurrent.  So, if you commission Consultachameleon to write a funding bid and it is found that in order to achieve success, your policies need updating, or you need a staff handbook, or a statement of purpose, Consultachameleon can take care of that.  Saving time, saving money and surely saving additional headache.  Consultachameleon can help you to keep your balance.

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A chameleonic brand that rises to the challenge of an ever changing landscape

imageAs it’s a full moon and I’m feeling particularly creative, I decided to take a look at my brand…what it is…what I do…who for…and who with…perhaps even, who to! Chameleonism has it’s challengers…being defined as a form of mimicry….as unanchored and perhaps as nondescript. Yet for me, it has felt for a number of years like it is the ‘only’ way….the only way to fully acknowledge and value wholeness and gives permission for contradiction sometimes. The concept grew from my doctoral studies and from the outset proved problematic for some to accept…those who favour clear lines and boundaried working to a rigid professional identity – especially those who have fought hard for said identity. I understand. I understand that it is a challenge to feel that the identity that one has nurtured through tough courses of study and professional experience, can be dismissed or discounted in some way by the notion of being what I have referred to in a previous article as being ‘professionally nude’. Further, if we are metaphorically nude, how can we therefore be identified, recognised, related to….respected! For me, it’s old news. Being of mixed race parentage and growing up being asked ‘how I see myself’ has led to a comfortability in not being one thing or another. As an approach to business and personal relationships, I embraced chameleonism as an accepting, flexible and resilient way to ‘be’ and to ‘be available’ to others. How about you?