Contact
- Email Address:
- Website: http://www.chrisrodgers.com
One-Line Bio
Independent consultant, business coach and author of 'Informal Coalitions'.
Biography
I work as an independent consultant and business coach, mainly helping managers to improve business performance, lead or facilitate change more insightfully, and develop their leadership capability.
I was previously a senior manager in the UK power industry, during the period of its groundbreaking privatisation and commercial development.
As a consultant, I have worked with a range of organisations in the private and public sectors, both independently and in association with global performance development consultancy, Lane4. These include such organisations as RWE npower, Shell, B&Q, UKAEA, Currys, Screwfix Direct, TXU, Vantis, Coca Cola Enterprises, British Wind Energy Association, the National School for Government and Cass Business School.
I gained an MSc in Managing Change from Sheffield Business School in 1999, and am a member of a number of professional organisations. These include the Complexity Society, the Chartered Management Institute (FCMI), the Institute of Business Consulting (MIBC), and the Association of Management Education and Development (AMED). I also run the OD Innovation Network (ODiN).
More information on my consulting practice can be found on my Company's website, at www.chrisrodgers.com.
Interests
Over recent years, I have become increasingly sceptical about the ability of rational management theory and practice to explain my everyday experience of organisational life. Nor will the prevalent project- and programme-based approaches to managing change deliver the sought-after control and predictability on which much conventional change-leadership thinking and practice depends. Informal interactions and relationships seem to me to be much more influential on organisational outcomes than established thinking allows. So are the dynamics of power and politics, and the underlying patterns of cultural assumptions. The different perspectives that I have gained from my time as an in-house manager, MSc student and practising consultant have strengthened my conviction that leaders and organisational specialists need to enlarge their perception of organisational dynamics beyond its formal, rational and structured conventions. The centrality of conversation, the impact of shadow-side dynamics and the importance of embracing paradox now sit at the heart of my consulting practice and underpin much of the content of Informal Coalitions. This weblog is primarily intended to expand on the thinking in Informal Coalitions and to explore related aspects of organizational dynamics.
