Initially, it was hard to picture how the Operating Rhythm or Management Operating System (MOS) could fit into our current work rhythm.

With change comes apprehension and we weren’t exactly sure how this change was going to work with our team. After committing myself to the implementation and going through a number of different iterations, it’s lovely to say that we’ve finally got a rhythm and management tool that’s really working well for my team.

As a manager, I’m now setting the plan, understanding variances and what actions are needed to take to address these. I am more across with how my team is currently going, what their daily activities are and assured that the work is being done. Before the MOS, I usually would not have such a clear indication on how my team are tracking against their KPIs leading into the end of financial year. I am really proud of them for working hard and embracing the change in how we operate. More importantly, their achievements and efforts are visible to everyone in the organisation.

One of the things I really enjoy is that our MOS has brought about a more collaborative culture. It has helped create an environment where my staff are more open to raising issues and resolving them amongst each other. This project has been a positive change for both myself as a Team Leader and my team. We are planning and managing our work more effectively and it is showing the results we are achieving.

As a Team Leader, I was required to work with Coxswain quite extensively both in preparation for the MOS and during its implementation. It was initially hard to dedicate the time that was required, on top of business as usual. The Coxswain team were very understanding of this and consistently assured us that our efforts would pay off in the end. The team listened to our queries and concerns and advised us on best practice approaches. They encouraged us to change the process if any element of the model was not working for us. This provided us with the confidence that this was not a one stop approach and that it was unique to our organisation and teams. The team have fully supported us to get our operating rhythm right for us and I am very happy with our end result.

A conscious, articulated and consistent operating rhythm for planning, reviewing and improving our performance.

Before engaging Coxswain Alliance, we struggled to get sustained positive outcomes from business improvement initiatives. We now realise that the best processes and the most sophisticated systems can only ever deliver to the efficiency and effectiveness of whatever management operating system (MOS) is in place. Every organisation has a MOS, whether conscious or unconscious. We had several unconscious and un-articulated management operating systems for each part of the organisation, many of which were lacking cohesion or a disciplined operating rhythm. In addition, some managers seemed to only get involved when problems occurred leaving team members feeling unsupported and unable to interact with their manager unless something went wrong.

With the implementation of our MOS and OR, we now have visibility of our performance. We have a conscious, articulated and consistent system and rhythm for reviewing, planning and improving our performance. MOS is low-tech but highly effective. We focus on people, behaviour and a consistent way of planning, reviewing and managing work. It underpins and maximises the benefit of other hi-tech system improvements. Managers no longer manage by incident, but are intentional, engaged, proactive and supportive. Staff know their work and performance against KPIs and have a predictable frequency for interacting with their manager. As a result, we can identify problems quicker and take remedial action as required. We can distribute work more evenly because we are talking about it more frequently and we are seeing genuine improvements that we believe can be sustained and continually improved upon. We have a long way to go, but are committed to continue the practice which we know can only improve over time.

We couldn’t have introduced the MOS without the drive, clarity of process and experience that came with the Coxswain Alliance representatives who embedded themselves as virtual staff members within my team (and our organisation) over a significant period of time. They we amazing to work with and we learned so much from them. They worked hard and developed relationships across the organisation at all levels. Any scepticism over whether this would work in our context was soon quashed. The business transformation is such that we sometimes wonder how we ever did our business effectively before MOS.

I thought my team was in harmony before, but now it is humming

I just wanted to let you know how much I’ve appreciated all the effort that you have provided over the past few months in assisting my team with their MOS. Your advice has been effective in providing managers with the necessary tools to operate more efficiently.

We now regularly Walk the Floor and Huddle in individual teams and together, so that the entire team is aware of current projects and KPI’s and collaborates to achieve set goals. I thought my team was in harmony before, but now it is humming.

Again, thank you and the entire Coxswain team for finding our Operating Rhythm.

Making work visible across our business

There has been a real optimism for the project, and we have really embraced our MOS. It is a hive of activity every day with Huddles or ‘Walk the Floors’ occurring as part of our Operating Rhythm.

As I have attended team Huddles, walked the floor, and through my experiences in my own Huddle I can see the benefits our MOS has brought. It has given each team a real insight into their work, what they do, what others do and how they contribute to the overall business objectives. Our teams and individuals continue to learn about themselves as well as about other teams – they have visibility across the business.

Our Huddles are also useful in understanding why things don’t always go to plan. The ‘unplanned’ work part of our VMBs are very insightful, with the team able to provide a narrative as to where things need to be improved or what things impact on them on a day-to-day basis that change a result.

Another outcome we have seen is in relation to how we report on specific issues. We have learnt that our previous way of reporting was not producing the kind of results that were meaningful to us as a team or for me as a General Manager. Our Huddle has given us the opportunity to make changes, which means the reporting is more relevant and timely.

We are still on a learning curve but we have been willing to get our Operating Rhythm and MOS up and running so it becomes the way we do it around here.

Coxswain’s honesty and unlimited energy was incredibly helpful and infectious.

We are just coming to the end of an incredible coaching and implementation program from the Coxswain Alliance team. We had an unbelievable task ahead of us: to rapidly release untapped production capacity in the shortest intervention time imaginable.

The experience of the team and thier willingness to understand our dilema was great. They also really challenged our mindsets and assumptions – we went from being pretty defeatist to having hope that the problem would be solved utlimately if we stuck with the processes, the SIC tools and the focus and disciplines shared.

Given the short time window, we had to move fast and pulled together. Coxswain’s honesty and unlimited energy was incredibly helpful and infectious. I can see the impact on my team as they start to say, “we did it ourselves, all we needed was a little coaching.

From top to shop floor

My initial introduction to Coxswain Alliance was during a site wide organisation restructure at a large open cut coal mining operation where Jonathan, Peter, and co. were engaged to assist site to ‘navigate the change’ and deliver the targeted productivity improvements.

What sets Coxswain Alliance apart from other consultants is their approach. They get involved in process from the top by engaging senior management, right down to shop floor level, where they utilise a hands on approach mentoring and spending time with the work teams to ensure the changes add value, target the right areas, and are sustainable.

Short interval control, and parts staging were instrumental in delivering the productivity improvements. I have since utilised Jonathan and Peter to assist with implementing short interval control and parts staging at a number of other sites which has delivered similar productivity improvements.

The insights we needed

The journey of MOS has been both such a challenging and rewarding experience. As a leader I thought I knew everything about my business however the MOS tools and principles have given me the ability to look at my business from a whole new lens.

We can now report on such a granular level which has provided us with the ability to have quality conversations with our front line staff. The leaders are better equipped to review and assess performance gaps and achievements.

I would like to thank the MOS team for all of their support throughout our journey. They were up for every challenge we threw their way and came back for more with a smile of their faces. Thank you for your sheer determination to support and assist us, you have worked tirelessly and extremely long hours. Thank you for everything!

Seeing my team reach their potential

The MOS Team has made such an incredible difference in the team and culture here – both with their insights into the management culture and by providing a really positive and calming influence.

As a new leader, it has been an incredible journey to watch unfold and I really believe that the implementation of the action plans are something that are sustainable that help drive business results as well as uplifting the operations staff.

The thing that I’ve enjoyed most about the MOS experience is really seeing my team reach their potential and be better managers. They’ve been able to develop their own skills and I think that our team overall is much better for it. We have learnt values of accountability and really following up and owning actions – something which is even aligned with the Group values!

I think the MOS journey has really brought up the standard of management and leadership to a level that would be expected and I thank Jono in particular for assisting us and being a really great desk buddy and friend throughout the process!

The itch I couldn’t scratch

My first impression of the SIC (Short Interval Control) process introduced to our maintenance team was here we go again. Another consultant mob coming in to take the cash and introduce their system, that creates more work but offers no value.

Jono was our mentor and after a few weeks I called him “The Itch I couldn’t Scratch”. He was like a dog with a bone and regardless of how disinterested or negative we were, he pushed us to change and use the SIC to improve our business performance.

The SIC process was as hard to push across our Supervisors as it was for us, however 3 months after the SIC introduction the Supervisors were seeing the benefits. Our crews were suddenly working to allocated time durations and calling in with regular updates on progress. This meant production had up to date information regarding the return to work of their critical equipment, and so minimising loss of production with machine movement.

I have now started with a new Company and happy to say that I have introduced the SIC process with positive results yet again.

Persons need to be held accountable for the SIC to work, so from the biggest doubter to greatest advocate, the process works.

Really effective people-leaders

Although our MOS program officially closed up over a year ago, it really seems like last week. It was such an intense time, getting a huge amount of work started and completed in timeframes that ordinarily you would baulk at. This is where the support and training from Coxswain more than made up for the hectic pace, with their tools and experience proving to be invaluable for us in our MOS journey.

Our team still follows most of the design as installed during our MOS program. Some things we changed, others no longer required. But at the core most of the processes and tools are still at work, and the leaders that developed during the program are still here doing their thing – driving to interval controlled, performance based outcomes.

Possibly the best thing about MOS is that it makes people leaders into really effective people leaders, and that is something I think will keep paying dividends for many years to come.

Consistent contribution

When we started MOS in our area, it was hard at the beginning, considering you are expected to do your BAU duties. The implementation of MOS fundamentals, like finding the “lost time” and the “walk the floor”, consistently allowed better engagement and productivity within the work place. Thank you team.

MOS spans continents and cultures

MOS taught me practices and behaviours that can be applied across work and life. Having been part of a very successful MOS installation I was able to carry these skills into my everyday life when my family took on the challenge of living in India.

One of our constant challenges was the food shopping. It is not as simple as walking into a ‘one stop’ supermarket like Woolworths. Fresh fruit and vegetable were purchased from our local vendors but breakfast cereal was only stocked by a store on a main road notorious for traffic jams. In a predominately Hindu culture there were only two butchers who stocked beef and both were a 2-3 hour drive away.

Some things were easy to shop for but others were quite a challenge and required planning and coordination. So applying the MOS practices not only at work but shopping became very important. Firstly you would formulate your plan, applying short interval control as you progressed through the day and then at the end of the day you would assess how you did in achieving your goals. If you didn’t plan well and adapt you would often end up having sat in a traffic jam all day and achieved little.

In a non-English speaking, culturally diverse country the Engaged Management behaviours of listening, setting clear direction and problem solving became an integral part of life.

Applying the MOS practices and behaviours helped us adapt and enjoy the truly remarkable India.

I’m a better manager

I want to thank the Coxswain Alliance people for working closely with me to understand what we were trying to achieve. They were patient, never made us feel stupid and, most importantly, understood our business. There were many times I challenged the changes that were recommended but this was never a problem. We had open and honest conversations and, more importantly, all the changes I have made to my business have been for the better.

I am a better manager, I am now leading my team, I know my numbers and I am now allocating work evenly to all my staff. Prior to Coxswain, my staff would go through our workload and pick and choose what claims they would work on. They enjoy our new way of working because everyone is doing the same amount of work. I can now be away and my staff understands our priorities for the day.

I now have the confidence to go to any business unit and implement what I have learnt from Coxswain Alliance.

Nuggets of gold

My team of business analysts supported the rollout of MOS to our claims teams through providing operational reports and insights. Although we weren’t ‘MOS-ed’ ourselves, we watched first hand the transformation occurring within the teams. Coxswain Alliance shared numerous nuggets of gold in their day to day interactions with us, and so I decided to tailor some of these tools and methodologies to introduce them for my own team.

We introduced daily check-ins which allowed me to connect with my staff more consistently and drive accountability to improve their quality of work. I also self-timed our repeatable activities which identified capacity at certain times of the week and month. This lead us to strategically plan ahead and set realistic timeframes for our stakeholders in responding to their requests.

Strategically, my team have a clearer focus on the longer term goals and the desired outcomes; operationally we have become more efficient with our time management and allocation of work; culturally we have become more aligned through transparency and accountability; and personally I feel that I have become a more effective leader in the midst of much change and uncertainty.

The science behind decisions

Partnering with Coxswain Alliance was a great experience and gave me the skills needed to become a good leader by engaging, enabling and empowering our team. It gave me the tools to prioritise and allocate work to match the team’s capacity, which resulted in successful business integration.

Working with CA gave me access to highly skilled and motivated specialists who taught me new ways of working and the science behind their decisions. They provided support and training so that I was able to actively drive change and improvement within the organisation.

Personally, Peter and Jonathan became good friends and mentors to me. They are very professional and have knowledge and business acumen across a varied market, and share their learning through interesting storytelling.

These skills can also help you outside of work. I was asked to organise maintenance and working bee at a school and using a whiteboard I was able to plan and track our progress during the day. We used estimate timings to work out how long chores would take, and reassigned tasks during the day so that all work was completed.

I Love MOS!

We introduced MOS in our business in August 2014. Personally I turned from a sceptic in the beginning to a converted very quickly, thanks to Coxswain Alliance. Since then we have realised many benefits, just to name a few:

1.  We achieved 29% capacity saving since August 2014.
2.  Our service standards have improved dramatically.
3.  We’ve been receiving appreciation emails from our brokers on regular basis.
4.  We achieved and maintained nil backlog work state.
5.  We used the realised capacity to uplift our people’s capability.
6.  Uplifted morale and reduced absenteeism.

So I love MOS, to say the least. I would recommend MOS to any business and household. I use MOS principles in my home, my 14-year old daughter is a true advocate. She uses MOS principles for her study planning.

I contribute our success to partnering with Coxswain Alliance! They are passionate, experienced and result driven. Most importantly, they care!

Making Everest a mole hill

Problem solving and change management in large teams, across a number of departments, including a number of companies, resembles Mt Everest standing in front of you. The people involved come with their own opinions, biases and ability to adopt change. Being so overwhelmed by what faced me, I struggled on how to take the first step.

My success began when I worked with Coxswain Alliance to adopt an improvement program in Warehousing & Heavy Maintenance focused on Parts Staging, which brought a number of different departments and contractor teams together in an effort to overcome an incredible amount of equipment downtime being caused by parts availability. What became apparent is Mt Everest can become a mole hill when I simply brought together the individuals from many teams, departments and companies, face to face, to have an goal focused, empowered conversation by communicating the work they were already doing in isolation from each other.

Now, as I’ve moved into a new company, these challenging problems and change management requirements emerge more regularly as I support many customers. By having proven to myself with Coxswain’s help and guidance, what seems like such an obvious approach to begin working through these challenges continues to be the most effective one.

Bring the individuals, departments and companies together and have the conversation. The time spent face to face, with the right prior preparation, is the beginning to every problem being solved, and my time working alongside Coxswain Alliance provided me with the skills and experience, and bank this for use ever since.

A MOS’d marathon

As a part of the MOS project, I have come to realise that many of the learning’s that I have gained from MOS can be applied in my personal life.

An example of this has been with my running. I am a keen runner and run 1 or 2 marathons per year. Generally speaking, when I prepared for a marathon, my planning would have been very minimal i.e. try and run as much as I could. This was giving me good results but I was well short of my goal of running a sub 3 hour marathon.

Since seeing the great results during the MOS project of spending the appropriate time to have a detailed work plan, I now sit down months before the marathon and put together a detailed training plan.

The plan includes which days I will run, length of run, speed of run including intervals sessions etc. The plan has easy weeks and hard weeks and is all based on scientific principles with the aim of maximising the training benefit.

Together with having a much more structured and scientific training plan, I also ensure I regularly review (weekly or fortnightly) my training and the results that it is providing. That is, what has gone well, what do I want to continue, what hasn’t gone well and what needs to change. This regular analysis allows much more understanding of what I need to do in coming weeks to get better and helps me adjust the training plan accordingly.

Whilst I just missed the sub 3 hour marathon in my last attempt (3:00:55), I am confident that if I keep planning and regularly reviewing my training that it wont be too long before the goal is achieved.

To a new level

In the lead up to my partnering with Coxswain Alliance I had just completed my Masters and taken an internal promotion. As far as I could tell there wasn’t a great deal more to learn. How wrong that assumption would prove to be.

My introduction to MOS took my leadership to a new level as I developed an operating rhythm that drove process efficiencies across my business. I was able to identify lost time and implement service improvements as a result of the information I now understood how to use. The MOS for me was the stitching that I needed to tie together the many other things I had picked up on my management journey.

Scheduling dinner

I’ve taken my MOS learning home – my family plan so that I know when to cook family dinner.

Situation: Kids & husband who are busy and not always at home.
Result: Meals get prepared and cooked – and no one to eat them. Frustrated me and waste at home.
Solution: The Dinner Roster – the kids and husband indicate on the planner on the fridge when they are going to be home, so that meals can be planned.
New mantra: Plan – or no dinner!
Result: Less wasted effort and food – happier me.

A career highlight

The timing of the MOS project in my area coincided with me being promoted into a new role as National Customer Service Manager. Not only was I now managing a team of over 60 people, in a new and unknown area, I was also leading a 12 week behavioural and process change program.

Feeling daunted would be an understatement, however the two MOS consultants working in my area were outstanding. They were very experienced managers with extensive backgrounds and knew my head was spinning. Not only did they assist me with managing the project and leading the change, they also assisted me quickly understand my new area, provided me with insights, coaching, personal feedback, suggestions of how I could do things better and generally just watched out for me. I felt like I had 2 full time personal career coaches by my side!

The consultants worked with me and my management team. It was a genuine partnership and we formed a strong bond. Never did we feel that something was “being done” to us or we were being told what to do, but rather we were working on the business together for an improved result.

I look back on the project and see it as a career highlight and a big turning point. Not only was the project extremely successful, both in increased area productivity and customer service standards, but it provided me with a toolkit of theoretical and practical management training that has benefitted my career ever since.

A Coxswain project is focused on realising the benefits and that the leaders are equipped to deliver it.

A Lean/SixSigma practitioner is really great at the Define, Measure and Analyse parts of an efficiency focused project. We get into the Improve phase and from this point things get tougher. The tools and practices part of a Coxswain Alliance project are all about Improve. Find simple solutions and operationalise them with the leaders - management led. The DMAIC process and time constraints - on a big DMAIC you’ve already been going for 6+ months - mean that we generally can’t allow for the embedding required because that takes time. A Coxswain program delivers many great things, but most valuably it dedicates 90+% of the elapsed time to managing the change. No change manager and fancy comms. people either. Coxswain Alliance works on the behaviours of leaders, and coaches them closely so they can maintain the change. An LSS practitioner isn’t generally a strong manager of change. Unlike DMAIC, a Coxswain project is focused on realising the benefits and that the leaders are equipped to deliver it.

The benefits, be it short term or long term are worth the journey for any business and its employees at all levels.

For a business division such as Assets which focuses on construction related tasks, it is always challenging to develop and maintain systems and practices that assist the division to visually assess progress and performance of day to day operations. The work with Coxswain has helped consolidate internal systems and practices into a much more synchronised and scheduled operating rhythm that has now driven the Asset Division to become much more structured and disciplined in the way in which we manage daily, weekly and monthly operations.

Coxswain has helped us to step outside of the day to day grunt work for a short period of time and take a holistic view of what we do, what we must focus on and most importantly help us structure a rhythm/routine of operations that is underpinned by a discipline to maintain that rhythm under all circumstances.

The work with Coxswain can create trepidation initially however the benefits, be it short term or long term are worth the journey for any business and its employees at all levels.

Our services have a greater community impact than ever before thanks to consultants Coxswain Alliance!

Our team of case management specialists work hard to prevent and resolve people’s homelessness every day. Having a home provides a stable base which we all need to be safe, to live and to prosper.

So it’s critical that we know how well we are doing in supporting people to find a home and get life back on track.

The Coxswain project helped us increase real time visibility of our progress and to focus on improving our success rate.

Tools such as the Visible Management Boards have made us more nimble and responsive to meet short term challenges.

Better tracking and reporting tools mean we can now measure the impact of new interventions or service models.

And over the longer term we’ll be able to map seasonal trends and be prepared for what’s coming over the horizon.

Chris, Phil, Dan and the team immersed themselves in our work to understand our service and then helped us navigate through a management operating system and an operating rhythm that aligns with our service design. The results work for the case work team members as well as managers.

We can see the difference we are making!

From an operational and personal perspective, the benefits of this program have been invaluable for me. I have learned to utilise tools I already had and new ones learned to monitor performance and workload on an hourly basis throughout the day.

I have gained a more holistic view of the contact centre and am able to manage multiple different functions throughout the day easily after embedding the changes Phil taught me. I have been able to implement these into my personal life also, which was chaotic to say the least, including a VMB on my wall at home that keeps the family on track with everything. I went into this program with an open mind, but sceptical, in the end I am a better leader, coach and person, with clear streamlined processes and procedures in place at the workplace and an organised schedule at home.

My favourite take out of all of this was reporting tools, VMB and calculation of fuel for the day versus workload. I am more confident in my role as a leader, team member and as part of the wider business due to the extensive work with Phil. Some of it was difficult and required quite a bit of change in processes and mindset and required time I really didn't have to implement what I was learning, but I am so grateful I was given the opportunity and dedicated the time required because the change to me both personally and professionally has been dramatic and has been noticed on numerous levels.

If you're looking for business improvements, best practice, up to date reporting techniques, leadership development, operational improvements and so much more, I could not recommend Phil more highly. PS - Huddles are essential. Understand productivity is essential, multiple check ins throughout the day are essential and empowering yourself and your team is essential .... essential for success within yourself and for your business.

Coxswain Alliance team throughout the project have enabled the diverse teams in Finance and Corporate Services to clearly identify their outcomes, their challenges and areas for continuous improvement.

They have done this through proactive engagement with staff in a manner that made it difficult to hide – this was great as it forced many out of their comfort zone to make time to think and plan what they are doing and how it may impact on other areas. A common comment from the teams is that they have learned a lot about what they do now and how they want to do it in the future.

For years, we have heard “You supervisors need to be able to do more with less” and “the business needs to reduce the unit cost per ton”.

Every day we would talk about targets and performance. The issue was these conversations were occurring in retrospect and only with a specific part of the team. These conversations were happening after the horse had bolted!! We had the right intent, the intent was to understand the variance from our planned production targets, and the problem was the conversation occurred after it was too late to implement the required change to address the variance.

Working with Coxswain Alliance, I now understand that to be more successful in achieving the organisational targets, goals and objectives, the entire workforce needs to have the context and expectation of what our production targets are for the shift and must be engaged and consulted at regular intervals to identify variance from what we have as planned performance.

As a Production Supervisor using Short Interval Control techniques, I feel far more engaged with my frontline workforce, and the entire team now have a sense of ownership and personal responsibility to achieve our production targets. Each member of our work groups understands what they need to achieve to ensure overall team success and compliance to plan. Now the larger workgroup is more proactive in identifying bottlenecks in our production process, and are receptive to new ideas and less resistant to change.

If you have not done it…… you are not doing it!

It has been over a year since our business finished the MOS program and the ongoing benefits realised from the program have been maintained and in some cases improved. The 14-week program is an outstanding leadership program to improve operational efficiency, leadership capability and business acumen.

The program is structured effectively to allow a business review all operational processes and challenge the status quo. During the program our leaders were involved in daily coaching sessions, process re-design workshops, role playing scenarios and training sessions to effectively analyse and improve business performance.

One-on-one coaching sessions where leaders are shadowed for entire days, allow leaders to reflect on the effectiveness and structure of their working day. Workshops reviewing all activities by leaders and teams open up healthy discussions on the real value of actions, meetings, reports etc. to monitor performance on a daily basis.

The number of Coxswain consultants readily available to support the management team during the program resulted in significant improvements in leadership performance over a short period of time. It is an invaluable program to raise the base capability of any leadership team. Leaders are challenged daily (while supported) to run their team assuming it was their own business. This challenges leaders to expand their thinking beyond processing transactions or 1:1s and spend more time focussing on intra-day and daily performance, trend analysis and strategic thinking.

Change management during this program is delivered in a considered a tailored fashion to suit the business. Regular updates and transparency build an inclusive culture during the program to ensure all team members in the business are kept informed. Team members also experienced increased levels of support from their leaders as Coxswain consultants coach leaders on alternative ways to interact and encourage their team members on a daily basis.

The program has been an invaluable development opportunity for leaders in our business. The detailed analysis by leaders and improved capability around judgement and critical thinking has resulted in operational performance improvements of over 20% year-on-year. It is an intensive 14-week, program that challenges the capability of leaders. However, the benefits for leaders and their career development are invaluable. I firmly believe that if your business has not completed a MOS program (or similar), then it is highly unlikely that you are maximising operational and business performance in your company.

Connecting with Coxswain Alliance was one of the best the decisions the organisation has made.

Engaging Peter and Phil has helped us truly understand how everyone and everything can work together to optimise performance; ultimately creating a more uplifting work environment due to greater clarity and integration of our people and systems.

Before working with Coxswain Alliance, you may think you have identified the issue and may have an idea in your head how it could be solved - but Peter and Phil offer an objective, fresh, detached lens to the situation that is invaluable to identify the most appropriate and effective way forward to optimise performance.

Working with Coxswain Alliance has not only been extremely beneficial to the business but also inspiring and useful for one's own professional learning and development.

On a personal note, it has been one of the most influential and impactful encounters I've had in my professional journey to date. It was short but certainly very 'sweet' - and one to remember. Thank you again Phil and Peter.

As a Manager working with a newly formed structure of “freshly minted” Team Leaders, at the onset of COVID & with a client cohort of vulnerable people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, the Coxswain project couldn’t have come at a better time.

It was a great experience for me to watch & learn from Dan & Lain. Your engagement in the support of the Team Leaders & the development of processes to assist us in our work will result in continuous & practical improvement.

I particularly appreciated & valued your engaged & engaging style of consultancy. The impact & learning, particularly for the Team Leaders, was & is palpable. I thank you so much for supporting them with new ideas, tools & the motivation to do things differently, think more broadly & reflect on how they can change & improve their own & collective management work practices. Their confidence, growth & progression in the management framework is a joy to watch.

I learnt so much as well & was extremely grateful to have you both there as a support for the whole of staff & also within the organisation. I felt I was heard around the total complexity of the work/homeless services we provide & get traction on reviewing, fine tuning & improving the delivery of better outcomes for clients, a more harmonious leadership team & general staff engagement. As you know I am so impressed with the tool you assisted in developing of that maps the clients story from homelessness to housing. The benefits are broad ranging for clients, staff & the organisation. The mechanisms you encouraged us to use regularly to develop both Team Leader & staff cohesion are working beautifully.

While there were some difficulties with this consult being purely digital the outcomes were of great benefit. It would have been great to have met on site but this didn’t hamper the development of very open & effective communication, a mutual understanding & respect & most importantly very valuable outcomes.

Thanks again.