The art of growth and transformation

Helping people and organisations grow and transform through Lean Change, Authentic Communication, Self-Organising, and Men’s Work.

The challenge of change

After more than a decade in change management, I took a year off in 2023. While ostensibly helping corporate clients implement change successfully, I'd become increasingly disillusioned. Time and again, programmes failed to deliver their intended outcomes - often leaving employees and leaders exhausted, burnt out, or even ill.

To understand why, I started writing a book: Change Sucks. Because for most people, it does. But not changing? That sucks even more.

Change is now a constant in organisational life. The challenge isn't just supporting people through the discomfort and pain of change - it's helping them see it as an opportunity for personal and organisational growth.

Change Communications

Before working in change, I ran a digital marketing agency for 12 years, helping technology companies grow. It was called S-Group. The S stood for sales - because that's what our clients actually needed, not marketing.

I called our approach Inside Out Marketing, because an organisation's internal reality must be congruent with how it is experienced externally. If not, customers don't trust it. Your people are your brand, because they create the customer experience - which is your brand in action.

This thinking led me to Internal Marketing – applying marketing principles to engage employees. We sought to understand their needs and communicate authentically so they felt heard and respected.

I believe that people and organisations already have the answers they need to grow and transform. Sometimes, they just need help bring these answers to the surface and understand what’s holding them back.

Julian Sharples

Find out more about me

How I can help

Lean Change

I work with organisations, from start-ups to corporates, that are open to exploring more effective ways of engaging with change. I work with the people directly impacted by change to co-create and implement solutions.

Change Communications

I work with senior leaders on major change and transformation programmes to develop communication and engagement strategies. I can also work creatively and flexibly as a one-person comms and engagement team.

Self-Organising

I work with start-up founders to enable them to stay focused on what they’re good at and what they love as their company grows, without getting bogged down in bureaucracy and people management.

Men's Work

I want to challenge the narrative of what it is to be a successful man in a work setting, and help men find healthier and more satisfying ways of fulfilling their roles, which are also beneficial to the organisation.

My clients include:

Julian fizzes with inspired creativity. Your business issue will spark a discussion that spins off in any number of surprising and useful directions before delivering the elegant insight or solution you need. Julian is a good listener, a perceptive lateral thinker and a charismatic, humorous presenter.

Advisory Board Member, Media start-up

Perspectives

Where are your change programme stakeholders on the Head/Heart Matrix?

Lean Change

Where are your change programme stakeholders on the Head/Heart Matrix?

In a recent discussion about winning ‘hearts and minds’, I sketched out this simple 2x2 matrix that plots alignment against engagement.

Authentic communication: Ten questions for change leaders.

Communication

Authentic communication: Ten questions for change leaders.

I invite leaders of change and transformation programmes to answer these ten essential questions when considering how to communicate more authentically:

Personal stories are more persuasive than facts.

Communication

Personal stories are more persuasive than facts.

A headline from The Guardian yesterday caught my eye: “Researchers believe personal stories are more persuasive than facts alone in addressing vaccine scepticism.” Of course they are.

Mel Robbins

Growth is painful. Change is painful. But nothing is as painful as staying stuck somewhere that you don't belong.

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