cases
A few of the cases I worked on in recent years.
Do you recognise these situations and would you like to know more about my approach?
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WHAT I INHERITED:
A LARGE PROGRAMME, LITTLE TRACTION
When I took over as programme manager for internationalisation, I found an extensive action plan that was producing little. Covid had shifted priorities within months, the hardest projects had been postponed, and nobody had taken the lead.
Where I made the difference:
A thorough review: progress per project, bottlenecks mapped, collaboration surveyed
Clear mandates and roles for each project
A new way of meeting: minutes are not a summary for those absent, but a list of clear agreements
Agreements on quality assurance
Support for the priority projects across the departments involved
Results:
A new Single Point of Contact within a few months
Self-managing teams for each project
Fewer meetings, thanks to a more efficient way of working together
After two years, 34 of the 38 action points were complete: from pilot project to standard practice
inclusive recruitment:
strengthening MANAGERS
Dozens of managers who occasionally sit on a selection panel. Each with their own approach. And HR policy made every team an ever closer reflection of its own team coach.
Where I made the difference:
Coordinating and expert role in the pilot project
Bringing in external expertise, focused on migration background and gender
Securing knowledge retention
Translating the pilot's results into an in-house training offer for managers
Continuous evaluation and adjustment of the process afterwards
Results:
A new HR policy: a clear break with the old selection processes
A handbook for managers on selecting candidates
A training offer on bias and stereotypes
Transfer from department level to organisation level
New mechanisms for quality assurance
NEURO-INCLUSIVE POLICY:
FROM ONE-OFF TO EMBEDDED PRACTICE
A valuable initiative that had grown from the ground up had no place within the organisation. It offered colleagues with ADHD, autism or other neurodivergent traits a space to share experiences and tips. But the group flew under the radar, and few people inside the organisation knew it existed.
Where I made the difference:
Involving management and policy officers
Getting budget and mandate clear
Strengthening the core team of volunteers
Translating lived experience into concrete policy proposals
Results:
Many times more activities recognising and supporting neurodivergent colleagues
A sharp rise in the number of volunteers and members
A new online platform for colleagues: events, training, tips and tricks
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES TEAMS:
INTEGRATING AND STRENGTHENING LOCAL WORK
Colleagues who see each other once a month are not yet a team. People felt more attached to their local base than to the organisation. Barely engaged for the most part, and at times not very loyal to their own employer.
Where I made the difference:
Stakeholder survey: mapping what partners expect
Research into the evidence for the core task package: outreach, advice, ambassadorship and so on
Co-creation around the design process for the job profile and the service offer
Interim evaluation
Results:
An annual action plan for shared priorities and service quality assurance
A rebrand of our department
New partnership charters with local partners: mutual commitments
The new department embedded within the organisation
A new job description
Core tasks strengthened: advice, networking and training
Core tasks without demonstrable added value dropped
Modern organisation design:
Inclusive, self-managing and shared leadership
The starting point was clear: the organisation had grown too large to keep working in silos. The solution seemed obvious too. More self-management, less hierarchy. And strong local teams able to respond flexibly to what the end user needs.
The process that followed proved anything but simple. That is to be expected in an organisation with a great many specialisms and a large number of teams.
Where I made the difference:
Coaching leadership: helping people grow into ownership and self-leadership
Quality assurance and delivery of change management
Clear reporting and knowledge retention
Setting up a cross-cutting, multidisciplinary expert unit (the inclusion antennae)
Results:
Shared leadership, sociocratic decision-making and agile collaboration introduced
New roles and positions
A framework of agreements on collaboration
A structural approach to retaining knowledge on highly specialised topics
A more inclusive, more approachable front desk
MULTI-YEAR PLANS AND POLICY FRAMEWORKS:
AN INTEGRATED, GROUP-SPECIFIC APPROACH
Today I work with an approach that cuts across target groups. I do that precisely because I have years of experience both in working with those groups and in developing policy frameworks for them.
That covers disability, including in the workplace, age, migration background, religion, gender, neurodivergence such as ADHD or autism, and also social background or travelling communities.
What I learned: sometimes you need a scalpel, a tightly focused framework for one group. But more often an organisation needs a Swiss army knife, several instruments in one coherent whole.
My experience taught me that many organisations miss the bigger picture. They jump from problem to solution too quickly, and never build a structural, integrated approach to inclusion.
CASEWORK ON LEGISLATION:
FROM ENFORCEMENT TO AMBITION
Complying with equal opportunities legislation is not negotiable. Today I support organisations and companies with their compliance and risk management, because I used to sit on the other side of the table. I handled discrimination cases and negotiated with employers, estate agents and schools. I also gave proactive advice, to make a real difference to how they approached inclusion.
I analysed more than 4,000 discrimination reports and handled several hundred cases from start to finish.