Realising what matters
Critical-analytical friendship
finding your way in challenging times
We provide critical-analytical friendship to support individuals, leadership teams and organisations clear paths and create the space to realise their personal and organisational visions.
In increasingly unpredictable social and commercial landscapes, we believe that leaning into complexity and centring humanity is the route to sustainable and impactful activity.
introductory offer
Sounding Board – for advice and support
Try our Sounding Board service for independent, confidential advice and practical support to help you move forward with immediate challenges.
A free introductory session of 45 minutes
plus three 1-hour sessions for just £250.
Why work with ADNOVAR?
Take one step back and two steps forward
Are you stuck, blocked or in need of orientation? There are times when personal proximity to problems or personal investment in ambitions limit our perspective and consume all our energy without us getting where we want to be.
Sit down with us and let us share the strain and free up your brain, helping you take a step back in order to move forward more boldly.
With a human-centred approach, we start with understanding where the people we are dealing with are - where their energy is bound-up and tied down - because the way forward is often located inside of what’s holding things back.
Get to grips wherever it sticks
With a deeper understanding and fresh perspective, we can apply our decades of organisational experience, across for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, to help you work on whatever aspects of organisational functioning come into play in the situation you are addressing.
Our expertise includes all major areas, and the inter-dynamics which often exist between them, including: finances, governance, relationships, equality, diversity and inclusion, brand, client/user satisfaction, roles and restructuring, and crisis-management.
Realise what matters
Nothing keeps a project powering forward like the experience of making an impact in the ways you intended, and nothing undermines it quite like watching your mission disappear over the horizon.
So whether we’re supporting you directly with working towards your vision, or assisting you in tackling operational challenges that divert activity and energy away from your goals, we are always keeping in mind our own defining mission: to help you or your organisation do what you need to do keep making your mark in the ways that really matter.
Challenges we have faced befofre
The work we do is complex, multi-faceted and touches on many areas. The following gives you a sense of the types of issues we have worked on.
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Whistleblowing investigations
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Governance and board reviews
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Managing staff rupture and conflict
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Balancing life and work
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Generating revenue and managing cashlfow
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Embedding principles
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Mediation and negotiation
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Strategic and business planning
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Research and evaluation
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Client/service-user/member satisfaction
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Crisis management
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Brand and marketing reviews
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Equality, diversity and inclusion
Services
The detail of the work we do will vary, depending on whether we are working at a one-to- one, leadership or organisation level. In every case, our goal is to create conditions that increase your freedom of movement, through honest, courageous thinking, talking and connecting; “going slow to go fast”, so as to get to the heart of matters, and minimise shallow fixes that may reinforce existing difficulties.
One-to-one, supporting individuals
Meeting regularly on a one-to-one basis, in complete confidence, over a set timeframe on agreed areas and/or what the day brings.
Actions might include:
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Generating, reviewing, embedding principles
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Building strong, authentic, meaningful relationships that can power your work
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Managing and processing rupture and conflict as a source of growth
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Balancing life and work to ensure availability of necessary energy
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Building resilience and confidence to move with boldness and sensitivity to new conditions
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Growing satisfaction and enjoyment of activity
Senior teams
Meeting as a group to work on a set of agreed issues or day-to-day problems.
In addition to the above, actions might include:
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Sharing and solving problems
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Assessing opportunity and risk
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Testing ideas and approaches
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Making difficult decisions
Organisations
Developing, implementing and managing strategic plans grounded in values and focused on social impact. Working across the organisation to support this process.
In addition to the above, actions might include:
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Mediating, negotiating and supporting change
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Restructuring roles, departments and organisations
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Working through different leadership approaches
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Refocusing and renewing mission, values and vision
Realising what matters
We provide critical-analytical friendship to support individuals, leadership teams and organisations clear paths and create the space to realise their personal and organisational visions.
With decades of experience of supporting and running for-profit and not-for-profit ventures, we will help you broaden and deepen your view of your situation, to identify points of entry and leverage, free up energy, and navigate forward, so that you can get on with what matters most to you, and set aside what doesn’t.
The top-level elements of our approach are:
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Exploration and analysis of surface and below-the-surface indicators of the current situation
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Formulating understanding and generating actions
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Monitoring and responding to unfolding impact
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Reviewing impact and horizon-scanning
The detail of the work we do will vary, depending on whether we are working at a one-to- one, leadership or organisation level. In every case, our goal is to create conditions that increase your freedom of movement, through honest, courageous thinking, talking and connecting; “going slow to go fast”, so as to get to the heart of matters, and minimise shallow fixes that may reinforce existing difficulties.
The kinds of activities this may entail are shown below, in relation to individual, senior leadership and organisation level interventions.
Meet nick AND BETh
Nick Carley
Having begun my career as a youth worker and careers counsellor, I have a strong empathic, emotionally-intelligent and creative approach, based on a foundation of active listening. I’m an energetic entrepreneur with 30 years’ experience setting up and running businesses in a number of sectors including consultancy, IT, training, public relations, communications, community-consultation, and research and insight.
I have strong analytical skills, am quick to understand complex situations, identify issues and offer solutions. I am client-focused with an ability to interpret needs, both articulated and un-articulated, with great one-to-one interpersonal skills.
I am a very active chair of a London-based charity, the Minster Centre, which trains counsellors and psychotherapists, where I have been chair of the board for six years and a board member for eight years, working closely with the Chief Executive on a range of issues.
I enjoy problem-solving and conflict-resolution, as well as creative strategy work, and derive a great deal of satisfaction providing support and practical help to organisations that are trying to make a positive difference in the world.
Beth Carley, PhD
I am an integratively-trained psychotherapist, and my work at Adnovar involves contributing my skills in observing and analysing personal and relational dynamics to identify openings and possibilities that are subtle, hidden, denied or embryonic.
Prior to training as a therapist, I worked in profit and not-for profit environments in communications and governance, before undertaking academic research on community organising. I am fascinated and motivated by the challenge of helping people to discover within themselves and their relationships the wisdom they need to live and work meaningfully.