Graham Norris (Action In Change)

Action in Change - which is based in Wells, Somerset - has a target market of Small to Medium sized enterprises (typically 1 to 30-50 employees, T/O of £40/50K to £2M). 

As a company it uses Development & Performance Coaching to support individuals and groups of staff to develop their capacity within the work place; specifically to resolve business performance related issues.

The outcomes we aim to achieve are:

·         more productive relationships within the workplace

·         improvement in personal accountability and more clarity around who is responsible for what

·         better connection between people and teams so that performance goals are achieved

·         more high quality ideas to specific problems

·         more engagement with work

·         better sense of being responsible

·         less stress, less days off sick and higher levels of productivity

A consequence of our work is that businesses learn how to improve and develop in a sustainable way.

Our belief is that too often owners and managers spend all their time working in the business; they rarely find time to work on the business.  By working along side staff on relevant issues our aim is to help people gain greater understanding within the context of the business of how they can achieve their objectives and manage relationships within the work place.

I work as a Development & Performance Coach and am a Director of Action in Change. 

I focus on two main areas of work. I support individuals develop their capacity to achieve their personal goals, from a range of areas such as confidence, giving presentations, making career changes, improving relationships etc., and I also support teachers in schools, particularly those who have been promoted or are going for promotion.

My second area of work is within organisations, where I support individuals and teams learn how to perform effectively in order to achieve key targets that make an impact on bottom line results.  I am a licenced Practitioner of Motivational Mapping ™

I bring considerable experience of how learning and development processes should be structured: gained from training young people in employment skills within both Further Education and the Private sector environment. Within this capacity I prefer to set up a focus on learning as opposed to teaching or training styles, since I believe this has a more sustainable impact on how people behave.

I am a graduate of the Bristol Common Purpose programme. This experience helped me develop an extensive awareness of both how communities are connected and the factors which influence key strategic decisions in Commerce, Health, Education, Local Government, and the Voluntary Sector etc. The contacts that I built during that time provide me with access to an extensive network of individuals, all of whom are leaders in their field.  My Masters in Training and Development, which I also studied in Bristol, reinforced my belief that those organisations with the capacity to learn will survive and flourish, even in these harsh economic climates.

As a qualified Mediator, I have worked within communities supporting the resolution of difficult neighbourhood disputes and I use these conflict resolution skills in my development work with individuals and teams. I believes that conflict, well managed, can be a creative and constructive process, and that Learning, Change Management and Conflict will always be closely linked.

In my spare time I help run an Athletics club and am one of their senior coaches.  My speciality is combined events, so I coach across all the disciplines.  We organise the Glastonbury road run event in March, so if you fancy a 10k run around the famous tour, let me know.