Diving deep into the reality of transformation – introducing George Collins

I first met George when she was working at Swindon Borough Council – a small unitary authority with a visionary CEO and council leaders with an eye on transforming the way work was done. “It was such a pivotal time for me” George says. ““It was my first experience in genuine OD (organisational development) work, and we were pushing the frontiers”. It was here that George discovered the concept of Vertical Development, and the whole field of systemic constellations.

When I look back at the work we did in Swindon, it remains a reference point for the difference it can make when OD and policy pull in the same direction: the work in Swindon included experiments in cross-system placed based working, bringing together often disparate organisations and teams to make change possible. The groundbreaking work with family interventions became featured in the book Radical Help by Hilary Cottam. It took bold thinking, political support, and deep collaboration to make this come about. “My role was to support the strategic leadership development that enabled these new ways of working to bear fruit” George recalls.

George’s interest in people, and specifically in behaviour  at work, runs very deep. “I’ve been a psychologist since schooldays; inspired by my mum’s interest” she says. From A-level, through her undergraduate years, George majored in psychology, culminating in her MSc in Occupational Psychology. The Masters was “a massively helpful foundation for all of my work in HR practice”. George is also fully qualified by the CIPD, as well as holding registration with the British Psychological Society.  More recently she’s deepened her OD learning, becoming qualified in organisational dynamics and developmental frameworks and practices. This is where George’s explorations of vertical development and constellations have become fields of interest and expertise. George describes constellations as “deep soul work” and vertical development as holding a place “especially close to my heart”.

“Vertical development and constellations are rich ways of working with the reality of systems” George says. “The more we can help people to see more of the system within their organisation and beyond its borders, the more fully they can inhabit their leadership and contribute to effective performance and change”. These are very much growing and living edges for George, and she is always up for a conversation about how vertical development or constellations can fit into your organisational thinking.

For all her passion for these frontiers, you can be assured that George is also thoroughly practical and pragmatic about effective change. She draws on 25 years of experience in organisations in financial services, consumer goods, FMCG brands and foods. She’s worked within specialist roles of HR such as L&D, talent, leadership and OD and found her sweet spot in developing people and organisations in times of turbulence and transformation. “I’ve been around long enough to know what works and what doesn’t in HR” she says. “I’m sceptical about silos and gatekeepers, that just doesn’t get the work done”. George brings a passion for co-creation on the ground with teams doing the actual work of change – you can expect to find George with her sleeves rolled up alongside the leaders who make the change work in practice.

“Another pivotal point in my career was  from my time at Yeo Valley” George says. “It was a great opportunity to work on a genuinely purpose led transformation and newly implemented co-ownership model George is a great Thinking Partner when you’re setting out on any purpose led change. She’s an experienced and practical consultant, with masses of experience across sectors to bring to your team. If you want to shift your system and develop your people to play their part, George could be exactly the thinking partner you need at your side.

George lives with her daughter, in Bristol, where they make the most of the city and are out and most weekends.