About James

I've been an unconventional leader since I was a teenager. First with the scout movement, then the Territorial Army. After university I joined the UK civil service on a graduate management development programme. My career is now in its third decade and I've worked in Finance, HR, policy, strategy, IT, change, operations management and internal consultancy. Over the years I've mentored, coached and developed dozens of senior managers and hundreds of people.

Weeknotes 10-14 December 2018

This is my first weeknote on Medium, but I’ve been doing weeknotes on our internal blog since January this year. I’ve also been blogging on and off since 2006 on my personal blogs. (The main one being https://www.themself.org/ which has a little Continue reading Weeknotes 10-14 December 2018

APOSTLE – Analysing Context

APOSTLE As well as user needs, the public sector change needs to consider the impacts on several aspects. This ensures that the case for change is suitable, acceptable and feasible. It’s too easy to get sucked into the technology and Continue reading APOSTLE – Analysing Context

Startegy – or just getting stuff done?

That’s not a typo, I meant Startegy. That is my normal typo when I type strategy, but inspired by Neil Gaiman‘s typo of Caroline. I thought it summed up an approach to things that just got on with doing stuff Continue reading Startegy – or just getting stuff done?

Major Projects Need Leaders not Managers

I was at the Major Projects Association AGM and annual dinner on Monday evening. It was an interesting event and I met several people that gave me different perspectives on running major projects successfully. There was a bit of a Continue reading Major Projects Need Leaders not Managers

What are your personal Values and why?

I’m part way through the Project Leadership Programme run by Cranfield University on behalf of Cabinet Office. The most recent module asked us to come up with our personal values. It was an interesting exercise, because we were given a Continue reading What are your personal Values and why?