Stabilising after an exceptional period of rapid growth, the IOPC wanted to bring renewed priority to learning.

The IOPC sought to embed a stronger learning culture as it transitioned from the Independent Police Complaints Commission and implemented a new structure, values and strategic direction.

Working through an action research and organisation development approach, Clare partnered with senior leaders to overcome the cultural barriers preventing a well-designed learning strategy from taking hold. By combining organisational enquiry, executive coaching, facilitated workshops and leadership consultancy, she helped create the conditions for sustainable behavioural and cultural change, resulting in visible changes in the way people worked and the conversations they had.

"One key thing that Clare brought to us was how she looked at things through a different lens. Over the six months she worked with us we saw changes in behaviour that we could identify as the start of cultural change."

"The project has opened the door to do more and got the organisation to a point of shifting mindsets to be open to learning."

The work contributed to significant improvements in leadership capability, learning culture and employee engagement, with the IOPC becoming one of the highest-performing Civil Service organisations in the People Survey.

Following this success, Clare was commissioned to lead an organisation-wide cultural diagnostic, design and deliver leadership coaching, and subsequently develop the organisation's leadership development centre—continuing to strengthen leadership capability and sustain cultural change.

“I have found this to be the most beneficial leadership training I have had in my career to date”.

The coaching resulted in leaders developing a new structure for difficult conversations, being more robust at dealing with poor behaviour, growing in confidence, improving strategic thinking skills, increasing resilience and confidence, planning better, leading a team better and making better decisions, the evaluation showed.

“A better quality of coaching than I’ve had before, Clare had the relevant knowledge and guidance. She knows what’s happening in the organisation”.

A year later, IOPC invited us back in to work with them on the design of a leadership development centre, to further continue the culture change work, and we continued to support specific teams on their annual team development events.