Reflections from seven Developing Leaders projects

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of working on a wide range of projects through Developing Leaders . They’ve included facilitating leadership development with Clore Social Leadership, supporting HCPT (Hosanna House and Children’s Pilgrimage Trust) as it continues to shape its future culture, coaching leaders through one of the NHS’s largest Electronic Patient Record programmes at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, helping Our Future Health UK develop its philanthropic strategy, contributing to the development of My Care Bubble for Infra360 , supporting people progressing into senior leadership roles, continuing my own development towards the Advanced Diploma in Professional Coaching with Wise Goose Limited, and volunteering with organisations such as Water Survival Box.

Each project has been different. Different organisations, different sectors, different challenges and different ambitions. Yet, as I’ve reflected on them over the past few weeks, I’ve become increasingly aware that they have all been helping me explore the same question.

Where are the leverage points?

Donella Meadows describes leverage points as places within a system where relatively small interventions can produce significant change. Dan Heath, in his recent book Reset, describes them as the places where a little effort can yield a disproportionate return. Although they approach the subject from different perspectives, both have helped me articulate something I’ve found myself looking for in practice.

The projects themselves have all been very different, but the underlying question has remained remarkably consistent. How do we loosen the grip of the status quo sufficiently for people, organisations and systems to create something better? Increasingly, I’ve found myself paying particular attention to the human conditions that make change possible. The quality of relationships, shared purpose, self-knowledge, reflection, trust and the conversations people are able to have together all seem to influence what becomes possible. Looking back, these have often proved to be the leverage points that mattered most.

Reconnecting people with purpose

My work with Clore Social Leadership and HCPT prompted me to think deeply about purpose and the role it plays in creating lasting change.

Through Clore, I have the opportunity to work alongside people tackling some of society’s most significant challenges. Whether they are working in charities, local government or community organisations, many are trying to improve outcomes for people experiencing inequality, poor health, exclusion or disadvantage. Leadership development in this context matters because these challenges cannot be addressed by individual leaders acting alone. They require people to build relationships, work across organisational boundaries and create the conditions for leadership to be shared more widely.

Towards the end of one programme, I encouraged participants to move beyond discussing leadership as a concept and instead explore where they themselves could exercise influence. Drawing on the Water of Systems Change and Depth Finding frameworks, we reflected on structures, relationships, power dynamics and mental models, alongside the practical actions available within their own organisations and communities.

What I found encouraging was that people naturally began identifying conversations they wanted to have, relationships they wanted to strengthen and assumptions they wanted to question. Their attention shifted towards the places where they could make a meaningful contribution.

That experience reinforced something that has influenced my practice for many years. Myron Rogers observes that the process we use to create the future determines the future we create. The longer I spend supporting leaders, the more I appreciate how true that is. When people genuinely participate in shaping the future, they become far more committed to creating it.

A similar reflection emerged while supporting HCPT. The organisation had already invested significant time in clarifying its strategy. My role centred much more on culture and on helping people think about how that strategy would be experienced in practice. As part of that work, I invited people to reconnect with what had first drawn them to HCPT. Those conversations returned repeatedly to pilgrimage, compassion, belonging and service. They also made later discussions about culture feel much more grounded because people were connecting behaviours to a purpose that already mattered deeply to them.

Looking back across both pieces of work, I think the leverage point was purpose. Reconnecting people with why the work matters created stronger foundations for conversations about culture, collaboration and change than beginning with behaviours alone.

Creating space for sense-making

Supporting leaders through the Electronic Patient Record programme at Moorfields Eye Hospital led me towards a different leverage point.

The programme itself was technically complex, fast moving and full of important decisions. Becky Seale and I were never there to provide technical expertise. The organisation already had exceptional people doing that. Instead, we spent time considering where we could add the greatest value.

We found ourselves creating opportunities for leaders to stop, reflect and make sense of what they were experiencing. They were processing significant amounts of information while supporting their own teams through uncertainty and change. Coaching provided somewhere to explore what that meant, how it might influence decisions and where relationships needed attention alongside delivery.

One conversation in particular has stayed with me because it captured something I now recognise more clearly. A leader reflected that they had believed they needed to have all the answers before they could lead effectively through the programme. As we explored that assumption together, they came to appreciate that their role was not to remove uncertainty. Their role was to help others navigate it.

I’ve continued reflecting on that conversation because it speaks to something much broader than a single programme. Complex change rarely suffers from a shortage of expertise. More often, people lack the time and space needed to interpret complexity together, recognise emerging patterns and make thoughtful decisions.

Looking back, I think the leverage point was creating the conditions for collective sense-making. Better decisions followed from better thinking, and better thinking needed space, trust and conversation.

Helping people see themselves more clearly

My career coaching has prompted another reflection.

Many people begin coaching believing they need to become more confident before applying for senior roles. Over the past two years, I’ve become increasingly interested in what sits beneath that assumption.

One client described her experience after attending a senior interview by saying, “It was really good to go somewhere where they didn’t know me.”

What she recognised was that the interview panel had simply responded to the experience, judgement and leadership she already possessed. They had not seen the assumptions that had gradually developed through years of working in the same organisation.

That conversation reminded me that coaching often begins with helping people see themselves more accurately. As people develop greater clarity about their strengths, values, experience and leadership identity, they communicate with greater authenticity because they are speaking from a place they genuinely recognise.

When I revisited the Water of Systems Change framework while reflecting on these projects, I found myself thinking about its emphasis on mental models. Deeply held assumptions shape how individuals and organisations understand themselves and the choices available to them. Coaching often works at exactly that level.

Looking back, I think the leverage point was helping people develop a more accurate understanding of themselves. Greater confidence often emerged naturally from that clearer understanding.

Asking better questions

Working with Our Future Health offered a different perspective again.

As we developed the philanthropic strategy, I particularly enjoyed how our conversations evolved over time. Initially, we found ourselves asking what philanthropy might fund. Gradually, the discussion became centred on what Our Future Health could enable through philanthropic investment that would otherwise not happen, or would happen much more slowly.

Although the difference between those questions appears small, it fundamentally changed the nature of the conversation. Women’s Health, Brain Health and Health Equity became different expressions of a much broader ambition, and the strategic narrative became considerably clearer.

That experience has stayed with me because it reinforced something I find myself noticing increasingly often. Good strategy depends as much on the quality of the questions we ask as the quality of the answers we develop.

Looking back, I think the leverage point was changing the question. Once the question changed, many of the strategic choices became clearer.

Understanding the problem before designing the solution

My work with My Care Bubble encouraged me to reflect on innovation from a different perspective.

Like many people, I initially saw the platform primarily as a technological innovation. The more time I spent with the founders and those working across health and social care, the more I came to appreciate that the real innovation lay in the operating model and the understanding of the challenges it had been designed to address.

Repeated conversations, fragmented communication, delayed information and the difficulty of coordinating support across organisations all have profound implications for people’s quality of life. The technology enables a different way of working because it has been built around a careful understanding of those realities.

I’ve found myself returning to that observation several times since. The strongest innovations I’ve encountered rarely begin with technology itself. They begin with curiosity about the operational and human problems people are trying to solve.

Looking back, I think the leverage point was investing time in understanding the reality of the work before designing the intervention.

Creating the conditions for insight

Alongside these projects, I’ve continued working towards the International Diploma in Coaching with Wise Goose. Although I’m still at an early stage in that journey, it has encouraged me to become much more intentional about my own practice.

One coaching partner reflected that an observation I shared had helped him arrive at an insight that felt both familiar and personally owned. That description has prompted a great deal of reflection because it captures something I hope becomes increasingly true of my coaching.

I’ve come to appreciate that the coach’s role is not simply to ask good questions or introduce useful ideas. It is to create the conditions in which people can think deeply enough to reach insights that genuinely belong to them. Those insights are often more sustainable because they emerge from the client’s own thinking rather than from advice or instruction.

The more I reflect on this, the more I wonder whether the same principle applies across much of my work. Whether facilitating strategy, supporting organisational development or coaching leaders, perhaps one of the most valuable contributions we can make is creating environments where people are able to think well together.

Looking back, I think the leverage point was creating the conditions in which insight could emerge.

Bringing the leverage points together

Reflecting across these projects has helped me recognise that they have all contributed to an emerging philosophy of practice.

The leverage points have not always been found in strategy, technology, governance or organisational design, important though those things undoubtedly are. More often, they have emerged through purpose, relationships, self-knowledge, reflection, thoughtful questions and creating opportunities for people to make sense of complexity together.

Reading Reset alongside returning to The Water of Systems Change has given me a language for many of these observations. Both remind us that lasting change depends on understanding what is holding the current system in place before deciding how to intervene.

I’m sure there are many leverage points that I have yet to recognise, and I’m equally sure my thinking will continue to evolve. At the moment, though, these projects have strengthened my belief that the human dimensions of change deserve far greater attention than they often receive. They influence the quality of our decisions, the strength of our relationships and our ability to work together towards something that matters.

As I look ahead to the next few months, I suspect this is the question I’ll continue carrying into every new piece of work.

Where is the leverage point?