“Connecting in pairs: spotlight on the art of relating”

Fri, 8th December, 2017 from 9:00 AM, in Ottery St Mary

This session is about how two people connect – particularly in a working relationship. We will look, as if through a magnifying glass, at the intimate skills of relating with our colleagues. Gaynor Sharpe and Lucy Ball are working to fill a gap in the leadership development curriculum in this area and are on a mission to bring this work and the Pairs Coaching that supports it into the mainstream. You can read more about their Pairs Coaching mission and approach here www.executivepairs.com

In this session Lucy and Gaynor will explore with us ideas such as:

1. Pre-Contact, Contact and Withdrawal – how do we build up to, join and leave interactions with our conversational/working partners?
2. Relational Range – how agile are we in moving through some of the polarities that exist in conversations for example the polarity between taking space and giving space?
3. Serve and Return – how are our feelings and thoughts received and responded to by the other and how do we receive and respond in return? What happens when we look at this as if in slow motion?
4. The Relationship as a co-created and developing entity – what do we co-create between us that is ‘our relationship’? What are the conditions that make our relationship unique? And, what are the conditions in which our relationship can grow rather than stay fixed?
5. Pairs Role Models – how do our significant role models of pairs, for example parent figures, influence our patterns of relating?

We will run experiential exercises with the aim of raising our self-awareness and social awareness on the above.
We are also really curious about your own experience of working with what we call ‘key pairs’ in organisations. As coaches and consultants or just as colleagues, how do we lend our support to a pair of people whose relationship is key to organisational progress? We’d like to offer some principles and borrow your own wisdom on the topic. As we will be doing awareness-raising exercises in pairs, this could be an opportunity for you to bring along someone with whom you work closely and get some development for your relationship. Please think about who you might like to bring along!

Lucy Ball Bio
Lucy is a coach and consultant working largely with private sector organisations in the field of leadership development. She was a member of Deloitte Consulting’s Leadership and Change Practice in the late 1990s and then went on to work for and co-lead Ideas Unlimited, a creative leadership development consultancy. In the last three years she has focused on her own coaching and consulting work as Lucy Ball Consulting Ltd and as recently set up Executive Pairs (www.executivepairs.com) which is a group that aims to normalise and promote Pairs Coaching in the leadership development market. She is a professional associate of the Gestalt International Study Center, Cape Cod, an organisation which has had a considerable influence on her development and practice for the last 5 years. She is also active in supporting women in leadership through her association with Everywoman www.everywoman.com and through running leadership retreats for professional women.

Gaynor Sharpe Bio
Gaynor is a Leadership and OD specialist and is currently Global Head of Leadership at Standard Life Aberdeen. She is passionate about developing progressive leadership cultures enabling people to thrive and grow. This requires a different approach to developing leadership and Gaynor is presently experimenting within Standard Life Aberdeen. This includes bringing executive pairs coaching to Standard Life Aberdeen and with Lucy is piloting a number of experiments. Gaynor trained as a Gestalt Therapist (Edinburgh Gestalt Institute 2006 – 2010) and has a small therapy practice. She is a member of GPTI and recently become a member of Gestalt International Study Centre, Cape Cod. She possesses a wealth organisation experience, is a highly valued leader, consultant and coach and is known for her thoughtful, powerful and calm presence.