Who is Melanie Franklin?
I have dedicated the last 20 years to understanding then communicating the drivers for change in organisations. This has exposed me to a wide range of organisational structures and individuals from around the world and it is this experience that I build on every day. Aside from the academic and professional qualifications that I acquired over this time, my ability to share new concepts and inspire others to embrace change and strive to improve their personal and professional performance is what I am most proud of.
I am in a unique position because I balance being an active practitioner of change with transferring my knowledge to others, whereas most people with my experience are either solely leading change or training and coaching full time. I believe this balance ensures my advice is relevant and practical.
Why work with me
My passion and track record is for
Transformational change consulting
Executive Coaching
Workshop design and delivery
Exceptional delegate results
My client work involves a broad spectrum of capacity and capability building. These are some of the examples of my most recent work
- Creating a panel of executive coaches to provide a 2 year coaching programme for the Dubai Health Authority. We are responsible for supporting the leadership team in their sponsorship of 24 programmes of significant change. I undertaken one to one mentoring with senior leaders, as well as leading the team of experts. I provide support for these experts in the challenges they face with those they are coaching, as well as developing and running action learning sets for coaches to share experiences and learn from each other.
- Providing coaching to a new Managing Director and his senior leadership team as they seek to change the culture of their organisation which has suffered from an environment where bullying has thrived. This requires the ability to hold a mirror to some senior leaders and help them to appreciate the impact of their behaviour, as well as identifying ways in which they can amend their leadership styles to be more supportive of staff.
- On-going support for a new programme within UNAIDS to achieve dignity at work and ensure that women employees particularly are not discriminated against, in the 36 countries in which UNAIDS operates. I am also a sounding board for the Director General, helping her to shape her strategy and resource her leadership team.
- Supporting an NHS CEO as he seeks to professionalise the approach to project and portfolio management within his trust including development of portfolio management processes, portfolio assessment criteria, example benefits maps and agreement on multiple leading indicators to assess the likely achievement of these benefits from project initiation to post project review.
- Creating the next evolution of change toolkits, moving from templates, checklists and guidance notes for each of the activities in the Change Plan to guidance on how hold difficult conversations where those impacted by change are expressing their resistance to the change. Effectively this toolkit will become a playbook for effective coaching during change and transition for use by internal managers.
- Designing, training and providing on-going support for a network of Change Agents across primary, secondary and special education in Wales for the adoption of the Donaldson recommendations. This is a huge commitment by Welsh Government involving thousands of teachers, teaching assistants and school governors.
- Continuing my work with the Parliamentary Digital Service and the development of a network of local change champions across the House of Commons and House of Lords. I have helped to create the User Engagement Team which supports multiple programmes across both houses, as well as leading briefings for the Director General and other senior appointees on the effective governance of change and transformation.
- Developing a programme to help senior and executive managers within a global insurance company effectively sponsor change. This includes strategic analysis, options analysis, benefits and portfolio management methodologies and emotional and psychological support to build and sustain trusting relationships with those they lead.
- Defining an approach for building organisation wide capacity for leading change. This involves the up-skilling of high volumes of staff in the basics of change management, building their confidence in their ability to lead themselves and those in their sphere of influence into new ways of working. This requirement has been in such high demand that I partnered with an international accreditation body to develop a syllabus, training course and qualification to recognise the achievement of these ‘Local Change Agents’.
I am in a very fortunate position in that I love my work
According to Maslow I am at the point in my career where I am ‘self-actualising’! I find it hard to draw a line between work and hobby as I find what I do so stimulating and rewarding. I want my legacy to be increased skills and confidence in others to help make a difference. I measure my success by the success stories of those whom I coach and train and I am in the fortunate position that they write to me from all over the world to share their achievements.
As part of this I regularly write papers and host webinars on the development of the change management profession and I am the author of 8 text books on project, programme and change management, including the development of an agile change approach. I support an examination body in devising its syllabi for change management qualifications and am developing a new agile change management qualification for 2019.
How to get the most from working with me
My motivation
I believe that the ability to manage ourselves successfully through constant, never-ending change is core to reducing our stress at work. Less stress means we are able to enjoy life more, which means we put more positive energy into the universe. We need positive people, because humans are programmed to find the negatives of any situation quickly and to hold onto these downsides for longer than we retain the upsides.
I want to use my 30 years of experience to create simple to use, intuitive solutions to the difficulties of shifting from our current ways of working. I am fed up with management gurus telling me what I should be doing, I want ideas for how I should improve, and the people who enjoy working with me want the same thing.
I don’t just want to keep up to date, I want to remain at the forefront of new ideas and original thinking. I don’t stagnate, I put a lot of energy and effort into continually developing my knowledge and updating my skills and I enjoy working with others who do the same.
I enjoy the intellectual challenge of finding solutions to problems and I love coming up with creative ways to explain new techniques to others. Everything I do is underpinned by being “brain-smart” recognising that I need to engage the brains of my stakeholders because that is where true motivation, persuasion and inspiration takes place.
My approach
I always like to start with the end in mind. I will often ask “what do you want to be able to do at the end of this activity that you could not do before?” because I think this keeps us both focused on creating a solution and building capability. This is longer lasting and more impactful than knowing something you didn’t know before.
To be creative I need to be alone, and I need to work with others – what can I say, I am a complex personality!
- If I have been training all day, I need to be alone with my thoughts to process my ideas. This means I might work late or get up early to create quiet time in my schedule. I might send you emails out of hours but I don’t expect you to respond to them until you are at work.
- In brainstorming sessions I benefit from sharing my ideas visually, so I might me discussing something with you as a I draw a quick visual on the screen. I am inspired by your ideas and perspective so I will often ask if we can record the session so I can play it back later.
How we communicate
To make sense of things, I like to read background information to help me understand the bigger picture and put into context the scope and objectives of the piece of work we are actioning. Please share as much information as possible – I regularly sign Non-Disclosure Agreements so don’t hesitate to ask.
I always put my video on because I want you to read my body language as well as hear my words and tone of voice. This creates a richer communication between us so I feel uncomfortable if you keep your video off – I am only getting part of your message which puts me at disadvantage.
Don’t call me! For a quicker response, email me and I will get in touch as soon as I am able.
Requests for my time
I am deluged by opportunities to contribute to others work. I try to say yes to as many of these requests as possible but it is not always possible. Make it easier for me to say yes by clearly describing what you want me to do, when, where, with whom and for how long.
I am trusted by respected organisations in many sectors
Private sector
Penguin Random House; Saudi Electricity Company; Zain; National Grid US; SABIC; FIFA; Hoelscher Wasserbau
Public sector
UK Parliament; United Nations; European Medicines Association; Welsh Government
Not for profit
British Red Cross; European Patents Office; The Stroke Association