In all our work we draw on five distinctive capabilities, each rooted in understanding the dynamics of human motivation:
1. Generating insights
We employ rigorous research and analysis methodologies when gathering and interpreting evidence. We are not satisfied to simply spot a pattern; we work with our clients to understand underlying causes and motivations. All our work is founded on a simple fact: the real experts in people’s mindsets and motivations are the people themselves. Our job is to bring that expertise into the open. As experts in public engagement – whether that’s the public as consumers, learners, road users or patients – we help organisations to understand better what’s really important to people – and how this can be achieved. We have worked with organisations like Ofcom, the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), the department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), Big Lottery Fund, the Department for Transport (DFT) and Tesco to provide insights into what’s going on in the minds of key communities of consumers, users, and stakeholders.
2. Transforming organisations
Changing the performance of an organisation often requires focused attention on the mechanics of the organisation and the ways of working within it. We’ve worked with businesses such as Diageo, Unilever, Accenture, and Thomas Cook developing operating models, process frameworks, organisational structures, and team development programmes. In addition, we’ve worked with organisations in both the public and private sectors, including the National Health Service (NHS), developing organisational values and corporate identities designed to galvanise employee motivation and enhance the overall reputation and perception of the organisation.
3. Preserving the health of operational relationships
We have become experts in successfully supporting large organisations to preserve the health of some of their key operational relationships as they increasingly choose to outsource work, reorganise internally or work in partnerships to cut costs and gain access to capabilities. SHM's speciality in this space is to focus on an aspect of large operational relationships that is often overlooked: the human interactions that are essential to success. Our experience has shown us repeatedly that behind most commercial, governance and operational problems lie issues with the ways of working and degree of trust between the parties involved. As an independent third party, our role is to uncover, understand, and surface the different, often conflicting motivations of the key stakeholders and bring them back into alignment with the strategic aims of the programme. Through a combination of evaluation, mediation, and remediation, we help large operational programmes in businesses like Unilever, Accenture, BT, HP and E&Y stick to their plan and execute the strategy, avoid unnecessary conflict, uncover more potential value creation, and speed up the implementation.
4. Building capabilities
Businesses need to adapt to new pressures and demands placed on them by changes in the market, policy, and customer behaviour. A key element of our work with organisations like the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), DHL, and Booz Allen Hamilton involves equipping key people inside organisations with the capabilities that are required for success in the future.
5. Empowering communities
Organisations seeking to change need to engage groups of people to not only be recipients of the change, but to be active participants in defining new directions. Our high profile national engagement initiatives empower individuals and communities as agents of change through their work as co-developers of policies and initiatives to improve their lives. We have worked with both public and private sector organisations like the Edge, Symbian, and The Commission for Racial Equality in helping to manage and support participation in change processes.
1. Generating insights
We employ rigorous research and analysis methodologies when gathering and interpreting evidence. We are not satisfied to simply spot a pattern; we work with our clients to understand underlying causes and motivations. All our work is founded on a simple fact: the real experts in people’s mindsets and motivations are the people themselves. Our job is to bring that expertise into the open. As experts in public engagement – whether that’s the public as consumers, learners, road users or patients – we help organisations to understand better what’s really important to people – and how this can be achieved. We have worked with organisations like Ofcom, the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), the department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), Big Lottery Fund, the Department for Transport (DFT) and Tesco to provide insights into what’s going on in the minds of key communities of consumers, users, and stakeholders.
2. Transforming organisations
Changing the performance of an organisation often requires focused attention on the mechanics of the organisation and the ways of working within it. We’ve worked with businesses such as Diageo, Unilever, Accenture, and Thomas Cook developing operating models, process frameworks, organisational structures, and team development programmes. In addition, we’ve worked with organisations in both the public and private sectors, including the National Health Service (NHS), developing organisational values and corporate identities designed to galvanise employee motivation and enhance the overall reputation and perception of the organisation.
3. Preserving the health of operational relationships
We have become experts in successfully supporting large organisations to preserve the health of some of their key operational relationships as they increasingly choose to outsource work, reorganise internally or work in partnerships to cut costs and gain access to capabilities. SHM's speciality in this space is to focus on an aspect of large operational relationships that is often overlooked: the human interactions that are essential to success. Our experience has shown us repeatedly that behind most commercial, governance and operational problems lie issues with the ways of working and degree of trust between the parties involved. As an independent third party, our role is to uncover, understand, and surface the different, often conflicting motivations of the key stakeholders and bring them back into alignment with the strategic aims of the programme. Through a combination of evaluation, mediation, and remediation, we help large operational programmes in businesses like Unilever, Accenture, BT, HP and E&Y stick to their plan and execute the strategy, avoid unnecessary conflict, uncover more potential value creation, and speed up the implementation.
4. Building capabilities
Businesses need to adapt to new pressures and demands placed on them by changes in the market, policy, and customer behaviour. A key element of our work with organisations like the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), DHL, and Booz Allen Hamilton involves equipping key people inside organisations with the capabilities that are required for success in the future.
5. Empowering communities
Organisations seeking to change need to engage groups of people to not only be recipients of the change, but to be active participants in defining new directions. Our high profile national engagement initiatives empower individuals and communities as agents of change through their work as co-developers of policies and initiatives to improve their lives. We have worked with both public and private sector organisations like the Edge, Symbian, and The Commission for Racial Equality in helping to manage and support participation in change processes.
