We work on a collaborative basis where the change and the processes involved belong from the start to the people who will have to live with it in the future. They own the old and the new ways of working.

We operate with and from strengths of the organisation and its people to meet their business goals, wishes and needs and those of their customers.

We aim to help people create and sustain a common agreed picture of what they want to achieve, with the appropriate opportunity to achieve it together - and stick with it through difficult times.

We agree a clear planned programme with clients, in manageable steps, with Indicators of progress and where everybody knows where they and how they are doing.

We believe strongly that new business processes, particularly those using IT systems depend on how people are helped to take responsibility for the new ways of working for themselves.

We support people as different individuals and recognise their skills and hopes as well as their fears and self-limits; we do not assume that they can change overnight and help them to move forward through an appropriate combination of support and challenge.

We show personal and sustained commitment to clients and we work on the basis of providing the best practices of consultancy help that we can offer them.

Some of our ideas and thinking can be found in these papers:

	Becoming a 'World Class' Organisation
	Communication - you can't change without it
	The Trails and Trials of Change - Join the Wagon Train

Peter Lewis Jones has also written a Chapter in the book "How to be your own Management Consultant".

To download the Chapter, simply Click Here. To Order the Book from Amazon.co.uk, Click Here.

After Action Review is a simple process for improving learning on a daily basis. After a business event - you conduct an AAR and ask the questions:

• What were the planned outcomes?
• What were the actual outcomes?
• What were the differences and why did they occur?
• What can be learnt?

The event may be an entire action or small part of a larger action such as a meeting or a presentation. For example - a complete client assignment; a day with a client; a telephone call; a day in the office; a week's work

BP-Amoco has developed the discipline further to include the concepts of "Learn Before", "Learn During" and "Learn After".

• Learn Before: before a project starts - a project leader might call upon people who have run similar projects previously to discover what can be learnt from the past.
• Learn During: AARs are conducted on a regular basis during a project.
• Learn After: a large more formal AAR is held at the end of a project to determine what can be learnt from the activity.

An AAR is not about "performance appraisal" - it is not about "judgement" - it is not about "blame". It is about "learning".

We can all start to conduct AARs today without waiting for organisation permission. They are easy to run and their payback is high. We can start by just conducting them personally for personal events or if we are a team leader or manager for team events. We also have the opportunity where appropriate to suggest them at any meeting we attend. It need only take a few minutes. Ask the questions:

• What was the purpose of this meeting?
• Did we achieve it?
• If not, why not?
• What was learnt?

And there is no reason why that is not done with a client at the conclusion of a meeting. It might make the difference to the learning and also to the relationship.