Catherine Thomson

I am the founder of CHT Consulting, an organisational development consultancy. I'm also an Associate Consultant within the People and Organisational Development (POD) Division with Edinburgh Napier University. I'm a graduate of Sheffield University and am an accomplished organisation development consultant with domestic and international experience across all sectors. My expertise is in supporting organisations develop leaders to attain a level of agility that matches the unprecedented level of change and complexity currently being experienced in the 21st Century.

I started my career in the Civil Service working across the Department of Employment Group in a variety of managerial and leadership roles including delivering executive and managerial training at the Civil Service College London. I have also worked in local government, heading up the training department for the education department within Lothian Regional Council. Prior to setting up my own business in 1996, I was HR Architect with Barclaycall, the telephone banking channel of Barclays Bank where I was responsible for the design, build, and implementation of an integrated approach to People, Process, and Technology which supported the business to drive performance and maximise talent at all levels in the organisation.

I'm an advocate of working with leaders using "systems Intelligence", helping them to go beyond reaching agreements to reaching new understandings from which to think and act. In this way, they build organisations that are profitable, enlightened, healthy, and compassionate. I trained in Boston MA with the Kantor Institute on Dialogue™, a process that supports greater understanding of the dynamics of how teams communicate within their organisational system. My recent assignments have included work with intact and cross functional teams at every level in the organisation, exploring personal and group insights into those areas of their communication that is normally less visible (assumptions, beliefs, values etc.), and the implications these have on personal contribution to the group dynamic, quality of decisions, and employee engagement. I have helped individuals and teams develop insights and new thinking on how to expand their own behavioural repertoire when working towards new aligned thinking and meaning in relation to change, pivotal conversations, and growing people capacity within the organisation.