WELCOME TO MiDDLEGROUND

A space to grow leaders, teams and organisations

Why Us?
How We Help

We enable people, teams and organisations
for innovation, transformation and impact

We create a space where our clients can come together to build on what works, examine challenges, and explore dichotomies.
A place for creativity and innovation, change and transformation and building impactful leadership.

We build this space for the enhancement of individuals, their teams, their organisations and their communities. We do this, globally,
nationally, locally, and individually.


We call this space MiDDLEGROUND.

we are different


MiDDLEGROUND is a small, well – established consultancy with a team spread over the UK, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal and Mexico. The richness of this diversity feeds our organisational learning and enriches the services we provide.

We are passionate about enabling our clients to make real impact and sustainable high performance.

We are engaged in cutting edge work with executives and senior leadership teams, supporting distributed leadership across organisations. We enhance organisations ability to be more responsive, flexible and dynamic, with accountability and purpose placed at the heart of organisational practice. We do this through impactful interventions with a focus on shifting mindset and creating enabling environments for leadership and learning.

One of our core values is the importance of shifting systems rather than just tweaking them, our focus being to create powerful tipping points towards organisational impact.

We develop people to work with purpose and bring personal power to create positive change.


Our Approach Is Powerful Because It Is


Personal Tapping into values
Systemic Provoking fundamental shifts across groups, teams and organisations
Transformational Sustaining impact on bottom-line results (profit, people and planet)

  • MiDDLEGROUND has the ability to offer systemic and analytical insights whilst still staying focused on the task at hand.
    They are passionate about facilitating healthy groups and organisations as well as building capacity.
    Their clients will definitely benefit.

    Keith Lequay Ph.D, Organisational Change Consultant, CaribCare (St. Lucia)

  • I increased the power of influence within my sphere, acquired new skills for enrolling others
    and for being accountable to achieve my step changes.

    Participant in MiDDLEGROUND Leadership Programme

  • The programme was excellently delivered. The knowledge I acquired is priceless
    and beyond work can be applied to life.

    Participant in MiDDLEGROUND Leadership Programme

How we help

Liberating Leadership Talent

We develop ethical, values-based leaders who tackle seemingly intractable problems with accountability, system-wide impact and distributed leadership.

High Performing Teams

We assist leadership teams (from Boards, executive teams, to project and front-line operational teams) to address their ambition, develop strategies and overcome key challenges.

We focus on building on what’s already working, aligning mindset and ambitions in order to move to collective action on a shared understanding, underpinned by a strong learning rhythm to sustain high performance.

More Systemic Thinking

We draw on systems thinking and complexity theory to support systems change. This enables leaders & teams to be more system savvy, to recognise and work with systemic insights which support high performance.

We also bring stakeholders into a highly interactive whole-system-in-the-room “summit” to both celebrate contributions to date and tap into the deeper drivers for change.

A Defined Purpose

We support individuals, teams and organisations to define their purpose in order to find, make and embrace their role with greater clarity and alignment.

Organisation-Wide Collaboration

We use leading edge practice to propel powerful conversations that expand understanding and enable each constituent party to adjust their contribution towards improved whole system performance.

We build trust and accountability through enabled teams that initiate, sustain and embed the change.

…At whichever level you need (be it globally or one-to-one) we guide, coach and support your leaders and teams to deliver sustainable outcomes to achieve your stated purpose.

Who Do We Help


Private Sector
Which organisations:
Global multi‐billion dollar businesses within the pharmaceutical, oil and gas and energy industries. Start‐ups in tech and social media as well as hospitality industry to transitioning from SME to larger global organisations.

Who we worked with:
Working at multiple levels from the Executive team to the Senior Leadership teams, as well as specific functional groups e.g. safety, quality etc.

What we did:
We have supported organisations to redefine and align behind their purpose, strategy and goals, and identify key assumptions, ways of working and behaviours that will enable high performance, more systemic thinking and achievement of organisational ambition. Developed more collaboration and distributed leadership. Worked across dispersed teams to think and work differently. Developing clarity in the way that teams make decisions with a focus on empowerment and ownership.

Outcomes:
  • Systemic thinking that influences behaviour impacting business culture, organisational performance and how individuals and teams make decisions.

  • Developed individual leaders with ambition to bring about change, a new sense of confidence, a set of agreements about how to work and a practical plan for results they need to deliver.

  • Greater levels of clarity of role, ownership and accountability across teams.

NGO Sector
Which organisations:
Global and national aid and development organisations with a focus ranging from; poverty alleviation, education, woman and girls, the elderly, children, humanitarian response, volunteering, looked-after children; children's rights, conflict resolution.

Who we worked with:
Executive level, Senior Leadership teams (SLT) and Middle managers; Single teams within countries and teams across countries/regions.

What we did:
Developed leadership, aligned global teams; support organisational learning and reflective practice; team development; strategy development.

Outcomes:
Alignment on challenges and identification of solutions and collaborative action; greater creation of "one" organisation with clarity of purpose and ambition; team cohesiveness; cultural change; greater learning organisations.
Public Sector
Which organisations:
Local authority; Children and Youth Services; Youth Offending Service; Health Services; professional bodies supporting public health workers.

Who we worked with:
Executive and senior leaders; front line workers and social care workers; middle and senior managers.

What we did:
  • Supported the development of policy and strategy through multi‑discipline and multi‑stakeholder interventions.

  • Team development of ambition, goal setting and workstreams to support achievement outcomes.

  • Greater levels of system wide working rather than silo working with a client centric focus.
Outcomes:
  • High levels of stakeholder engagement, trust and collaboration. Established policies and strategies that are grounded in experience and therefore more robust and sustainable.

  • Teams that are able to better serve their membership and speak more powerfully for their sector in the policy arena.
Education
Which organisations:
Working with schools and educational institutions to develop visions and strategies, for engaging all members of the school community to create powerful and purposeful learning environments.

Who we worked with:
Education leadership at all levels: students, school-heads, staff, parents and governors.

What we did:
  • Worked alongside schools to build on their success and stretch further to meet the challenges. These focussed on schooling and preparation of children and young people for the adult world that they will co-create.

  • Supported Head teachers and their SLTs to more powerfully take up their role in leading their school with a clear purpose and strategy for moving their schools forward.

Outcomes:
  • Contributing to moving schools from "needing improvement" to "good" and "outstanding schools".

  • Heads that are more powerfully taking up their role both within the school, with their board of governors and external bodies.

  • Teachers and TAs that are more engaged.

  • All parties have a clear view of the school direction.
Cross Sector
Which organisations:
Brought heads of private sector organisations, public sector bodies, political leaders and leaders of NGOs together into a collective learning space. Their common goal was the desire to have a positive impact on their organisations, their countries and their region.

We have held these across Sub-Saharan Africa as well as within the region of Southern Africa, Asia (drawing people from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia) and Latin America.

Who we worked with:
Leaders, influencers and manager from a diverse cross-section of sectors and occupations.

What we did:
Offered established leaders from the public, private and voluntary sectors who are at or near the CEO level, an opportunity to transform what they and their organisations do. This was done using transformational leadership theory and experiential learning techniques to enable cross-cultural conversations and mutual learning.

This enabled each individual to draw on new techniques and cross sector experiences to develop their thinking and practice.

Outcomes:
  • Leaders who lead with a greater sense of themselves, the systems they work in and the wider network of leaders that they can both influence and draw on as a resource.

  • Shifted the way leaders see their responsibility and accountability not only to their organisation but to the wider context in which they work.

  • Created a network of leaders who together are committed to make change.
Private Sector NGO Sector
Which organisations:
Global multi‐billion dollar businesses within the pharmaceutical, oil and gas and energy industries. Start‐ups in tech and social media as well as hospitality industry to transitioning from SME to larger global organisations.

Who we worked with:
Working at multiple levels from the Executive team to the Senior Leadership teams, as well as specific functional groups e.g. safety, quality etc.

What we did:
We have supported organisations to redefine and align behind their purpose, strategy and goals, and identify key assumptions, ways of working and behaviours that will enable high performance, more systemic thinking and achievement of organisational ambition. Developed more collaboration and distributed leadership. Worked across dispersed teams to think and work differently. Developing clarity in the way that teams make decisions with a focus on empowerment and ownership.

Outcomes:
  • Systemic thinking that influences behaviour impacting business culture, organisational performance and how individuals and teams make decisions.

  • Developed individual leaders with ambition to bring about change, a new sense of confidence, a set of agreements about how to work and a practical plan for results they need to deliver.

  • Greater levels of clarity of role, ownership and accountability across teams.

Which organisations:
Global and national aid and development organisations with a focus ranging from; poverty alleviation, education, woman and girls, the elderly, children, humanitarian response, volunteering, looked-after children; children's rights, conflict resolution.

Who we worked with:
Executive level, Senior Leadership teams (SLT) and Middle managers; Single teams within countries and teams across countries/regions.

What we did:
Developed leadership, aligned global teams; support organisational learning and reflective practice; team development; strategy development.

Outcomes:
Alignment on challenges and identification of solutions and collaborative action; greater creation of "one" organisation with clarity of purpose and ambition; team cohesiveness; cultural change; greater learning organisations.
Public Sector Education
Which organisations:
Local authority; Children and Youth Services; Youth Offending Service; Health Services; professional bodies supporting public health workers.

Who we worked with:
Executive and senior leaders; front line workers and social care workers; middle and senior managers.

What we did:
  • Supported the development of policy and strategy through multi‑discipline and multi‑stakeholder interventions.

  • Team development of ambition, goal setting and workstreams to support achievement outcomes.

  • Greater levels of system wide working rather than silo working with a client centric focus.
Outcomes:
  • High levels of stakeholder engagement, trust and collaboration. Established policies and strategies that are grounded in experience and therefore more robust and sustainable.

  • Teams that are able to better serve their membership and speak more powerfully for their sector in the policy arena.
 		Which organisations:
Working with schools and educational institutions to develop visions and strategies, for engaging all members of the school community to create powerful and purposeful learning environments.

Who we worked with:
Education leadership at all levels: students, school-heads, staff, parents and governors.

What we did:
  • Worked alongside schools to build on their success and stretch further to meet the challenges. These focussed on schooling and preparation of children and young people for the adult world that they will co-create.

  • Supported Head teachers and their SLTs to more powerfully take up their role in leading their school with a clear purpose and strategy for moving their schools forward.

Outcomes:
  • Contributing to moving schools from "needing improvement" to "good" and "outstanding schools".

  • Heads that are more powerfully taking up their role both within the school, with their board of governors and external bodies.

  • Teachers and TAs that are more engaged.

  • All parties have a clear view of the school direction.
Cross Sector
Which organisations:
Brought heads of private sector organisations, public sector bodies, political leaders and leaders of NGOs together into a collective learning space. Their common goal was the desire to have a positive impact on their organisations, their countries and their region.

We have held these across Sub-Saharan Africa as well as within the region of Southern Africa, Asia (drawing people from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia) and Latin America.

Who we worked with:
Leaders, influencers and manager from a diverse cross-section of sectors and occupations.

What we did:
Offered established leaders from the public, private and voluntary sectors who are at or near the CEO level, an opportunity to transform what they and their organisations do. This was done using transformational leadership theory and experiential learning techniques to enable cross-cultural conversations and mutual learning.

This enabled each individual to draw on new techniques and cross sector experiences to develop their thinking and practice.

Outcomes:
  • Leaders who lead with a greater sense of themselves, the systems they work in and the wider network of leaders that they can both influence and draw on as a resource.

  • Shifted the way leaders see their responsibility and accountability not only to their organisation but to the wider context in which they work.

  • Created a network of leaders who together are committed to make change.

Our Team

Elana Friedman

Elana Friedman

Founder & Lead Consultant

    Elana is the founder and lead consultant for MiDDLEGROUND. She is driven by a passionate belief that purposeful leadership can be released in any individual or organisation. A dynamic facilitator and coach, who has a vast array of experience working with individuals and teams from the private, public and NGO sectors. Read more here

    David Webster

    David Webster

    Associate Consultant

      David is our Associate based in the UK. A Chartered Occupational & Coaching Psychologist, he has been coaching and consulting to senior leaders and their teams as well as developing and supervising business performance coaches for over 30 years. Read more here

      Twalib Ebrahim

      Twalib Ebrahim

      Associate Consultant

        Twalib is our associate based in Kenya. His work methodology is informed and nurtured by his belief in valuing others and working with differences. He designs and runs programmes of leadership, partnering, team building, organisational culture and strategy development to create change and impact. Read more here

        Karima Grant

        Karima Grant

        Associate Consultant

          Karima is our Associate based in Senegal. A writer for children and young adults, Karima designs and facilitates high impact leadership programs, team-building, and organisational development seminars in English and in French. Read more here

          Umar Kawu

          Umar Kawu

          Associate Consultant

            Umar is our Associate based in Nigeria. He is a Leadership and Management Development Consultant, who provides support to organisations across all sectors to make them better at what they already do well. Read more here

            Chris Sheepshanks

            Chris Sheepshanks

            Associate Consultant

              Chris is our Associate based in the UK. As a professional coach and leadership developer, Chris works in partnership with executives to support them in gaining a deeper clarity on their role, responsibilities and identity as a leader. Read more here

              Gail Friedman

              Gail Friedman

              Associate Consultant

                Gail is our associate based in Mexico. A Life and Business Coach, with specialist expertise in leadership development and education. Her practice is driven by a commitment to helping people create environments that enable them to thrive and achieve lasting change. Read more here

                Lauren Hogg

                Lauren Hogg

                Associate Consultant

                  Lauren is one of our UK based Associates. A qualified coach and project manager who started out as a professional musician. Her curiosity in the combination of music and psychology, and the insight psychology and coaching could bring to performance, led her to complete a Masters in Applied Music Psychology before exploring coaching beyond the world of music. Read more here

                  Partners, Associates & Guest Presenters

                  Partners, Associates & Guest Presenters

                    We work closely with a small number of trusted partners, associates and guest presenters to inform and inspire participants on our programmes. Our principal partnerships are with:

                        

                    Let's Talk

                    elana@middle-ground.co.uk

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