Online Session: Rebekah Tyler – I am not a robot – Understand my tendency to understand me.   

When it comes to using new technology you might be someone who thinks ‘bring it on’ or perhaps you prefer to cautiously observe from the sidelines until engagement becomes necessary! Our annual conference aims to inspire you and stretch your thinking around using technology within your coaching and mentoring. So, a good place to start is to think about how you might respond to what’s been shared, whilst also learning about a tool that’s great to use with your clients.  

The “Four Tendencies” is a framework developed by Gretchen Rubin that explains the different ways people respond to expectations. One of the big challenges of everyday life is: “How do I get people—including myself—to do what I want?” This is especially true for those on a coaching and mentoring journey. The Four Tendencies framework reveals how a subtle shift in vocabulary, or a quick conversation, or a minor change in procedure can lead to dramatically improved results. This framework is meant to help us to understand ourselves and others more deeply, not limit anyone’s sense of identity or possibility. You’re not lazy or a procrastinator you just need to understand and work with your tendency better! The Four Tendencies framework helps us to live and work more successfully with others—with less conflict, frustration, puzzlement, and burn-out—when we understand why they might see things differently. 

Rebekah Tyler is a Sensory Support Specialist ASSIST, Staffordshire County Council and Coach in the West Midlands Coaching and Mentoring Pool. She is a Productivity Ninja, Think Productive and Habit Change Coach. The success she’s enjoyed and vast experience gained from teaching and interpreting, paired with extensive knowledge of and fascination with human nature, habits, happiness and personal development has given her the opportunity to coach and teach business owners, leaders, managers, and colleagues in a variety of settings. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-tyler-518947264

https://therebekahtyler.com/

Keynote 1: Michelle O’Neill and Matthew Hotten, #Buildawindmill: Time for a glow up! 

As we face a perfect storm of evolving citizen demands, fiscal constraints, technological upheaval and a fundamental change in the demographics of our workforce, a powerful solution emerges: the synergy of coaching, mentoring and AI. 

They form our “windmill” in the hurricane of change – not just weathering the storm, but harnessing its energy to propel us forward. Coaching and mentoring cultivates adaptability and unlocks human potential, while AI amplifies our capabilities and efficiency. Together, they create a formidable force for innovation and transformation.  

As we prepare for an AI-augmented workforce and the arrival of Generation Alpha, this combination becomes our blueprint for success – and quite frankly an expectation. Ready to build your windmill and lead the charge into this new era? Join Michelle and Matt to start imagining the future.  

Michelle O’Neill, Principal Consultant Leadership and OD, WME: 

Michelle O’Neill has OD (Organisational Development) coursing through her veins like caffeinated rocket fuel, she’s on a mission to turn the status quo into status whoa. Her superpower? Transforming dusty structures, creaky systems, and “we’ve always done it this way” cultural practices into sleek, efficient powerhouses of people led innovation. 

She’s got over 25 years active in the third and public sector and has been on a thrilling adventure through the labyrinth of HR, attempting to master every twist and turn from talent acquisition and onboarding mazes, to the performance management jungle, learning & development peaks, succession planning strategy games, and the ultimate boss level of organizational culture transformation. Her belief still stands: everyone should be #livingtheirbestworklife.  

You’ll find Michelle with stars in her eyes and blueprints in hand, weaving tales of future triumphs into actionable strategies. She love being the champion for possibility, the futurist, sketching out grand designs and then rolling up her sleeves to lay the foundation brick by brick. She’s all about turning “what if” into “what’s next” and “how soon” with people front and centre.  

linkedin.com/in/michelle-o-neill-msc-mcipd-a43857116 

Keynote 1: Michelle O’Neill and Matthew Hotten, #Buildawindmill: Time for a glow up!

Matthew Hotten is a passionate advocate for innovative career development, he wants to inspire young people to explore the rich possibilities within the public sector, particularly in local government. His approach centers on engaging with the next generation, helping them see the meaningful impact they can have in shaping our communities. 

Matt is a firm believer in non-traditional career paths. Rather than advocating for the traditional “career ladder,” he encourages embracing the concept of “squiggly careers” – professional journeys that value diverse experiences and lateral moves as much as vertical progression. This philosophy stems from his own experiences and the changing nature of work in the 21st century. Frankly, if your career path looks like a toddler got busy with a crayon and a piece of paper, you know what he’s talking about! 

Matt is fascinated with senior leadership development; exploring new ways to prepare leaders for the complex challenges of tomorrow’s public service landscape. By combining time-tested wisdom with cutting-edge insights, he aims to cultivate agile, empathetic, and forward-thinking leaders. 

At this conference, he is excited to share his insights on human-centred leadership and career development. After all, flesh and blood beats circuits and code any day of the week and TWICE on a Sunday right?   

linkedin.com/in/matthew-hotten-chartered-mcipd-64222b7 

Keynote 2: Heather Murray – The AI-First Coach and Mentor: Tools, Techniques and Total Wipeouts 

AI is going to transform the world of coaching and mentoring – but perhaps not in the way you might think.  In this engaging session, Heather will look at the ‘art of the possible’ with all things AI for coaches and mentors: from productivity tools to creating your digital twin, demonstrating a range of exciting, cutting-edge tools that will change your every day.  But AI is no silver bullet – Heather will also discuss where AI fails miserably, plus practical strategies to negate its many risks and limitations.  Packed with handy hacks and useful tips, Heather’s enthusiastic keynote will inspire plenty of food for thought. 

Heather Murray is a super talented AI trainer with expertise in applying generative AI in workplace environments, especially in sales, marketing, strategy, and personal productivity.  

Heather holds a First-Class marketing degree, achieved as a mature student in 2018, and has 20 years of hands on experience in marketing and sales, including 4 years running her own marketing agency, which she recently wound down to focus on AI. Since the release of ChatGPT on November 30, 2022, she has dedicated 4 hours daily to understanding generative AI. She offers AI training and consultancy to help non-technical leaders and managers integrate generative AI into their roles, businesses, and client offerings, optimizing operations and enabling new levels of scalability. 

Generative AI empowers employees by reducing “busy work” and freeing up time for them to focus on the most fulfilling aspects of their roles. She provides both virtual and in-person training and consultancy and is a regular speaker at conferences and events. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/accessible-ai/ 

Morning Workshop 1: Kevin Lyons – Coaching and Mentoring in the Digital Age: Uniting Generations, Igniting Change  

How can the opportunities available through technology be used to harness and create synergies across generations? What opportunity does this present to transform coaching and mentoring for generational and organisational benefit? During this session Kevin will share his expertise and provide space for you to explore what this means for your approach. 

Kevin Lyons is a highly experienced Human Resources professional and a commentator on HR trends and topics and business strategy. 

He has greatly enjoyed his career in Human Resources with successful companies, and his passion is Talent, and he is also fascinated by the impact of technology on HR, organizations, and wider generational society, and is an AI champion. He is a graduate in History, believes strongly in evidence-based management, championing tangible change and progress on the inclusion journey, as well as being an expert on ways of working. He also has excellent experience and expertise in mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. 
 
Kevin is a professional in the field of neurodiversity inclusion, and advises companies and speaks widely on the subject. He has spoken at many conferences (most recently the Watercooler at the Excel and the CIPD Festival of Work and Digital Workplace Change conference) as well as featured on podcasts and interviews and articles.  

Morning Workshop 2: Gayle Hudson, Enhancing the EI in an AI world - Embracing our Emotional Intelligence and bringing our full human selves to our coaching and mentoring 

“Emotional intelligence refers to a different way of being smart. EI is a key to high performance, particularly for outstanding leadership. It’s not your IQ, but rather it’s how you manage yourself and your relationships with others”. 

DANIEL GOLEMAN 

We start from the premise that Emotional Intelligence is one of the things that is uniquely human and separates us from robots. This interactive session will explore how we can enhance our own and our clients’ emotional intelligence. 

In paired conversations and small groups we will dig into the areas of Emotional Intelligence: 

Self awareness, Self management, Awareness of others and Managing relationships  

Creating the opportunity to explore how we show up and manage ourselves as coaches and mentors, what we model and how we impact (positively and negatively) our clients. 

Gayle Hudson has a warm, open and creative approach to her work and draws upon a broad range of techniques and tools including positive psychology, NLP and cognitive behavioural coaching. ​ 

With over 25 years of management and senior leadership experience across the public and third sectors, Gayle has specific experience in social care, education, mental health, disability, family support and community development.  Gayle has been coaching since 2012 and has worked as an internal coach at the Open University for many years. 

Gayle runs her own coaching, training and consultancy business, spending about half her time coaching and the other half training and mentoring. She describes herself as practical and creative, often working with images and metaphor to help open up different ways of thinking. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gayle-hudson/

Keynote 3: Sam Issacson – Superhuman Coaching  

Technology is changing the world around us at a pace it’s difficult to keep up with. The world of coaching isn’t immune to this. In this session we will get first-hand experience of how artificial intelligence can be used to fully automate coaching conversations, including seeing the tangible effects of how it is already being used in some NHS Trusts. 

We will explore how professional coaches should respond to this level of disruptive change in order to support our clients as well as possible, and to protect the future of the profession when technologists and venture capitalists have so much sway. 
 
In particular, we will get hands-on by creating artwork using AI to inspire creativity in coaching conversations, embracing irrationality as a tool to unlock the magic of humanity, increasing our ability to support people grappling with challenges that feel impossible. 

Sam Isaacson is a coaching thought leader providing coach training, supervision and organisational advice via his consulting business based in London, supported by a global pool of master-level associates. He is the founder of the Coachtech Collective, a vibrant online community of coaches wrestling with the impact of technology on the coaching ecosystem, and co-founder of AIcoach.chat, an AI-powered non-directive conversation tool that provides individuals with facilitated self-reflection and organisations with rich insights. 
 
With a background in professional services and a unicorn tech startup Sam’s experience includes having chaired the Coaching Professional apprenticeship trailblazer group and sat as an advisory board member for the ICF, the EMCC and Telegraph Media Group. Sam’s expertise lies in the strategic and mature use of coaching within organisations as a driver for systemic change, as well as the use of coaching to enhance delivery. 
 
Sam has written several books on the subject of coaching, including How to Thrive as a Coach in a Digital World (2021), Superhuman Coaching (2022), The Coaching Buyers’ Handbook (2023) and The Digital and AI Coaches’ Handbook (2024). He has also contributed to several other publications, including most notably the chapter on Internal Coaching in The Complete Handbook of Coaching (2023). 
 
Sam has won awards for his cutting-edge thinking on coaching with technology and has been quoted by the Daily Telegraph, Forbes.com, Authority Magazine, Coaching at Work and Choice magazine among others. He often speaks at conferences and events worldwide. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samisaacson/ 

Afternoon Workshop 1: Catherine Needham – The evolution of the 21st Public Sector Servant 

What does it mean to be a 21st Century Public Servant? This question was asked in 2014 and now, ten years later we have returned to it again in the context of pandemic recovery and the other challenges facing public services. 

The world is changing and those in public service roles must continually adapt to the times. How as coaches and mentors can we support those we work with to understand the shifts needed and how they can get there? To make the new research findings as useful as possible for practitioners, a set of coaching cards based around 10 characteristics of the 21st Century Public Servant have been developed. This workshop will give highlights from the new findings and give you the opportunity to use the new cards and explore how they can work most effectively as coaching tools.  

Catherine Needham is Professor of Public Policy and Public Management at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham.  Her research on the public service workforce – the 21st Century Public Servant – has been widely used in practice. She also researches social care. She has published a wide range of articles, chapters and books for academic and practitioner audiences.  Her most recent book was published by Policy Press in 2023 and entitled Social Care in the UK’s Four Nations: Between two Paradigms. 

@DrCNeedham   

https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-needham-11249413/

PM Workshop 2: Let’s Stand Tall – We’re Human after all!

We’re human. We experience life. We have great days; we have gritty days.

Our clients choose us to help them get somewhere they want to be – further and faster than without our support. We step into their shoes. We get to really know them and what makes them tick. Maybe they want our support to overcome their fears, their self-doubt, their lack of confidence, or to create a new purpose or direction – in their work, in their life. Maybe they want to improve their current job or get a new one. Maybe they want to be healthier and happier.

We understand because we are human coaches and Fiona’s session will focus on the value we bring.

Fiona will share stories from her coaching and supervising– from both ‘on the inside’ when on the management teams of two councils to ‘on the outside’ as a semi-retired independent coach.

Tangible Takeaways from the session include Fiona’s tool ‘Finding your MOJO’ to help us work with others – and forcing our own reflections too.

M – What MOTIVATES and gives MEANING (and procrastinate over)

O – What OPTIONS and OPPORTUNITIES are there (there are always choices)

J – What gives us JOY in our work (and in our lives)

O – OOMPH – our coaching kick (when our client is stuck)

Never forget, our clients choose us.

About Fiona Narburgh, Independent Coach and Supervisor

We’ve asked Fiona to do this workshop because her energy and enthusiasm for all things coaching and supervising, we know will leave you inspired.

Fiona’s been coaching with the Pool since 2008. She spent 30 years working in local government with her last role on the management team of two councils managing 60 people. She wrote the Local Government Career Guide and the Everyday Local Heroes Stories during the pandemic interviewing 60 people about their roles and careers. As she loves to learn and to stretch herself, she’s currently training to be a Yoga teacher.

Keynote 4: Hazel Russo- Playing It Forward  

Hazel will use this session to elevate our learning from the conference in a playful and impactful way, harnessing the power of coaching and mentoring to support us with next steps. 

Hazel Russo is the founder and creator of the Lumination® coaching game, a playful approach to people development. Through her speaking, coaching and training she takes people on a powerful journey of transformation and change. She works with leaders and teams to help them gain greater clarity, confidence and courage. These qualities enable people to thrive, creating a culture of innovation, collaboration and growth. 

Hazel has over 20 years’ experience in coaching, training and facilitation, and was Highly Commended on her nomination for the Transforming Lives National Facilitator’s Award in 2023. 

Explore more with Jazz Rasool 

What has the conference got you excited about trying in your coaching and mentoring practice? What questions has it left you with? What do you want to explore more? This session will give you the opportunity reflect on this and to pick the brains of Jazz Rasool who is an Executive Coach providing AI technology to enhance human performance. He is founder of the AI Coaching Alliance providing AI education and research support for coaches. Jazz integrates wisdom from different cultures to enable, empower and enlighten members of the public as well as businesses through Technology Enhanced Learning. He is a Business Coach for the Global Institute for Evolutionary Women, providing coaching programs for Purpose and Impact for 100 International Women Entrepreneurs. In 2021 he was a TEDx presenter at the University of Twente in the Netherlands where he looked at the role of Mental Health in Diversity, Creativity and Innovation. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jazzrasool/