Ten years ago, Chris had what he likes to call “an enforced opportunity”. It was an opportunity because it gave him the luxury of time. Time to sit back and reflect. A theme of change quickly started to emerge. Three vastly different careers, five different homes in five different countries, four languages, three relationships and starring roles for two dogs pay testimony to this.
Once the theme had been established, the key topics were quick to follow. What makes some changes easy to deal with? What makes others more challenging? Two fields beckoned with a cosmos of answers. Positive Psychology and Neuroscience.
A Masters in Applied Positive Psychology helped him to understand better how a positive approach can be learned and worked on to produce a growth mindset .
Neuroscience, by its very nature, offered many answers, but also posed many more questions. Over the last decade, Chris has been fortunate enough to collaborate closely with some of the world’s leading neuroscientists, particularly in social and cognitive neuroscience.
Along the way, Chris learned to respect an old truism - nothing beats a one-to-one conversation. A large part of his work with individuals, teams and organisations is to improve thinking and behaviour. A simple and effective way of doing this is to radically improve the quality of their conversations.
Continuing research with one of the world’s leading psychologists, Carol Dweck, in the area of Fixed and Growth Mindset at Stanford University in California, and his work as an Associate Director of The NeuroLeadership Institute, allow Chris access to cutting edge thinking around change, the mind and the brain.
The happy and fruitful communion of this academic work with 50 years of life experience in an ever changing and challenging world has led Chris to today.
“A big thank you for facilitating a wonderful session at JSW for our leaders . It was indeed a session with maximum impact , and like before, your cutting edge delivery technique helped me to get the internal buy in to take this course to the next level.
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History
Before his current career Chris worked in the Advertising and Communications sector holding leadership roles with Chime Communications, the Lowe Group, Grey and DMB&B (D’Arcy). Chris also worked as a consultant for The Idea Factory, specialising in the areas of experience design, creativity and innovation, producing customised solutions for clients, creating challenging and creative approaches leading to innovative answers.
Prior to his business career Chris was a professional actor appearing on stage in Londons West End as well as on TV and in films such as the internationally acclaimed Evita starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas.
He was also and cabaret singer in Paris for three years specialising in jazz and blues.