The Bridge

Our Story

Those of you who lead or manage people will recognize the challenge of doing business in the networked 21st century. Time is finite, resources are scarce, corners are cut… What you see isn’t always what you get, and integrity is often put to one side in the pressure to deliver short term results ever more impressively.

It’s clear that this way of working is unsustainable. It impacts our health, happiness and relationships. We need to do things differently…

We launched the Conscious Project in 2012 to bring together ‘thinking people’ who are part of a growing movement of individuals seeking to do business differently. People who are committed to working ethically, and who have a deep respect for the environment and for life. In other words ‘conscious’ people.
 

In many ways our own conscious project began in the early 1990s when we came together to work with children and young people in the UK and Europe, nurturing them, encouraging them, and inspiring them to social action.

Through more than 20 years and across the private, public, not-for-profit and voluntary sectors, we have done our best to inspire conscious leadership and conscious living.

Today, we work with anyone or any organisation that is thinking about what they’re doing, and bringing about social change.

—

Abi Green & Ben Emmens
November 2012
 

Ben Emmens

BA (Hons) MA MCIPD FRSA
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Profile

Ben is a senior consultant with more than 25 years international experience in leadership, management and consulting. He has particular expertise in Human Resources Management and Organisation Development in the non-profit sector where he has consulted, taught and written on organisational strategy, change, collaboration, governance, leadership development, capacity assessment and development, surge capacity, staff care and wellbeing, and a wide range of people management issues. He has worked in more than 60 countries around the world, for well known non-profits including UNICEF, UNHCR, UNFPA, the Red Cross, Save the Children, Oxfam, CARE, World Vision, the IRC, Mercy Corps, ActionAid, Habitat for Humanity, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Scouts and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy as well as governments and private sector companies including Dell Technologies and Airbnb. His book ‘Conscious Collaboration’ was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2016 and he writes and publishes extensively.

Professional background

Since 2012, Ben has been a Director at the ‘Conscious Project’, (www.theconsciousproject.org) a UK based firm which provides ‘conscious’ consultancy services to organisations committed to social change. Consulting assignments have included facilitating strategy, undertaking organisational reviews and evaluations, assessing capacity and designing and delivering leadership development and management development programmes, and providing coaching and mentoring to senior managers and executives (C-Suite). His particular expertise is in HR and OD, instructional and learning design for adults, and in humanitarian capacity and response. Ben also co-founded the ‘Coaching Story’ which developed and supported transformational coaches to create positive, lasting change within their communities.

Between 2003 and 2012, Ben was a Director at People In Aid - a non-profit, global network of more than 200 organisations dedicated to improving the quality and impact of aid and development through better people management. People In Aid merged in 2015 to become the CHS Alliance. As Director for HR Services, Ben had a range of responsibilities including research, learning, consultancy, advocacy, and partnership building within complex collaborations including the Emergency Capacity Building Project and the Start Network - a Consortium of International Non-Governmental organisations. Among his achievements was leading the development of the Core Humanitarian Competencies Framework for the humanitarian sector globally, and the Context humanitarian capacity development programmes.

Between 2001 and 2003 Ben worked for Save the Children UK and was part of the international human resources team, working with a wide range of emergency and development programmes around the world.

Between 1996 and 2001, Ben was an Associate Director at Design Research Unit, an international, multi-disciplinary architecture and design consultancy. He had project management, proposal development and marketing responsibilities and also acted as the senior management lead on HR & Learning, quality management (ISO 9001), corporate social responsibility, facilities management and IT.

Between 1994 and 1995, Ben was an English lecturer at the University of Angers, France. Prior to that Ben worked in the world of cycling and sports marketing.

 Education and qualifications

Ben received his masters (MA) in Personnel & Development from University of Westminster in 2001, and his bachelors (BA Hons) in French with Spanish from University of London, Goldsmiths’ College, in 1994. He is a certified full member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2013. He is a certified facilitator, coach and partnership broker, and member of the International Association of Facilitators, the International Coaching Federation and the Partnership Brokers Association. He works with many tools including KAOS Pilots learning methodologies and IDEO’s design thinking and is accredited by the British Psychological Society to use a range of psychometric instruments. Ben is a British national and is currently based in the UK. He works in English, French and Spanish.

Abi Green

BSc (Hons) MSc
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Profile

Abi has been a Director of The Conscious Project since its foundation in 2012. Our mission is to bring values and conscious thinking into work, encapsulated by our motto: ‘think about what you’re doing’. Abi brings a holistic perspective and a coaching approach to individuals and teams she supports, to equip them towards self-management and ensure that change is effective and lasting. Abi developed hands-on leadership experience over 16 years of supporting personal development within clinical and management roles in the UK National Health Service.

 Abi is accredited by the British Psychological Society as a practitioner for the Myers-Briggs and 16PF tools. She is a certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Abi is committed to continuous learning and during August - September 2020 completed a 6-week Time to Think Foundation Course to further develop her work with groups and individuals.

 Through her work with the Conscious Project, Abi has pursued her passion for making high-quality learning accessible to all. Selected recent assignments have required her to apply a strong theoretical grounding in learning access issues, barriers to learning, inter-sectionalities and their impact on inclusion in learning, for example the British Red Cross’s Cash Practitioner Development Programme (2019), IRC’s Emergency Needs Assessment Blended Learning Program (2020-2021), and the Raising Voices! Project’s transition of its Organizational Transformation Training to the remote online environment (2020-2021). Abi draws on her long experience of a coaching approach with individuals and face-to-face group facilitation across many cultural settings, to use realistic and effective methods that engage and include participants, to deliver meaningful change.

A recent project illustrating Abi’s current practice in learning design involved orchestrating a diverse team of subject experts and leaders in geographically dispersed locations, to update a suite of training materials on Preventing Sexual Harassment and Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in humanitarian organizations. Abi supported the project manager, authored many of the online materials, managed subject matter expert inputs and oversaw translation of all the materials by a team of associates. She edited for plain English and created supporting e-learning, audio and audio-visual materials for facilitators and participants in 3 languages. She supported the design and facilitation of a remote Training of Trainers to socialise the materials and develop remote/online training skills for staff and partners, and oversaw the delivery of the ToT in English and French.

 As a Podiatrist she is a current registrant of the UK HCPC (Health & Care Professions Council) having maintained CPD to recognized standards. A speaker at the 2013 College Of Podiatry Conference (Liverpool, UK), she has continued to lecture in her specialist clinical area. She received her BSc(Hons) in Podiatric Medicine from University College London in 1997, and between 1997-2000 worked as a Community Podiatrist in the East End of London, where her keen interest emerged in clinical governance, audit, and translating research findings into meaningful clinical innovation. She developed a clinical style that promotes patient choice and ownership of their health, which translated readily into a coaching style of management for her staff.

 Abi has travelled widely since 1994 delivering training and support to professionals, local community members and young people in a variety of in-country settings. Her coaching portfolio is particularly focused on supporting diversity and women in leadership. To enhance her work with people with additional needs she has a certificate in British Sign Language.

 As an extension of her keen interest in learning, Abi completed both Part I and II of the KaosPilots Art & Craft of Designing & Facilitating Learning Spaces training, and in Spring 2020 was awarded a distinction for her Master’s degree in Professional Practice (Learning Design) by Middlesex University.