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EXPERTISE

Leadership and Learning Matters

Behaviour Matters

Purpose Matters

HELPING TRANSFORM

Making leadership, learning

Organisations

Governance Matters

People Matters

and culture matter!

“You don’t build a business… you build people and they build the business”. (Zig Ziglar)

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve spent a lot of time supporting and evaluating different sizes and types of organisations with their people matters, and through these experiences have gained strong insight and expertise as to what enables organisations to be highly effective, impactful and successful.

Based in the West Midlands, Shipway Consulting Ltd shares this learning by providing people-led solutions – whether its for your team, organisation, across a place or the wider system that you work within.

Supporting with a wide range of services, from advice and support to project management and contract consultancy, I provide professional and bespoke solutions tailored to suit your needs.

I focus on those matters which matter most – your purpose, governance, strategy, people and culture.

Helping you build your organisational effectiveness by being clear on your why, what and how – all whilst ensuring your people sit at the heart of everything you do.

Purpose Matters

Supporting you to develop a strong, purposeful and aligned overall strategic direction and approach.

Leadership and Learning matters

Supporting you to develop self-aware, authentic, dynamic, curious, resilient and collaborative leaders.

People Matters

Helping you to develop a high performance culture with clear, practical and effective guidance, frameworks and support.

Behaviour Matters

Supporting you to improve productivity, teamwork and communication across your workforce with credible, cost-effective and easy to use tools.

Governance Matters

Focusing beyond compliance to develop strong learning and improvement to build better future Boards.

Purpose Matters

Helping you develop a strong, purposeful and aligned overall organisational strategic approach.

Leadership and Learning matters

Supporting you to unleash the potential of your people by developing self-aware, dynamic, resilient and collaborative leaders across all levels of your organisation.

People Matters

Helping you to develop a high performance culture through effective management and clear people frameworks with practical guidance and solutions.

Behaviour Matters

Supporting you to improve productivity, teamwork and communication across your workforce through credible, cost effective, easy to use and results driven tools.

Governance Matters

Building better boards using evaluation tools which look beyond compliance and support learning and improvement at the highest levels of your organisation.

Why choose Shipway Consulting?

My success is based on understanding local, being independent and sharing expertise...

Local

Understanding the value of place means I know (or get to know very quickly!) your audience, customer and employee base and give you bespoke support relevant to your local needs.

Independent

I don't offer corporate off-the-shelf one-size-fits-all manuals but practical no-nonsense solutions which fit with your needs and approach. I've spent time understanding what works and what doesn't and have learnt the best solutions to apply.

Expert

As a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD with a wealth of experience across leadership, organisational development, learning, coaching and HR I can deliver you one-stop shop advice, guidance, tools and solutions.

Testimonials

See what my clients say

The Fruitful Toolbox

Heidi Blakeway, Director

Alison supported me introducing L&D professionals to Everything DiSC® profiling tools; she is a real expert in developing high performing teams through understanding yourself and others. As a personal mentor and coach I couldn’t recommend her enough!

Beacon

Arwyn Jones, Chief Executive

Ali introduced our new Executive Leadership team to the Everything DiSC tool and helped us explore our personalities, team behaviours and ways of working. Ali was engaging, knowledgeable and passionate and designed interactive sessions engaging all of us, inspiring confidence in her abilities, and creating a relaxed atmosphere which helped us get the most out of our time together.

Happy Giraffe

Heidi Cooper, Director

After ten years in business, we were looking to undertake a radical internal restructure – moving to a customer centric approach. Alison worked with us to identify the best method for understanding our staff and ensure that the new teams moved quickly from forming to performing. Using Belbin, Ali designed a bespoke workshop using engaging and interactive exercises – just right for our team. She ensured that the senior management team understood fully how the profiles could add value to our (…)

Active Black Country

Ian Carey, Director

Alison has supported Active Black Country and myself at a time of significant change for the partnership and sports sector, driving, creating and leading change which has seen a revision to the partnership’s strategic direction, organisational structure and ways of working. Ali’s approach has been instrumental in developing the revised focus of the business vision; her ability to understand and make connections across a breadth of strategic drivers has contributed considerably. She has very(…)

Techys 2 u

Tim Bailey, Director

As a small business we needed external support to help us manage a difficult and sensitive employee relations issue. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending Alison’s highly easy to follow advice and guidance.

Shooting Stars Nurseries

Natalie McNamara, Area Manager

Hi Alison. I just wanted to say how valuable the recent performance management training was for the Shooting Stars management team. The information provided was extremely useful and prompted lots of thought into how we currently manage staff performance and how our investigation and disciplinary procedures can be strengthened. The content and delivery of the day was fantastic and certainly exceeded my expectations. The training was full of practical tips and the interactive approach was exc(…)

Ikea UK Ltd

Linton Scarborough, Deputy CFO

Ali simply excels at coaching, where her probing and insight, delivered in an inspiring and empathetic way, has enabled me and many others to better achieve our Company mission and ‘deliver far more of our human potential.

County Durham Sport

Dr Maxine Rhodes, Managing Director

Coming to a new organisation, I wanted to find someone who would help me develop learning as a core part of our new culture. I needed someone who ‘got it’ and I found that person when I saw Ali speak at a National Conference. I thought I would enjoy working with her and I wasn’t wrong.

Ali’s approach is very people focused and she gets the business of partnership. She has helped us shaped what our approach might look like, has given us guidance and support and encouraged us to trial and ad(…)

Energise Me

Julie Aimes, CEO, Energise Me

“It is very evident that you really understand the purpose and role of Active Partnerships and your background, skills and experience really added value to our process. You are very credible which meant I could have confidence in you and what you bring when we have valued internal and external colleagues in the conversations – thank you !”

Halesowen College

Les Williams, NHS Director and Chair of Governors

Alison was recruited to provide a personnel and organisational development perspective to the governing body of Halesowen College, as well as bringing skills in strategic business planning. Along with being personable and able to commnicate well her ideas and experience, Alison brought considerable added value to the College. This was most evident in debates about strategic positioning, with Alison offering advice to ensure that the strategic priorities were progressed through effective bus(…)

SRC Accountancy Services Ltd

Simon Cook, Managing Director

Alison works with a number of our clients who are really happy with the services she provides. She is always flexible to the needs of a small business and has provided invaluable professional and knowledgeable advice. She always delivers in excess of expectations, without any fuss and unfailingly with a smile. I could not recommend her highly enough!

Oakley House Children’s Home

Neil Mason, Director

Our established business needed some direction and vision so Alison devised and delivered, amongst other activities, a key workshop for our team. We spent two days creating our core values and strategic intent based on our ways of working and team dynamics; the sessions were interactive and creative but most importantly relevant to our unique business needs. It has helped us immensely understand what is important to us and how we can achieve it.

Bright Matter Resourcing Ltd

Marie Faulkner, Founder and Director

I have been an associate of Ali’s for many years and have really valued her advice, support and expertise as a business owner myself and as an expert working in the learning sector. As a genuine learning leader she embodies the values and behaviours sought after by many organisations I support and really understands, in practical terms, the true value that strong cultures and learning approaches can bring.

Think 4 Wellbeing

Jo Metcalfe, Founder and Director

Ali and I connected working with Quest carrying out improvement assessments across the Active Partnership network. Since then we have continued to support each other and work together sharing similar values, principles and like minds in improving the health and wellbeing of our nation. She is highly collaborative and always challenges my thinking, providing insightful perspectives as well as innovative ideas. As a result we have built an Associate partnership way of working together and (…)

Dudley MBC

Jacqueline Branch, HR&OD Director

“Alison supported us to co-design our People Strategy for our entire workforce. She provided much needed resource, experience and expertise us helping us to focus on what matters most to us and how we want to drive organisational and cultural change across the whole Council”. I would highly recommend her and hope to work together again in the future”.

Get Berkshire Active

Brett Nicholls, CEO

“Shipway consulting provided an exceptionally professional and thorough external board governance review to GBA culminating in a highly practical and insightful report. Ali went beyond just governance assurance and provided us with a forward looking account of where we could continue to improve. The board discussion following the report was open and honest and moved the board’s thinking in a very positive direction. We are very grateful to Ali for her professionalism and insight and I wo(…)

Active Surrey

Elizabeth Duggan, CEO Active Surrey

Active Surrey worked with Ali Shipway to complete our External Board and Governance Evaluation. Whilst Ali was really thorough in terms of our compliance, the real value was derived from her focus on the board’s strategic direction, composition and impact. She left us with clear and actionable recommendations which will help us move forward, not just as a board but across the organisation as a whole. We’ll be working again soon I’m sure!

Ruth George HR Consulting

Ruth George, Director Ruth George HR Consulting

I have connected with Ali since we worked together at NEXT Ltd over 20 years ago. During that time she developed a reputation as a well respected and liked practitioner. She had a broad knowledge across all of HR but was especially skilled at building relationships at senior levels with a highly professional and straightforward approach. Since then we have maintained a genuinely valued relationship as she continues to provide insightful and thought-provoking advice and coaching to my busi(…)

Live Action Leisure

Linton Scarborough, Chairman

I have known, worked with and been supported by Ali for over 15 years. She is a consummate professional equipped with the skills, abilities and expertise necessary to add value to all sizes of organisations. She excels at coaching, where her probing and insight, delivered in an inspiring and empathetic way has enabled me and many others to deliver far more of our potential. Her understanding of leadership in the world of physical activity has been so influential in my thinking and actions a(…)

Halesowen College Entreprises Ltd

Les Williams, NHS Director and Chair of Governors

As an Executive Director of HCE Ltd Alison bought exceptional organisational development and strategic business planning skills. Following her role on the Trustee Board, where she added considerable value to the College, she took on this key accountability bringing a very clear sense of business and through her well developed ability to work as a critical friend, she skill-fully combined challenge and support to achieve progression. Along with being personable and able to commnicate well he(…)

British Triathlon

Michelle Hayden, Head of Coaching

“The mentoring relationship Ali and I have developed over the last year could not have been more impactful! Her style and approach has enabled me to look at things in a different way, reflect and help build my confidence about my skills and future. She asked poignant questions, listened, supported and has drawn things out of me I hadn’t previously considered… I’ve now taken on a new role within a new organisation and have credited Ali with a large part of my desire and ability to have done (…)

Severn Academies Education Trust

“Ali has a different approach to governance which is really helping to shift our thinking around compliance and Board ways of working. As well as understanding the principles of key codes of governance and how to apply them, she is helping us transition to being a more effective strategic team who are better connected, informed and purpose driven.

Yorkshire Sport Foundation

Nigel Harrison, CEO

‘Ali lead our strategy review as we knew she had a deep understanding of the type of work we do and would bring fresh thinking to us. We’re delighted we did. Ali worked extensively with our partners and our team, listening to their thoughts, reflecting them back to us to give us real, tangible learnings for us to build upon. Her approach was both challenging and supportive. Throughout the process Ali was great at interpreting our thoughts, changing things when needed, and was flexible in th(…)

Sport Sheffield

Andrew Cox, Director of Sport and Physical Activity

I would have to say I am a very strong advocate of Alison’s professional approach to developing a strategic plan for our organisation.

From our very first correspondence and subsequent introductory meeting, Alison has been a joy to work with resulting in a high quality process, project, and piece of work all within the timeline and budget outlined.

Alison has actively listened, positively challenged, posed suitable questions, investigated and accurately interpreted both our own feedb(…)

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My Clients

See what some of the organisations I've worked with say