GARDENERS NOT MECHANICS

How to Cultivate Change at Work

Learn how to create lasting change by
thinking like a gardener not a mechanic.

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Workshop overview in a 2½ minutes video bite.

This 2½ minute will give you a snapshot of what you will learn and how the workshop is structured...but you scroll can down for lots of detail.

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WORK TOGETHER WITH ME AND A GROUP OF OTHER SMART PEOPLE ON A CHANGE THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU
A Workshop Over 6 weeks

You already know that existing recipes for change rarely deliver lasting results. Those 30-year-old recipes and zombie ideas assume the world of work is predictable like a machine, that the same inputs produce the same outputs, time after time.

But the world of work isn't like a machine; it's an unpredictable ecosystem, full of interdependencies, with many elements outside your control. To make lasting change, you need to embrace unpredictability, not try to control it. You need to think like a gardener not a mechanic.

You can scroll down to read about my 30-year journey from mechanic to gardener, the failures and the successes. And in this workshop, I'll share everything that I've learned so you don't have to go through the same pain that I did.

You will work with me and the other participants on a real change you want to make right now, "YOUR CHANGE", not a case study, to experience what it is like to think and act like a gardener.

  • Understand why existing recipes and zombie ideas have been failing for 30 years.
  • Define your change's purpose and vision in a way that brings them to life.
  • Draw the ecosystem into which your change needs to fit.
  • Design your change so it fits your ecosystem and will prosper.
  • Define how you will maintain your change for success.
  • Create your personal plan for change leadership
  • Work together with a team of like-minded people on your change.
  • Get multiple perspectives on your change from other smart people.

Workshop Schedule and Structure

First live session on Thursday 27th January at 18:30 UTC

It's likely that I'll drop the first video content on Friday 21st January and may run the first of the regular Tuesday Q&A sessions on 25th January, if there is interest in doing so.


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How I learned to cultivate change like a gardener

At the beginning of January 1994, I started a new role. I was fresh from a company-sponsored MBA programme at Warwick Business School, and I was supposed to be a hot-shot. My new challenge was to lead a major change programme, and I was terrified. As I walked through the door on my first day, all of the faces in the open-plan office turned to me, the new boss. I smiled confidently, but my stomach was in a knot. I was suffering a bad case of Imposter Syndrome. In reality, I was a theory hot-shot with no experience leading change.

And no one, least of all my new boss, was interested in change management theory or any other type of theory I learned on my MBA. My boss, who had initiated the programme I now inherited, made it clear that my reputation depended on my ability to deliver £x million in cost savings by the end of the following year. "The clock is ticking," he told me.

It turned out that the change programme comprised 12 projects, most of them already underway. It took only four weeks for two of the projects to go disastrously off the rails. Over the next two years, I got my real education in change leadership. I learned the importance of building relationships and limiting risk through experiments while still delivering significant change that sticks.

My team pruned out about half of the 12 projects we started with and planted new ones to make up the shortfall. We still had failures but ensured they failed quickly and cheaply. Without realising it, we had become gardeners.

Over the next twenty years, my education continued, sometimes as a leader and sometimes as an advisor to leaders. I experimented with new ideas, updated existing ones and let go of others whose time had passed. Sometimes ideas worked out, and sometimes not.

Then while running a workshop for a client's "Emerging Leaders Forum", I was asked a question and found myself saying, "try thinking and acting like a gardener, not a mechanic". And before I could explain what I meant, participants started to chip in with ideas about what it would mean to be a gardener at work. The room ran with the analogy and used it as a tool to generate and explore novel ideas and pathways, using concepts that were already familiar. It was systems and complexity thinking without the jargon.

Then along came the pandemic, and I put what I had learned, in nearly 30 years of leading change§, into a book, "Gardeners Not Mechanics: How to Cultivate change at work". The positive response to the book, from experienced change practitioners, exceeded my expectations. And this workshop is based on that book.

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Gary Lloyd

Get Exclusive Access & More

This is a unique opportunity to work closely with me across 8 weeks. I'll be leading like a gardener, so will respond to the needs expressed by participants, as we work together, rather than stick to a rigid pre-determined structure.

Video & Exercises

Every Friday I will release short videos that explain the coming week's key ideas, and ask you to prepare something to share and discuss in Thursday's group work.

Group work

Every Thursday, you will work in small groups and also in the full group to discuss what you prepared. There will also be a drop in Q&A the preceding Tuesday, to ensure you have everything you need for the group work.

121 Coaching

Only for this founders workshop, there will be a one-on-one coaching session that you can use at any time within 30 of the end of of the core 6 weeks.

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£1900

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Founding Member Perks

  • 6 Week workshop(Value £1250)
  • Perk #1: One-to-one coaching session (Value £350)
  • Perk #2: 2 extra group coaching (Value £300)
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30-day money back guarantee if you are not completely satisfied - no questions asked.

Reviews From Amazon
What People Have Said About the Book
Full of change management and leadership gems.
Derek H. Managing Director | Manufacturing Technology Services
A highly insightful way of thinking about change.
Matthew A. Process & Systems Thinking consultant
A great way to change your approach to building and bringing change.
Costas B. | Engineering Manager | Digital Incentives
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What Clients Have Said About Me
Helped me make the move from director to Board Member.
David S. Operations Director | Energy Supply
Helped me arrive an insight that completely changed my career direction.
Sarah D. Law Firm Partner
Helped me approach change in a fundamentally different way.
Julie F. Business Development Exec | Global Software Company
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, this course will show you how to think about change and give you practical steps you can take. Whatever your approach, be it a version of agile or waterfall, the mindset from the workshop will be complementary. It will be as well as not instead of.
Everyone who enrols in the workshop has to accept the "Terms of Use" which includes a legally binding Confidentiality Agreement / Non Disclosure Agreement. The terms say that information gleaned from other participants cannot be shared or used outside the workshop without explicit consent from the sharer.
You are very welcome to do so but what you will miss out on is working with a groups of like-minded individuals on a real change that is important to you.
Then this course is not for you. If you just want the core ideas then read the book and watch the bite-sized videos on the Gardeners Not Mechanics Youtube Channel.
All plenary sessions will be recorded and shared soon after. However, the smaller team working, in groups of 3/4 that take place on Thursdays will not be recorded.
There is a 100% money-back, no questions asked guarantee.
Then this course is not for you. If you just want the core ideas then read the book and watch the bite-sized videos on the Gardeners Not Mechanics Youtube Channel.
No, agile approaches such as Scrum and Kanban focus on delivering a product. This workshop will show you how to think about the environment into which you deliver that product, such that the organisation realises the value of the product.