CHRIS GRANT
What started in childhood as a fascination with the way people move has evolved into a passion and skillset directed at learning, culture, change, mediation and effective actions.
I’ve been CEO of a successful UK-wide charity (Sported); chaired one of the UK’s biggest ever behaviour-changes programmes (Chip & PIN); tutored medal-winning coaches in the Olympic and Paralympic sports and spoken to gatherings ranging from NHS Medical Directors to the Innovation Team of a leading telecoms business to the inaugural World Cities Forum.
Some of my learning about group facilitation and leadership is distilled into a set of tools, which underpin the regular Me We workshops that I run. My book, Better Decisions, also draws from thousands of days facilitating learning and strategy formulation.
Equally at home in the private, public and voluntary sectors, I’ve been a long-term advocate and activist for social justice and equity. In 2008, I became a member of the Commission on the Future of Women’s Sport; I was a Member of Comic Relief’s UK Grants Committee, and have been a Trustee of charities including Common Purpose. From 2010, I worked with a small group of volunteers to deliver a life-changing programme for young people in the East End of London in the run-up to the 2012 Games.
Adolescent experience working in hospitality and retail fuelled my determination to provide consistently high levels of service to clients and participants. A little later, taking the non-partisan chair or mediator role in the student politics of the turbulent 1980’s taught me an immense amount about navigating conflict and finding consensus.
Having completed terms on the Sport England Board and the Financial Services Culture Board, I now Chair the British Basketball Federation. Sport has become a focal point for much of my paid and volunteer work, and led to my being awarded an OBE, but I still enjoy working in different contexts and environments. I mentor a small number of younger leaders, and am convinced that a new generation is ready to take on the challenges and opportunities of these times. I’m promoting this idea through a series of conversations under the banner of RE:GEN. Maybe I’ll see you there – or we can continue the conversation in a way that suits you.
Chris Grant MSc. OBE
Conductor
It’s always about the group. Every group is different, and the “vibe” in a single group can change in an instant. I can’t be at my best unless I’m helping bring the best out of everyone in the room. That applies if it’s a workshop, where each participant will take their own learning away with them. It’s also true in a keynote, where my voice is the only one heard, but the value lies in what resonates or remains with each audience member. I’ll always take the topic seriously, but be careful not to take myself too seriously.
“In fifteen years of planning conferences and working with many different facilitators, I have never had the pleasure of collaborating with anyone quite like Chris Grant. The depth, dimension and cohesion he adds to our gatherings is extraordinary. He is not only a brilliant facilitator who draws more out of speakers and participants alike; he is also a masterful orchestrator of themes and threads woven into the program from the very early design stages. Chris’s impact on our conference has been, in a word, transformative.”
Navigator
I’m a Black man, who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. I had an early education in reading the room (or the street); decoding power structures and affecting the atmosphere. Little can be taken for granted, so keeping eyes and ears open is a core skill that I’ve applied on my own behalf and on behalf of those I’ve worked with. Experience tells me that, while conditions can change quickly, it’s critical to locate your North Star. If you do that, you can get to places that might have seemed unreachable.
Leader
From Head Chorister to School Captain to Student Union General Secretary to CEO to Board Chair, the buck has stopped with me often enough to empathise with those who carry the burden / privilege of Accountability. My favourite quote about leadership comes from Max De Pree: “The first responsibility of the leader is to define reality. The last is to say ‘Thank you’. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.”
“I have been very grateful for your understanding of the artistry and science of decision-making, and your commitment and engagement across the spectrum of governance activity. Your ability to ask difficult questions constructively, to call in as well as call out, and to make Board discussion more than the sum of its parts will make you a hard act to follow.”
