How we work

At Revma Consulting, our work is guided by the following principles. We enact these cultural norms and standards because we aspire to be a multicultural organisation*.


Be power literate

Being power literate means being able to see it, understand it and use it wisely.

We seek to learn how power operates. Anyone driven to make a difference and create change, uses power to achieve their ambitions. Power permeates everything we do. The onus is on each of us to develop immunity to the corrupting potential of power.

 
 

Empowered people, empower people

We empower others instead of creating helpless dependency.

The more freedom leaders can give people around them, the more freedom those people go on to give others. We believe in empowering people and communities to do their own work to achieve their aspirations. We don’t just help people achieve a goal, we set them up to be able to support themselves and others to do the same in future.

Observe, observe, observe

Observing means taking a curious rather than directive stance in the world.

The more leaders observe, the more they notice. The more leaders notice, the more insightful and relevant their actions become and the more influence they have.

 
 

Ask, never assume

We ask with a sense of curiosity, instead of assuming that we know it all.

If observing is about soaking in the world, asking is about wading out to understand other people’s experience of the same world. This also means we make the implicit, explicit.

Know how much is enough

We don’t eat up the world faster than it can replenish.

We create realistic work plans. We design projects to match the skills, availability and energy of the people who will be involved. We ensure that any cost/benefit analysis includes all the costs, not just the financial ones. For example the cost in morale, the cost in credibility, and the cost in the use of natural resources*.

 
 

Capability building

We leave people with more skills than when we started working together.

Every step of the project is an opportunity for us to learn from each other. We create the conditions for knowledge and capability transfer throughout.

 * We draw inspiration from racial equity work and Dismantling Racism.

For more specific details of how I work, see here.