Liz Burgess

Learning and Development Consultant

CIPD Certificate in Human Resource Development (in progress)
Postgraduate Diploma in Adolescent Mental Health
Registered Managers Award
Work based Assessors Award
Structured Systems Analysis Design Methods (IT Project Management methodology)

Liz’s style of training blends the formality of meeting the learning objectives with the informality of meeting the individual participant needs for an energetic, encouraging and challenging learning environment. This approach comes from many years of working in a support environment, whether as a work based qualification assessor, mental health worker or computer support. In each of these roles colleagues and clients were the focus of change and taking on new, more effective approaches. Liz understands how difficult it can be to change procedure, habits, and job roles and supports people to move though the stages of the change process.

Here are a couple of examples of how participants express that: “Excellent, I found Liz warm, friendly and encouraging with constructive criticism”, “….made to feel capable and competent.”

Before Liz joined LEVELheaded in June 2003 she had worked in the non-profit sector for 17 years, taking an IT support role within VSO, and managing mental health services within Look Ahead Housing and Care and Three C’s. She initially joined LEVELheaded as a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) Assessor supporting candidates to achieve their NVQs in Management and Care.

Testimonials:

Working with Liz made the whole process a learning experience that enabled us to create new opportunities to group people with various levels of seniority from different teams who had not previously worked together, capturing imagination and creativity that not only embedded the ethos of coaching but strengthened the essence of ‘team’.

Cathy Baldwin, Organisational Development Manager (Quality), Alzheimer’s Society

Liz understood the needs and context of our organisation incredibly quickly and built this into the design of the project management training. She picked up intuitively on the nuances of the organisation and our people, and designed something that ‘fit’ and had a comfortable pace. The training was also really exciting for participants so that they came away really energised. Liz’s ideas worked really well and she adapted them to fit the organisational needs and the needs of all the participants – it was a diverse group with different levels of experience but they all came away having reflected and learned a great deal.

Jenny Turner, Assistant Director Strategy, Planning & Performance, CLIC Sargent

We recently engaged LEVELheaded to provide a one-day training session to help embed our newly introduced project management standard. Liz worked closely with us to develop a course that met our objectives and also provided a very useful take-away guide to supplement the training. The course itself was excellent and received very positive feedback. Everyone was engaged from the outset and the ‘origami’ exercise in particular was a brilliant way of ensuring everyone could see the value of a more organised approach to project delivery! Throughout the day Liz made sure that delegates understood the Diabetes UK way of doing things and used our templates, guidance and examples of our projects to illustrate points, which helped everyone view their learning in the right context. We have delivered our own in-house training previously but following the success of this first course we have now commissioned Liz to provide sessions throughout 2016 and I am confident it will be money well spent!

Rebecca Bowry, Head of Planning & Performance, Diabetes UK

I have worked with LEVELheaded for nearly 20 years across four different organisations. And the reason is simple; they are the outstanding organisation in their field. The consultants are extensions of our organisation, with shared values, understanding of and commitment to our strategy and to the people agenda we have in place. Our people are our everything and LEVELheaded get that. They work in genuine partnership with us, building and delivering both short term interventions and long term organisational development strategies to ensure our people are equipped, enabled and empowered to play their crucial part in our mission and vision. The value for money we get from LEVELheaded and the truly synergistic partnership we have with them means that they will always be my first choice. I recommend them whole-heartedly and absolutely.

Brett Terry, Director of People and Organisational Development, Alzheimer’s Society

Participants feedback:

I think Liz is excellent at getting a good balance of theory, putting into practice and having fun.

Lynne Seguss, Team Leader, Associated Boards of the Royal Schools of Music

Participants feedback:

It’s testament to the quality and relevance of the training, that so much of it has stuck with me and become part of everyday work for me, 5 years later.

Emily Candler, Executive Director, Exhibition Road Cultural Group