About Ascolto
Our vision is that we will make more of a contribution than our customers ever expected, and every individual, team and organisation that trusts us to help them, thrives even more as a result.
About Ascolto and its People
Kris Bush is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist: a specialist in understanding people’s behaviour and performance in the workplace, as individuals, in teams and in the wider organisational context.
Kris has focused much of her work on coaching, mentoring and assisting board level, senior and middle leaders in their personal development, (in the public, private and voluntary sectors).
I first met Kris whilst working for Ofwat and as we began our business transformation programme which included deep cultural change within the organisation. I approached Kris to help design and deliver a ‘giving and receiving feedback’ workshop that we had identified as a need following our staff survey at the time. Kris was meticulous in her approach, asking questions, challenging me where necessary and guiding me on approaches that she knew would work. The finished product was a highly interactive and experiential learning workshop that proved a significant changer in the way feedback was perceived, and actually used within the organisation. Over a 15 month programme of delivery well over 85% of the people in post at the time completed the workshop. When I joined The Careers & Enterprise Company in 2019 and a similar need for feedback upskilling was identified I approached Kris to help design an intervention. We could have just done a ‘lift and shift’ of our previous workshop however Kris rightly felt we needed to bespoke for the particular organisation. Again detailed analysis and a session with senior leadership to determine what the organisation wanted from this exercise helped design a very different approach and one where we targetted teams. Again highly interactive and successful.
I have worked with Kris a number of times in my career, both as a personal executive coach and as a facilitator. In both capacities Kris has been brilliant. Helping me bring teams through re-organisations and getting a sense of identity. She provides excellent insight and challenge. She brings her psychology insights to help you and teams identify the problems and challenges, and tailor solutions to what’s needed. As a personal coach she is great at getting you to think laterally and through all the options, while knowing exactly when to be challenging and making sure you identify options and solutions. Overall, I’d completely recommend Kris.
David is a Chartered Engineer, graduate in psychology and holds a doctorate in engineering. He is a qualified executive and career coach, a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Chartered Institute of Management, the British Psychological Society and the Association of Coaching.
His work focus is on releasing potential in people and teams through bringing clarity and creativity to workplace problems and opportunities.
After working in a variety of organisations and teams, he has come to realise that the most important quality of effective working is having fun!
Space to Think
“My experience with Space to Think was exceptional. As a Professor of Computer Science, it is often the case that we do not have time and space to think about new research problems and solutions. The two days activity allow me to think “out of the box”, brainstorm about new research questions and possible ways to investigate these questions, as well as come up with prioritisation of next steps. All of that was, supported by a technique and in an environment in which the brain could flow without any barriers or constraints. David’s coaching was paramount to support the entire process. I really enjoyed the whole experience and have used the method afterwards, in smaller ways, to support my work.”
David is a hugely intelligent man with a fund of ideas about how to go about solving the innumerable problems of any larger enterprise. His greatest asset is that he realises that it is only through the people that this can be done, and his coaching and mentoring skills are excellent. David is someone who gets a true sense of achievement from seeing others do well – and anyone who recognises the real rarity of that trait will also appreciate what David has to offer.