Creating Space for Better Conversations
As the Chief Executive of the charity Services For Education (SFE), Sharon is careful about where she invests time and money. External consultancies are something her organisation rarely uses, so when the opportunity arose to work with Curium after being selected in their International Women’s Day competition in 2026, she wanted to make sure it focused on something that would create genuine value.
Services For Education uses the power of learning and of music to create and build confidence amongst children, young people, adults and communities across the city of Birmingham. The Senior Leadership Team holds monthly collaboration sessions to align on their strategic outputs, and on this occasion, Curium were invited to support.
Rather than tackling a broad strategic challenge, Sharon chose to use the session to help her Senior Leadership Team plan their annual all-colleague event, the one opportunity each year to bring more than 220 colleagues together in person.
“It needed to be something that was real, but also containable within one conversation,” Sharon explained. “A conversation that created lots of actions we might never get to wasn’t going to help us.”
Curium’s consultants, Donna and Henriette, quickly adapted to Sharon’s priorities and rearranged their diaries to facilitate the session ahead of the team’s next away day. Their flexibility meant the workshop could support a live business need rather than becoming a theoretical exercise.
Although Sharon is an experienced coach and facilitator herself, she recognised the value that independent facilitators bring.
For Sharon, one of the greatest benefits was simply giving the work the attention it deserved.
“It gave it proper time and proper space,” she said. “Had we been doing it ourselves, I fear we’d have given it half an hour on an agenda and not the quality discussion and time the discussion deserved.”
Instead, the dedicated session allowed the team to collaborate, think creatively and build momentum without the distractions of day-to-day work.
Summing up the experience, Sharon said:
“Having external colleagues hold that space for us led to a more powerful and productive conversation.”
“People show up in a different way when there are external people in the room asking the questions,” she said. “They adapt to the personalities in the room and it changes the tone of the conversation in a really positive way.”
Throughout the workshop, Donna and Henriette created an environment where everyone felt able to contribute.
“They listened. They were good at holding space for different views and they did it very gently,” Sharon said. “They made sure everybody contributed through the way they facilitated, creating space for all voices.”
The session produced far more than a draft agenda. It gave the leadership team time to think strategically, agree priorities together and leave with clear ownership of next steps. Since the workshop, speaker invitations have been sent, key contributors confirmed and planning has continued using the outputs from the session.
“It kept us focused on the task in hand,” Sharon reflected. “It meant we jointly owned the need for a draft programme.”
For organisations looking to make the most of valuable time together, Sharon believes the right facilitation can make all the difference. By bringing structure, challenge and an impartial perspective, Curium helped her team move from discussion to action with confidence and shared ownership.
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