Testimonials

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It is with pleasure that I write this testimonial for Dr John Newton of Sursum Solutions.

John was engaged by Beerenberg Farm in Adelaide to assist our organisation in gaining an overview

on the culture of our organisation. We are a family-owned business which has seen significant

growth and, like many organisations, change during the COVID pandemic. This had us questioning

the potential adjustment to the culture of the organistion and alignment to our organisation’s

values.

John interview 20 of our staff from all areas of the organisation to report on, and propose ways to

enhance cultural alignment by researching cultural dissensions, and potential and subtle acts of

disenfranchisement at Beerenberg Farm.

From the initial contact with John he showed an intuition into culture that is often discussed by

consultants but rarely ‘lived’. This was very clear in the questioning, understanding and overview we

discussed at our initial and subsequent discussions – this was also obvious in the feedback we

received from the participants and their ease in discussions with John; the feedback on the ‘good,

bad and the ugly’ without fear of recrimination and hence, the confidence they felt to be honest

with John, which in turn gave us a clear and insightful overview of how staff in our organisation felt.

John on consolidating all the information and presenting it to myself and our Managing Director also

gave some further considerations to the report on progressing the findings from an external point of

view to ensure that we were not just focussing on the feedback but also challenging ourselves and

insights into how other organisations addressed similar issues.

I am pleased to say that this gave way to opportunity for us to reflect on the positive feedback and

progress an action plan for opportunities for improvement.

I highly recommend John to any organisation that is looking for an honest, practical and sound

process, as well as a man who has the ability to break down barriers for a positive impact for

progress for an organisation,

I participated in John's study on the effect on culture of post-merger integration. I found the experience extremely thought-provoking and informative and would very much recommend that my network engages with John if approached by him or is considering commissioning research in his chosen fields.

John conducts very insightful and helpful research. He listened carefully to the responses to his questions and was eager to make sure that information collected by him would be helpful for the audience. I recommend working with John.

John,

I really don’t know where to start…..There were 15 attendees and I have received 10 emails and 5 telephone calls expressing genuine appreciation for the effort that CS has gone to in pushing the boundaries around the critically important topic of Organisational Culture. That must be record!....I put it all down to your delivery, your content, your passion…… 

It was excellent on so many fronts and delivered at an intellectual levels that really resonated with everyone. References to history, music and literature really struck a chord with the audience and refreshing not to constantly default back to the sporting arena, which is such a well-trodden path when giving examples of “good” culture.

We have so many takeaways:

• Urgency, purpose, method
• Access to information being the currency of Trust
• We are all CCOs – Chief Conviction Officers
• EVP – key for our new talent
• Maslow’s hierarchy
• And so so more.

Happy to connect you with the team in London. Please leave that to me and I will copy you in.

Safe travels back to SA and please let me know if you in Sydney before you head back to Blighty in mid Dec as would love to buy you dinner.

MM

I recently contributed to a research project that John was running on organisational culture. John had a wonderful technique of asking preplanned questions but making it feel like a natural conversation. He later spent time with me sharing his results which were insightful and had practical application in my business.

John is an inspiring teacher and very knowledgeable on helping develop the culture of organisations. He has shared practical and pragmatic approaches that have borne fruit quickly within my own practice benefiting staff and our patients. 

I worked with John on a research project he was doing. Really engaging and knowledgeable. Took the time time to really listen to what I was saying and to understand. Gave me a bit of praise too, which was appreciated. Came back with findings when he said that he would - also appreciated.