DYNAMIC | AGILE | INNOVATIVE
About Avanti
Let us help your organisation move forwards...Avanti!
Avanti strives to do great things with great people to achieve great outcomes, with a commitment to helping people transform now, ready for tomorrow.
We understand that you, your teams and organisations need to develop resilience and agility in order to thrive in the face of global change and uncertainty.
Our dynamic, bespoke and flexible approach, combined with our Artificial Intelligence wicked problem solving capability and partner network, allows us to guide and support you on your transformation journey.
Dr Jonathan Huish - Founder
Dr Jonathan Huish, an internationally experienced leader, chair, advisor and coach for over two decades, is qualified in the fields of Economics, Finance, Strategy, Psychology and Leadership. He is a Founder of the Avanti Change Consultancy, and the Chair of Butterfly Data. Prior to Avanti, Jonathan was the CEO of Capital People (the sister company to Capital Law), and until recently held the roles of Chair of Trivallis, and the Chair of the group of Chairs of Welsh Housing Associations.
Jonathan has over 25 years of leadership experience, having been a councillor for 17 years in leadership and opposition, and a National Lead for the IDeA and Local Government Association for over a decade. He was a Senior Advisor for PA Consulting and a Principal Associate for CIPFA (leading on governance and leadership).
Alongside these roles, Jonathan has also been a board member of RCT Health Board, the South Wales Police Authority, and a governor of the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea and Glamorgan. He also represented Wales on the Committee of the Regions of Europe, where he was the Coordinator of the Economic and Social Committee; chaired the first Objective 1 Partnership; the SE Wales Regional Economic Forum; and was Strategic Advisor to the Welsh Development Agency and the Wales Tourist Board.
Jonathan holds a doctorate in Leadership and Change from Cranfield, separate Masters Degrees in Behavioural Psychology; European Policy and Behavioural Economics from LSE; and a Degree in Management & Law from LSE. He is also a qualified public finance accountant (CPFA) and a Fellow of ILM.
Dr Amanda Milliner - Founder
Dr Amanda Milliner has extensive experience working in both public and private sectors to include NHS, Housing, Local Government, Construction, Medical devices and Media, providing Board & Executive team support for over 20 years, together with policy development advice and learning & development activities and programmes.
Recent experience includes leading a culture, values and behaviour development programme involving whole staff and member engagement; a mayor and cabinet development programme for a London Borough; a unitary transformation programme, including supporting members prepare for their evolution; scrutiny development for a rural district; and coaching the leader and cabinet of a minority administration unitary.
Amanda is a Doctor of Philosophy, with a PhD specialising in organisation and customer/community engagement, with a particular interest in reaching the voices that aren’t always heard and potentially the most vulnerable people in our communities. This academic background gives her an insight into cutting edge thinking, and its application to organisational challenges.
Helping individuals, teams and organisations to become resilient and mindful of wellbeing is of particular interest to Amanda. Qualifications in mindfulness practice, meditation, cognitive behavioural therapy and rational emotive behaviour therapy assist Amanda in providing appropriate support. She is also qualified to use a multitude of psychometric tests.
Amanda has worked globally with women in leadership roles across sectors and has also held Board roles for media organisations, EatSleep Media and Focus Shift Films, which brings an understanding of the landscape of the creative industry in Wales, along with the challenges it faces.
What we do
At Avanti, we have a belief that the 'person' is the centre of all change, which means that we work from the individual, through teams to the wider organisation.
We take a strengths-based approach that seeks to maximise the potential of all, ensuring that all your resources are driven towards achieving ambitions.
Our approach is bespoke every time, working with you at every stage of the process, from building a case for change, through design and supporting implementation.
We support organisations in building a strategic narrative that speaks to outcomes beyond financial or service delivery related, with a focus on linking activity to defined social outcomes, often at a community or thematic level.
Alongside this, we build connections to relevant public sector organisations and funding agencies in an open and transparent way, to ensure that the possibility of achieving ambitions are maximised.
Where needed, we are able to engage communities, stakeholders, customers and staff to build a shared knowledge of the challenge or opportunity at hand, and codesign a route map to deliver treasured outcomes in a way supported by all.
Our vision is to support organisations making transformative change and enable them to accelerate their progress in making profound shifts catalysed by discovering valuable new insights, paradigms, values, mindsets, politics, policies, technologies, and find the operating models and new partners for a successful future.
The aim of this approach is to create catalytic and exponential progress in the form of economic, social, and environmental wealth creation.
We believe in working at speed and with momentum… hence our name “Avanti”. We typically complete the first assignment in six weeks or less! and we thrive on problems that seem complex and chaotic.
Our team at Avanti are qualified and experienced in a wide range of coaching approaches:
- Political
- Leadership / Executive
- Behavioural
- Performance and Solution-focused
- Team
- Systemic and Organisation wide
- Mindfulness and Wellbeing
- Meditation
- Life and Career
Whether your organisation is looking to engage its employees, customers or the wider community, our engagement specialists, particularly Dr Amanda Milliner, will be able to work closely with you to ensure your engagement strategy is robust and effective.
Employee engagement is about improving the work environment and culture to encourage employees to be more dedicated to the company goals and values. No organisation is too small to start implementing, measuring and improving engagement. The better we make our employees feel, the more they will contribute to the company's growth.
Community Engagement is a way of ensuring community members feel they are able to contribute in a meaningful way. The attention given to co-production is growing. Communities collaborate with public sector professionals in service delivery processes, with the aim of enhancing the quality of services produced.
At Avanti we have a wide range of programmes that help organisations develop their people.
Programmes include:
- Leadership and Management
- Governance
- Strategy
- New ways of working
- People development
- Public sector (and social purpose organisations)
Avanti has a suite of psychometric instruments available:
- Team Management System (preference)
- Emotional Intelligence Assessment
- Leadership Behaviours Profile
- Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI)
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- Hogan 360 Leadership & Management Diagnostic
- Hogan Leadership Focus
- Hogan High Potential Talent 360
- Hogan 360 High Performing Teams
- Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory
- Honey and Mumford Learning Styles
- Strategic Team Behaviours
- Thomas-Kilmann Instrument - Collaboration & Conflict Resolution
Our Partners
Testimonials
Karen Chalk
Director, Circus Eruption
"The time with Avanti was excellent for our team. The realisation that for a small team we have such a spread of complimentary skills was so positive and a real eye-opener. The newer team member was really pleased that they were in a different segment from the rest of us!
It was a great opportunity for both self-reflection and team reflection, and understanding one another's perspectives and how we can all work to our strengths. We look forward to building on this and hope to work with Avanti again."
John Wood
Chair of Cornwall Council
"Jon is without doubt the best political stategist I have ever worked with. While most are thinking moves ahead in this game, Jon has already won this game and is playing the next."
Anonymous
Chief Executive, Mid Devon Council
"The real turning point in our change programme came with the addition of Jon to lead the team. Truly inspired!"
Peter McNaney
Chief Executive, Belfast Council
"Jon was the first person ever to bring together the party leaders in a cross party forum, who achieved real success in gaining shared commitment to what became the Belfast Improvement Programme."
Lydia
Women on Board Programme, Dubai
"Thank you to Jon and Amanda for a wonderful three day session. You both made it so wonderful."
Mitchell Hughes
Mental Health Charity
"A really fun, engaging and beneficial day spent with Avanti. This opportunity has given me the tools to look at my workload from different angles, and reminded me that self-reflection is hugely important. A huge thank you to Amanda and Jonathan for spending the time with myself and colleagues at CTM Mind."
120
Local Authorities Supported
33
Countries worked in
71
Training Programmes
Contact us
All rights reserved. The Avanti Change Consultancy Ltd. 14610487
© 2019
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.