We’re DJ and Isobel. We met facilitating leadership programmes at Happy Ltd and found ourselves consistently adding to each other’s work as we unpicked a hairy question that kept coming up: why did change keep stalling in organisations that were doing everything right on paper?
The answer we’ve come to is culture. And specifically, a culture most organisations haven’t deliberately built before they invest in leadership development or change management. We call it Appreciative Collaboration. It’s what lets people disagree without damage and take ownership without waiting for permission. Without it, we have witnessed change programmes run aground on the same shores again and again.
Between us, we bring leadership training and coaching, AI adoption, marketing, customer service, and a lot of entrepreneurship, which means drawing on the many experiences and environments we’ve been exposed to one of us usually sees what the other has missed. And if we miss it, DJ’s well-oiled (and sometimes meaner than we’d like) AI coach augments our thinking.
We have searched for the right term to describe how we work, and we’ve landed on calling ourselves Collaborators. Consultants arrive with the answers. Coaches and facilitators hold the space and leave. We work alongside your leadership team to build something that keeps running, and we stick around to make sure it does!
Isobel Colson is an expert in happiness at work. Having led training programmes in the corporate world since 1993, Isobel created the Get Going Coaching programme to create connected, motivated and engaged teams.
Isobel has worked in technical support and training for various companies including McKinsey & Company and Oracle Corporation.
Most recently Isobel has been working with Happy Ltd, to co-deliver a 20 month apprenticeship at L7 (CEO and business owners) on implementing Progressive Leadership with organisations.
She is particularly interested in helping organisations navigate the balance between traditional leadership structures and the emerging world of self-management. She believes there’s a productive middle ground that combines clear direction with genuine autonomy and is passionate about helping create this essential foundation culture.
Daljeet Singh (who likes to go by DJ) has run more than 500 workshops on leadership, AI adoption, and cultural development for local authorities, charities, social enterprises, luxury brands, a global technology company and even a London livery guild. He has designed and delivered two government-funded assessed qualifications: a Level 5 Operations Manager for Global Majority leaders and the AI Culture Lead programme, alongside a range of bespoke workshops, courses and programmes.
He’s also a lifelong entrepreneur who has run a startup and founded Dragged Around London, a drag entertainment agency. Leading drag walking tours and leading other performers has deepened his insight on how to build brave spaces where people feel safe and confident to show up as themselves.
He has always been engaged with organisational culture, running the MicroBurn community for years and founding a local queer community organisation in Croydon. He is on a mission to make it normal for people at work to both feel empowered and held to a high standard.
We have worked with Vastari, Abcam Life Sciences, Sabio, The Bright Click, LearnAmp, ClearAds, Impact Hub and a global top 3 technology company.
We bring a framework, not a blueprint. Every organisation we’ve worked with has been different, and the fastest way to miss what’s going on is to assume you already know. What we’re reliably good at (with the feedback to prove it) is reading a room, adapting to it, and creating the conditions where people say what they’ve been holding back. That’s when the real work begins.
We look forward to getting to know you while you get to know us. To open the conversation with us, use our Find Your Bearings scorecard to find out what you’re already doing well, and where we might have a lot to talk about.
