Ian Oldham - founder Shifting Gears

Shifting Gears AuthorIan 1

Ian spent over twenty five years developing the Shifting Gears materials and continues to evolve them. He studied Kaizen in Japan with Masaaki Imai and has worked with people and organisations in Japan, China, Singapore, Australia, Russia, the UK and the USA.

Diverse and rich background

Along with executive experience in aviation, manufacturing and retail, Ian has owned and operated several companies, including an outdoor adventure company. He has qualifications in electronics, commercial flying, industrial engineering, quality assurance and retail management.

Principled approach

Author of the Shifting Gears book and programmes, Ian’s approach is ‘dross free’ and down to earth delivering immediate and sustained benefits. His transformational work enables participants to explore their role as a leader, handle change, manage difficult situations with ease, deal with unhelpful behaviour, and move on.

Passion for development

Continuously evolving powerful concepts, processes, and tools, Ian ensures that they closely support participants as they shift their viewpoints and transform their operating style. His approach strongly encourages participants to apply their learning to what really matters to them – in their business and personal lives.

Gets to ‘the essence’

Ian’s ability to focus on what really matters has resulted in programmes that are not only transformational but also universal in nature. Delivered in China, San Francisco, London, Moscow, Australia and New Zealand, Shifting Gears has benefitted people in research, hospitality, telecommunications, broadcasting, medical practice, project management, real estate, software development, unions, government, science, employer groups and not-for-profit organisations.

A representative list of clients covering a twenty year period includes: Plaza Int'l Hotel (now Duxton), San Francisco MPEG hotels (Multi-employer Group), Drake International, IBM, Bayleys Real Estate, Telecom NZ, NZ Department of Internal Affairs, Exide Technology, Carlton Hotel, Digital Equipment, CentrePort NZ, Strait Shipping, KiwiRail (NZ State Owned Enterprise), Industrial Research (Crown Research Institute), MORST (Ministry of Research Science & Technology), Wellington Convention Centre, MAF (Ministry of Agriculture & Forests), Employers & Manufacturers Association, Kordia (broadcast & telecomm. solutions), Ericcson Communications, Environment Waikato Regional Council, Wellington City Council, TelstraClear (Telephone fixed line, mobile, & ISP), Interisland Line (Rail & passenger ferry service), National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, Television New Zealand, CentrePort (Wellington).

ShiftingGears Chronicle

Archive for November, 2009

November 30th, 2009

People and organisations seem to be happy to invest time, effort and money following formal/legal procedures used to deal with things, such as a grievance. They even congratulate themselves on how well they ‘dealt with the opposing forces’. What seems to be missed is that a spot of true listening might have avoided the whole thing. Perhaps it is to do with the need to justify what we get ourselves into.

November 29th, 2009

Have a look at Vilayanur Ramachandran’s ‘The Emerging Mind’ (BBC 2003 Reith Memorial Lectures). more…

November 28th, 2009

For most people there is a discrepancy between their chronological age and how well the body and mind have aged. The web site ”RealAge’ helps you to determine what this difference in years is and things that you can do to improve (redress!) the situation . . . more…

November 27th, 2009

Every time you engage in something you learn from it. Jack Canfield.

November 26th, 2009

2400 yrs ago, Plato commented that Everything is becoming, nothing is. Besides reminding us of the ever changing state of the world, Plato’s alerts us to becoming overly attached to what we are currently doing. It is easy to act as if what is happening to us at this moment is ‘forever’ when we know full well that everything around us is growing, decaying, coming into existence and passing away. Yet, despite this knowledge, people (and through them groups and

November 25th, 2009

Failure to attend to process (how things are done) perhaps explains why seemingly

November 24th, 2009

Curiously, many people do not want to know about problems. They see them as evidence of failure, something to be hidden, not to be discussed in polite company. Yet, on a personal level, or as a manager, problems are treasures – you need them. How else, other than by solving problems, can you demonstrate that you or your organisation, is improving? No problems to solve – no chance of improvement. Dead in the water. The worst thing to hear is no problems, everything is fine – scary stuff. Note. Naturally, one hopes not to keep on ‘solving’ the same old problem.

November 23rd, 2009

Everybody is responsible to everyone for everything. (Dostoyevsky-

November 22nd, 2009

At a recent SG workshop, a participant observed that maybe when we see ‘As it is’, not only do we see what we want to see, we also create what we want to see. We augment what is available with our fears and fantasies thus creating our experience. That may not matter too much except that we then act upon it as if it were real.

November 21st, 2009

It seems to be a generally accepted, self-evident, ‘truth’ that high self-esteem is good for you or, conversely, that low self-esteem may lead to personal and social problems. Rarely questioned, the notion seems to be quite obvious (never occurred to me to question it). Then along came this group of researchers who took a closer look at self-esteem and, in doing so, exploded a few long held beliefs (an unfortunate consequence of examining