Background
Julian officially began dealing with conflict management issues in 1991, part-time, but since founding his company in 2008, has been doing it full-time. Prior to setting up Littleton Evans, Julian gained 25 years of broad-based commercial and business experience, largely centred on development planning and construction project design and management, from small-scale to strategic. Throughout this period, he had frequent and extensive involvement with solicitors and other chartered professionals (as he was/is)and he became accomplished as a conflict trouble-shooter for a wide variety of issues from contractual to stakeholder tensions. For a decade he was a senior line-manager and major budget holder and also sat on the Corporate Management Team.
Combined with his successive 'day jobs', he had a voluntary role to facilitate staff-to-management relations (for 600 staff) and for a decade headed up the team of volunteers as chief negotiator, mediator, coach and mentor for individual, team and corporate staffing 'issues', which were many and varied - corporate restructures, team grievances and bullying cases - you name it, he did it. This role involved extensive and frequent involvement with the HR team and gave him a position on the Personnel Board. Several successive chief executives appreciated working with Julian because he made their life so much easier with his balanced approach to resolving issues and, thereby, benefitting the business.
In these ways, Julian's 'commercial' and 'people' problem solving skills were finely honed.
And now ....
Julian gains a great deal of satisfaction in helping business owners, leaders, executives and individuals deal with their disputes, change situations and developmental or performance issues, especially where this involves tensions or conflict. He even He
His conflict management experience makes him a popular resource and he is a consultant/associate to several key organisations. He helps people and firms in a wide variety of sectors and situations, from global household-name multi-nationals and FTSE listed firms through to SMEs and private citizens in dispute. Sectors include: local government and public sector; financial and law; business services; telecoms and IT; aerospace and aviation; automotive; health; chemical and pharmaceuticals; manufacturing; retail, food and drink; construction and utilities; and media.
He helps via mediation and coaching alone through to his innovative 'blended' conflict resolution service for deeper or wider-scale issues.
Julian continues his voluntary business work by being a board member in the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group (his local area), a board member in another significant business organisation in the South-East and by sitting on the area committee of a national business organisation. These positions have the spin-off benefit of giving Julian a valuable insight into, and an appreciation of, the inside issues facing a multiplicity of business sectors – useful additional knowledge for him helping other individuals, businesses and organisations.
Mediation credentials
Julian's qualifications, experience and recognitions make him one of the leading UK mediators.
-
Acknowledged by the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) to have undertaken one of the 'Top 10 most significant mediations' between 1990 and 2010 - this was after canvassing for suitable cases from their entire mediator network across 24 nations, mainly lawyer mediators. See the 'News' page for further details.
-
Peer-voted by a large number of experienced accredited CEDR mediators to be second among the Top 10 for innovation and progressiveness in approach to resolving disputes (i.e. his 'blended' approach).
-
Selected by the Institute of Directors (UK national organisation) to be one of their experts in law and leadership, with a mediation specialism - published in their national 'Director' magazine. See the 'News' page for further details.
-
Triple accredited mediator - extremely rare: for civil and commercial cases (ADR Group); for workplace and employment cases (TCM Group); and for family cases (ADR Group).
-
Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and on their presidential panel of mediators.
-
Invited by ACAS to join their panel of independent arbitrators, to supplement their conciliation/mediation process.
-
Specialist dispute-relevant legal training, but not a solicitor.
-
'Certified Mediator' with the International Mediation Institute - only 37 mediators resident in the UK have achieved this exclusive status so far. This is an "endorsement of a practicing commercial mediator with extensive experience and high competency standards comparable to accreditations agreed across the world". "A value of IMI Certification is that you can trust the competency of an unknown mediator - it takes away the guesswork". This is the case because client feedback has been independently verified by experts.
-
Member of the Civil Mediation Council, CEDR Exchange and PMA.
Coaching credentials
Having coached a large number of people (CEOs, directors, heads, managers, staff and private citizens), in problem situations, including conflict, over the last 20 years, Julian has notched up a considerable number of coaching hours, to the exclusive level required to be a 'Master Coach'.
This is matched by a comprehensive suite of university accredited coaching certificates leading to a Post Graduate Diploma in Psychological Coaching (Level 7) under internationally renowned Professor Stephen Palmer, co-'inventor' of cognitive behavioural coaching (CBC), the model now used most by coaching psychologists in the UK. The taught modules, all rooted in CBC, included the following:
-
Certificate in Coaching (covering more traditional coaching methods, with CBC).
-
Certificate in Psychological Coaching (CBC with other psychological models).
-
Certificate in Performance Coaching.
-
Certificate in Assertion and Communication Skills Training.
-
Certificate in Organisational and Occupational Stress Management.
He is also a professional Member of the Association for Coaching.
Note: the CEDR Top 10 acknowledgement mentioned above, is partly due to the coaching 'blended' into the mediation process when useful, which impressed CEDR and the peer-mediators, considering it to be innovative, moving the profession forward.
Other 'credentials' '''
Negotiation - mediators, especially commercial mediators, have to be expert negotiators to do the job effectively. They break deadlocked negotiations! Julian has also had extensive negotiation experience in his past with major construction projects and between developers, the local planning authority and local communities.
Facilitation - mediators have to be expert facilitators to do the job effectively, especially where there are multiple parties involved. Julian does this in mediation situations and has also done so on countless occasions for more 'normal' facilitation sessions with professional groups, stakeholder groups, community groups and even political groups.
Developmental Training - whether via coaching, mentoring or facilitated group learning situations, Julian enjoys imparting his knowledge and building others up. He has frequently lead groups for personal development over the last decade.
Stress Management - for well over a decade, Julian has been involved in helping relieve stress management issues, ranging from corporate-wide business level through to team level, as well as individuals who require further help via coaching.
All these complementary areas of expertise can be combined powerfully and be employed to great advantage in almost any change, development and conflict situation – not something the average coach or mediator can claim. The ability for someone to comfortably and effectively mix ‘hard’ commercial, legal and technical issues with ‘soft’ personal, interpersonal and team issues is rare.
Julian Evans - BA(Hons), PgDip(Hons), CMLI, MCIArb, CM-IMI, MAC.
Digest of frequently noted feedback
-
Very satisfied.
-
Amazed at what could be achieved.
-
Calm and controlled manner.
-
Able to deal with a wide variety of people in a relaxed way, irrespective of position.
-
Approachable and friendly, courteous, easy to talk to and understanding.
-
Objective, fair, unbiased and even-handed.
-
Listens well and is flexible and efficient.
-
Sensible, practical and constructive. Also down-to-earth and user-friendly.
-
Professional and business-like approach.
-
Communicates effectively and makes well considered comments and assessments.
-
Effective at focussing people on the key issues.
-
Trusted and safe pair of hands, always does what is in the best interests of clients.