In 30 years of coaching teams, execs and as a UKCP psychotherapist, we've learned something about what makes people feel happy, fulfilled and effective.
A catalyst for humanistic change
Dancehammer works at the level beneath visible organisational problems. We help leaders and teams recognise the patterns of thought and behaviour that are setting the tone of relationships and thus performance. We then help this to shift by creating the conditions for more honest dialogue, deeper connection and clearer collective action.
To host meaningful transformational work, it is not enough to focus on strategy, skills and visible behaviour. Real change asks leaders and teams to look at their underlying habits of thinking and relating that shape what becomes possible in a system.
Dancehammer creates experiences that help people do exactly that. Through carefully tailored processes, we enable honest reflection, deeper connection and clearer collective insight, so that teams can move forward with trust, alignment and purpose.
As people begin to work with greater awareness and coherence, the effects ripple outward. Culture shifts not through slogans or one-off interventions, but through changed behaviour, stronger relationships and new ways of leading day to day.
Over nearly 30 years, we have supported leaders and teams in national and global organisations including Rio Tinto, Hapag-Lloyd, Visa Europe, Maersk, the BBC, Hewlett Packard and others.
Our take on leadership
Leadership is not only about authority, direction or expertise. It is about the relationship a person has to others, to the work, and to the realities that need to be faced.
Leaders shape the conditions in which people think, speak, relate and act. They influence whether a team becomes more defended or more open, more fragmented or more coherent, more reactive or more resourceful.
At Dancehammer, we help leaders build the awareness, presence and relational capacity needed to create cultures of greater trust, clarity and shared responsibility.
About John Dickson
Co-founder of DanceHammer and host of development journeys that transform senior leaders and their teams.
He works with senior leaders and leadership teams to strengthen the awareness, relational capability and presence needed to lead well under pressure. His work helps clients see more clearly what is happening within themselves, between each other and across the wider system, so they can respond with greater coherence, effectiveness and trust.
John’s approach is shaped by an unusual combination of commercial, psychotherapeutic and systemic experience. His grounding in business was formed through roles at Kodak, MemorexTelex and BT, and further developed through an MBA at Cranfield School of Management, where he later spent many years as a visiting tutor on leadership and development programmes. Â
He is also a UKCP-qualified psychotherapist with an MA in Mindfulness Based Psychotherapy. This depth of training enables him to support leaders to recognise and evolve beyond their inner patterns of perception, reaction and relationship that determine how leadership is actually lived.
Together, these perspectives have led him to a simple but far-reaching conclusion: self, role, leadership performance and team effectiveness do not develop separately. They shape each other continuously, and lasting change requires attention to them all.
Visit John's LinkedIn page for more information.
About Joey Walters
Co-founder of DanceHammer and creator of experiential feminine leadership training journeys.
Joey has over two decades of experience in transformative learning, trauma recovery, and group transformation, grounded in her extensive study of Earth Wisdom teachings, somatic healing, and systemic constellations.
A co-founding director of Dancehammer, Joey serves a diverse clientele, but holds significant acclaim for her work with senior women leaders, influencing cultural change in organisations, including a global law firm. Her portfolio for leadership programmes and executive coaching, includes reputable clients such as Weleda UK, the Scottish Government, BBC Scotland, NHS, the Scottish Police Service, Royal Bank of Scotland, and an award-winning PR agency.
As an extension of her work in Dancehammer, her passion for women’s development led her to found Rising Connected, an evolutionary learning community for women leaders, coaches, and entrepreneurs. She offers immersive, trauma-informed leadership programmes, retreats and trainings for facilitators in the art of transformational group dynamics that evoke individual and collective healing.
Joey is known for her highly intuitive, somatic and systemic approach and for creating safe, transformational spaces that evoke authentic connection, individual and collective healing, and the cultivation of embodied wellbeing.
Visit www.risingconnected.com
About Natalie Banks
Partnering with leaders to shape culture, capability and lasting impact.
Natalie is a Transformation and Organisational Design specialist with over 25 years’ experience leading change across global businesses and sectors. She has a strong reputation for shaping and delivering large-scale transformation, aligning operating models and strategies - and then building the leadership and cultural capabilities organisations need to thrive.
Her approach to transformational change is to focus on the whole system, as a practitioner of MBTI, FIRO B, IEQ9, Human Systems Dynamics and Human Synergistics. She focuses on culture, leadership, team and individual development as fundamental levers of lasting change.
She is a highly organised and strong communicator, who places great value on partnering with stakeholders with the tenacity and reputation for “making it happen”.
She has worked with major global organisations including Pearson, A.P. Moller Maersk, Costa Express, Travelport, Three, and Visa Europe. Her track record includes designing and implementing organisational models, building high-performing teams, and guiding leaders through complex change journeys.
Take a look at some of our testimonials
A 10 year resource to a global director
Transforming the SLT of a Fortune 500 IT directorate
A global director's coaching journey
Running an in-company leadership programme
