adam shand

I was afraid that this was going to be some kind of hippy dippy share-your-feelings and get vague affirmations gathering. There’s definitely feelings sharing but it’s with a goal of working out what the feelings are and what the root need is that has created those feelings. This was useful for me to learn for myself, and is useful for working with other people. I got to meet all sorts of different people, in many different areas of work, and realised that everyone has similar problems and fears.

— Norman Cates, Weta Digital

Managers Anonymous was an invaluable experience. It provided a safe and supportive environment to discuss and reflect on ‘real-life’ people leadership challenges. I valued the sense of comradery within the group. The structure of the meetings allowed us to use a theoretical framework to ask questions and break the challenges we shared into more digestible chunks. This way I found it far easier to put my finger on underlying issues, and have continued using this approach on a daily basis in my role. Most importantly, I now have a great group of people I can call on in future for support.

— Jennifer Abbott, Team Manager, Department of Internal Affairs

I found it really empowering to learn that other people share problems and perspectives similar to mine in a structured but personal situation. The ability to hear questions and perspectives from people who aren’t directly involved in your situation is a rare gift.

— Jason Aldous, Weta Workshop

Leading a team can be a pretty lonely experience. Managers Anonymous gave me the peers and space I needed to develop my leadership skills. It's had an enormous impact on the way I work.

— Clarion Coughlan, Project Director, NZ On Screen

Being part of MA has been a really important part of my growth as a team leader and people manager. It provides a space where I can reflect on my actions and look to the support of peers when I stumble across a problem.

The structure, approach and facilitation that Adam puts in place goes a long way to creating a comfortable environment for this to happen.

It feels like the ground covered during an hour at MA would have taken me two weeks to get to by myself.

— George Langlands, Lead Advisor, ACC

As a passionate person who wears my emotions on my sleeves I found it really helpful.

— Amber Craig, Senior Architect at ANZ

The management and leadership courses I've attended have always focussed mostly on how to do the paperwork - how do you do a performance review, how do you performance manage someone, how do you fire someone, how do you make people get their work done on time. Managers Anonymous is a place where I can talk about the real day-to-day problems that come up, and not just find ways to solve the problem, but also have my assumptions challenged by peers. It's a great place to further my skills, share my own experience with others, and stay reminded of what we as managers owe our staff - encouraging the best in them, supporting them, and in a sense getting out of their way and letting them get on with being awesome.

I also love that it works: that when I'm really stuck on a problem, even one I've talked through elsewhere and not resolved, taking it to MA really breaks it down and lets me see it in a whole new light. As is often is the case in so many things, once you see the problem clearly, the answer seems so obvious and you wonder why you couldn't see it before.

— Amy Shand, Head of Picture, Park Road Post