Endeavour & myself
‘Strong values and commitment of the OD consultant are seen to be as important as the content and process of the OD intervention itself.’ Rick James
Demystifying Organisation Change (1998)
Endeavour Consulting (Geneva) is the business identity of me, Robert Atkinson, a free-lance organisational development & civil society advisor. I provide tailored institutional support to non-profits, public grant-givers and foundations. I work internationally from Switzerland, with clients located across Europe or further afield.
I am an experienced organisational manager, researcher and consultant. I have led large complex, multi-cultural and multi-skilled teams.
In the past I have worked within environmental civil society organisations, international intermediaries, and consultancies. I served as a director of civil society support programmes across Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which included capacity building, network development and grant-giving. I have managed a large network of regional offices, with a multi-national staff, and have practical experience of developing organisational structures and their processes.
I’ve seen how any successful change or development process depends on setting the right conditions and having the right information to hand. The core to my approach revolves around revealing those assumptions held in a client organisation and by developing the awareness, agency, and association needed for change. Thus, I focus on self-assessment as a way to both diagnose organisational issues and to develop the discourse and ownership to carry out any change process. My belief is that organisational development and change is fundamentally about embedding the capacity for continued dialogue and learning into an organisation.
Although my work primarily focuses on the design of, and support to, organisational development and change processes, my practice extends into several areas:
- Assisting organisational viability through organisational development and capacity building, including organisational self-assessment processes for non-profits;
- Evaluating projects or programmes (environment or development) and monitoring their progress;
- Giving advice on the development of civil society support programmes, environmental education approaches, grant-management, and project proposals; and
- Leading research into practices for Workplace Flourishing (work well-being, Enriching Organisations) and Civil Society needs.
My current work revolves around supporting civil society organisations, either via government aid programmes (European Commission, UN), assisting grant-giving foundations, or via organisational development of client NGOs. I also act as a monitoring expert for the European Union’s LIFE NGO Operating Grant programme.
I hold a bachelor’s degree in Maritime Studies, a master’s degree in Sustainability and Responsibility, and a doctor’s degree in Organisational Change. My doctoral research focused on well-being and flourishing in the workplace and it informs much of my personal work manifesto.
For six years I served as a board member for Sustainable Caucasus, an NGO working on sustainability issues in Caucasus mountain regions, and currently I lead the Openness & Safeguarding Commission of the Swiss Federation for Historical Martial Arts. I am a member of the environmental think-tank the Green Alliance and Humanists UK.
My clients and partners
Endeavour works primarily with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Either non-profits themselves (Non-Governmental Organisations, not-for-profits) or those public or private institutions that support them. Endeavour’s clients or partners have included the following leading civil society, consultancy, or intergovernmental organisations:
Endeavour was created in October 2008 and was registered in the Canton of Geneva on the 19th November 2013 (Swiss register number: LIDE: CHE-143.179.652).
Endeavour Consulting 