About us

Murray Hopkins

Murray is a senior consultant with over 35 years experience in the private and public sectors.

He is an excellent facilitator and coach particularly in the areas of leadership development as well as in bringing disparate groups into more cohesive teams.

He was responsible for the co-design and facilitation of the Leading with Influence program for the Australian Government’s Department of the Environment.

Murray is currently in demand from community groups for strategic planning and coaching support in his local community.

Eleanor Reardon

Developing safe, inclusive relationships is the foundation of Eleanor’s approach in all areas of her life - as parent, Psychologist, facilitator, researcher, consultant and team leader.

As a Senior Psychologist within the Education sector, Eleanor loves the challenge of identifying what needs to change for students, teachers and parents to be successful learners and leaders and then supporting that change to happen. With a deep curiosity about each person’s story, Eleanor understands that making small changes with seemingly everyday things can be both difficult and life-changing.

Through her work supporting and leading teams, and her research experiences, Eleanor is committed to bringing about systemic change. She works to foster inclusive workplaces and address inequities built into our social systems. Eleanor believes that our capacity to connect through challenging conversations, individually and collectively, is key.

Why we are doing this

We are often called in to work with so called "dysfunctional" teams and struggling inter-personal relationships. Over the decades we have discovered a core reason for this kind of problem is that people struggle to share their experience of each other in ways that build relationship rather than create conflict. As we look around the world we see daily examples of where this struggle is manifest - often with tragic results. We are committed to making a change in the world and this seems to us to be a great way to do that.

Our work is based on the latest research in psychology, learning and neuroscience.

We are passionate about passing on the processes we and others have developed because we know they work.  We decided to offer this website and the related course as a way for individuals, teams and organisations to have an affordable and accessible resource specifically about difficult conversations and ways to better manage them. We believe that with practice, anyone can become a "master" at this often problematic aspect of human life.

Sounds interesting? If so, you might be interested in our virtual live Navigating Difficult Conversations workshop.

John Sautelle

Author of Choose Your Stories Change Your Life, John Sautelle is a highly experienced consultant, facilitator, mediator, senior executive coach and conference presenter.

He has designed and delivered development programs on seven continents and presented internationally on a variety of topics including 'Threat or Reward - Brain Science and Conflict’; ‘Future Trends – Action Learning Across Borders’; ‘Adaptive Challenges for Leaders’ and ‘Ride the Change Dragon’.

John has worked on some interesting projects including training action learning coaches in South Africa to work on community problems, assisting Senior Bombay High Court Advocates develop their mediation skills in Mumbai, and working in Dubai with emerging leaders from around the world.

Helping individuals, leaders and teams make the changes they want to make is what gets John out of bed every day with energy and passion! He believes in workplaces where individuals have a strong sense of purpose and meaning – a place where they can learn,  grow and make a positive contribution. 

Before moving into learning and development, John was founder and managing partner of a legal services firm for more than twenty years. He has a deep understanding of the challenges people face in today’s rapidly changing world. 

With four grown up children and two grandchildren, John is committed to helping make the world a better place for future generations.

Anne Sautelle

Anne believes that to embrace the opportunities and challenges that emerge in a complex and uncertain world, leaders need to know and grow themselves – developing self-awareness, intention, flexibility and courage. With curiosity, vulnerability and self-compassion her clients become connected to purpose, open to broader perspectives and able to see and shape themselves and the system they are in, in new and responsive ways. Anne draws on Adult development theory, action learning, neuroscience, complexity theory and uses the Growth Edge coaching approach with her clients.

Anne’s 23 years’ experience as a senior physiotherapist in hospitals, general practice and work alongside families in the community and disability services sectors strongly influenced her coaching approach – grounded in her client’s current reality and working together to see the complexity, challenge assumptions and develop new possibilities for action. As co-owner of a specialist consultancy firm Anne was actively involved in the design and development of leadership, resilience and coaching programs. Anne has been working in executive coaching and leadership development for 10 years in Australia and internationally. She has worked across sectors and many of her clients are Executives and Senior Executives in the Australian Federal Government.

Anne holds a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of NSW and Graduate Diploma in Physiotherapy, Cumberland College of Health Sciences. She is a certified Growth Edge Coach from Cultivating Leadership and has a certificate and an advanced certificate in Executive Coaching from the Institute of Coaching and Consulting Psychology, Sydney. She is a Certified Action Learning Coach through the World Institute of Action Learning and is a certified facilitator of Kegan and Lahey’s Immunity to Change process and the Leadership Circle Profile.

Anne lives with her husband in Canberra and loves to spend time at her family home on the far south coast of NSW. She has four adult children and three small grandchildren who bring her delight and joy. She loves beach and bush walks, cooking and sharing meals with family and friends, all kinds of music, reading and travel.

“Anne Sautelle seamlessly supports people to shape a direction out of the complexity of competing priorities, by being more mindful of their inner selves and their outward opportunities. Anne travels this journey beside you. She doesn’t motivate you. You motivate yourself, because she has helped you reach in and find what you truly believe in. Most of all, you find what you can give to others as Anne gives to you.”

-Coaching client