The Company We Keep

We like to believe that success comes from individual brilliance — the right strategy, the sharpest idea, the hardest worker.
But the longer I lead, the clearer it becomes: it’s the community that carries us.

Whether it’s a kitchen crew at full tilt, a museum team preparing to open its doors, or a group of volunteers transforming a public space, community is what turns good intentions into real impact.

We don’t thrive alone. We thrive together.

The First Lesson Came in the Kitchen

Before boardrooms and budgets, there was the pass.
The heat, the noise, the shorthand communication.
A kitchen in service is one of the purest forms of community you’ll ever see.

Everyone has a part to play.
There’s no room for ego or isolation. You succeed or fail as one.

When I think back, it wasn’t the food that shaped me — it was the people.
The mix of personalities, the constant graft, the way you’d look out for each other without needing to say a word.

That’s where I learned that culture isn’t written down. It’s lived. It’s the look someone gives you when the cheuqes stack up, the nod across the pass that says, “I’ve got you.”

Those lessons stayed with me. Because what’s true in a kitchen is true in every workplace: trust and shared purpose turn pressure into performance.

Come together

Hospitality: The Business of Belonging

Hospitality is community in its most visible form.
It’s about making people feel seen and valued — not as customers, but as guests.

The best hospitality teams I’ve worked with didn’t just serve; they connected They remembered names, stories, preferences. They built relationships, not transactions.

That’s where I began to see the deeper truth — that every great organisation is, at its heart, a community of care.
Whether you’re serving coffee or curating exhibitions, it’s the same principle: people remember how you make them feel.

When that sense of belonging is genuine, it changes everything.
Staff turnover drops. Customer loyalty rises.And the work itself becomes more meaningful.

We often think of “commercial success” and “community” as two separate things.
But they’re not. They’re partners. One sustains the other.

Events: Shared Moments, Shared Meaning

Events taught me another dimension of community — temporary togetherness.

For a few hours or days, a group of strangers becomes something else.
A crowd.
A team.
A shared moment in time.

I’ve stood backstage at festivals and conferences, watching thousands of people move in rhythm — and thought, this is what humans were built for.
Connection.Emotion. Belonging.

That’s why the best events linger long after they end.
Because they remind us that community isn’t just about geography.
It’s about shared experience.
The electric charge of being part of something bigger than yourself.

As a leader, I’ve always tried to bring that same spirit into the organisations I run.
To make the workplace feel less like a hierarchy and more like a shared event — where everyone knows their role, but everyone belongs to the same story.

Culture and Community: The Deeper Thread

Working in the cultural sector took my understanding of community to a different level.
It became less about the moment, and more about the continuum.

Museums, galleries, libraries — they’re not just buildings filled with objects.
They’re vessels of memory. They carry the stories, struggles, and creativity of the communities they serve.

At National Museums Liverpool, I see this every day.
When a visitor spots a photograph of a street their grandmother once lived on.
When a child learns that people from their background helped shape history.
When a community café buzzes with conversation after an exhibition that meant something real to them.

That’s not just engagement. That’s connection.

It’s easy to talk about access and inclusion as policies.
But when you see the look on someone’s face as they realise this place is for me — you understand that inclusion is an act of love.

Our museums belong to the public.
They hold civic value because they hold human value.
And that’s what makes them sacred spaces — not the collections, but the connections.

Community and Shared Purpose

One of the most powerful moments in any team’s life is when individual purpose aligns with collective purpose.
That’s when things click.

In kitchens, it’s when everyone feels the rhythm of the pass.
In hospitality, it’s when every server moves in sync.
In cultural organisations, it’s when curators, estates teams, and front-of-house staff understand that they’re all telling the same story — just in different ways.

That shared purpose doesn’t appear by chance.
It’s built through trust, clarity, and conversation.
Through creating spaces where people feel safe to speak, and proud to contribute.

In my work with non-profits and boards, I’ve seen that same dynamic play out.
When volunteers, trustees, and communities come together around a single mission — something bigger than any one of them — it changes the energy completely.

You move from compliance to commitment.
From “should we?” to “we must.”

That’s when real change happens.

Understanding Before Action

Community isn’t always easy.
It’s not all handshakes and harmony.
It’s also about understanding — especially when opinions differ.

In leadership, that’s one of the hardest but most important disciplines: to listen with intent, not just to respond.

I’ve sat in community meetings where people were angry, frustrated, or just exhausted by being unheard.
In those moments, the most powerful thing you can do isn’t to fix — it’s to understand.

Because understanding builds trust. And trust builds momentum.

When people feel seen and heard, they start to see the organisation as theirs too.
That’s the bridge between community and collaboration.

So when I lead projects now — whether it’s a capital development, a decarbonisation plan, or a community partnership — I remind myself: understanding is the first action.
Without it, everything else is noise.

The Communities That Shape Leadership

Every stage of my career has been shaped by community in one form or another:

• The kitchen brigade that taught me resilience, humour, and shared responsibility.

• The hospitality teams that taught me the power of empathy and consistency.

• The events crews that taught me the electricity of shared purpose.

• The cultural colleagues and communities that taught me humility, stewardship, and belonging.

• The non-profit boards and volunteers who taught me that passion, not hierarchy, is what really drives change.

Each of these experiences gave me a different lens on what leadership means.
It’s not command and control.
It’s community and care.

The best leaders don’t stand apart from their people.
They stand among them — shaping, guiding, listening, learning.
They create the conditions where others can thrive.

Because leadership isn’t about being the smartest in the room.
It’s about building a room where everyone can be smart together.

All Hands on….

The Fragility of Modern Connection

We live in a time where we’re more connected than ever — and yet somehow, more disconnected.
We follow hundreds of people online but rarely know how they really are.
We join countless meetings but leave them feeling strangely alone.

That’s why community matters now more than ever.
It’s the antidote to isolation.
The grounding force in an age of noise.

In my world — leading multi-site organisations — it’s easy for teams to feel distant.
Different sites, different pressures, different priorities.
But the challenge, and the opportunity, is to build a sense of one community.

Not through slogans, but through shared values and consistent care.
That’s why I try to show up — in person, on site, in conversation.
Because presence builds connection.
And connection builds trust.

The Harder Work: Holding Space

Real community asks something of us.
It asks for patience ,grace, It asks us to hold space for difference.

In leadership, that means accepting that not everyone will see things your way.
That progress can be slow. That people need to feel with you, not done to by you.

When you get that balance right — when empathy and expectation coexist — community flourishes.

Because people don’t mind being led. They mind being ignored.

I’ve come to understand that through every kitchen, boardroom, and museum corridor I’ve ever walked.

What Community Teaches Us About Ourselves

Here’s the thing: community doesn’t just shape organisations.
It shapes us.

It keeps us humble.
It reminds us that our ideas aren’t infallible.
It grounds us in something bigger than our own story.

In quiet ways, it teaches emotional intelligence, patience, courage.
It gives feedback that no performance review ever could.

And sometimes, it saves us — from burnout, from arrogance, from losing sight of why we started.

I think that’s why I’ll always be drawn to environments built on connection — kitchens, galleries, museums, neighbourhood cafés, shared tables, open conversations.
Because those are the spaces where we rediscover our humanity.

Building Community at Work and in Life

So how do we build community — at work, in leadership, in our lives?

• Be present. People notice when you show up, especially when you don’t have to.

• Listen deeply. Understanding builds belonging faster than any strategy.

• Value every role. There’s dignity in every task, from chef to curator to cleaner.

• Create shared purpose. When everyone knows why they’re here, collaboration follows naturally.

• Celebrate small wins. Communities grow through recognition and gratitude.

These aren’t corporate slogans.They’re daily habits. And like any habit, they compound over time.

When you lead with care, consistency, and curiosity, you build a culture that lasts — one that people want to be part of.

Phone Home …….

The Call

Community isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifeline.

It’s what keeps us steady when the world wobbles. It’s what turns workplaces into families and ideas into movements.

As I look ahead — in museums, in hospitality, in our cities and our teams — I’m convinced that community is the most powerful currency we have.
It can’t be bought or faked. It’s earned. One conversation, one act of kindness, one shared purpose at a time.

So here’s the question I ask myself — and maybe you can too:

What kind of community am I building through my work, my leadership, and my life?

Because in the end, it’s not about what we achieve. It’s about who we become — together.

Here's to a Bright Future rooted in our Rich Past 🧔

#community #leadership #culture #hospitality #valuesmatter #evenkeel #peoplefirst 💬✨