ABOUT CHRIS SANGSTER

Chris Sangster is an independent development facilitator and consultant, who has been involved in education, business training and writing, learning provision and coaching for over 30 years. He has a degree in education from Aberdeen University, is a qualified teacher and has a diploma in educational technology. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, holds an ITEC diploma in anatomy, physiology and body massage and is a qualified VQ assessor. He set up Chris Sangster Development (originally called "Training Resource Services") in 1985 and has been self employed since this date.

The consultancy has been involved in a wide range of training-related activities, from learning resource design and production, through course delivery and college lecturing to individual coaching and assessment activities. Prior to setting up in a self-employed capacity, Chris has had experience as:

• Qualified teacher
• College lecturer
• Educational technology adviser
• In-service training centre manager
• Senior consultant with London-based consultancy
• International training manager - Brussels-based
• E-learning design consultant

Additional past business-related activities have included a part-time massage-therapy practice (including manufacture of massage tables), five years chairmanship of an association tasked with the project-management and construction of a community centre, owning/managing a holiday cottage business in the Scottish highlands and selectively breeding a six generation flock of pure blackface sheep.

Chris has worked with a wide range of clients, from individuals, local government departments and various SMEs through to national and international corporations, covering a range of businesses/industries, including oil exploration, insurance and building society activities, consulting engineering, airline catering and quarrying.

Since writing his first related article in 1987 (winning the Silver award in the ITD National Training and Development Essay Awards), Chris has worked at developing his holistic model for increased integration, co-operation and self-empowerment within the workplace. Several books have resulted, with the holistic elements evolving dramatically through an interest in spirituality and esoteric study, initiated while living near Avebury in Wiltshire.

With his latest book (Growing Workplace Champions) finalising the corners of the triangle - Individual, Support and Champion - the model is complete in detail and available for widespread application. In moving his consultancy practice south once more from Scotland to Liss in Hampshire, Chris is well-placed to work with clients who are interested in the potential of applying holistic management and development techniques.

If you are interested in receiving a call from Chris to discuss applications in your organisation, e-mail him HERE now with your contact details.

Stress Management

Combining his involvement in management training, massage therapies and meditation/visualisation/energy balancing and similar activities, Chris has also developed a stress management programme, which has manifested in various forms, from a programme of relaxation workshop sessions in a national health club, through in-company, stress management training courses to a day-long seminar for a CIPD branch (incorporating a range of therapy "taster" sessions).

After spending many years delivering seminars on a wide range of communication, train the trainer, management and supervisory development and catering hygiene subjects, Chris now specialises in this focused programme of workshops centred round holistic development.

Key "The Workshops" to find out more.

Location, location

Over his working life, Chris has lived and worked in a wide range of locations, from small rural villages in Perthshire and Wiltshire, cities including London, Portsmouth and Brussels and medium-sized urban environments in Surrey and Dunbartonshire. Through this - and involvement with the wide range of clients previously described - Chris is more than capable of adapting the championing model and workshop content to meet the specific needs and priorities of each prospective client.

Chris and his late wife Gillean have two grown children (both married) - Chris lives with his border collie Star (a working collie currently without a sheep flock to work with!) in Liss, a village near Petersfield in Hampshire. Drawing on their various experiences of moving geographically and their involvement in self employment, Chris and Gillean jointly wrote a "how to do" book - "The Downshifter's Guide to Relocation" - which examines a whole range of associated considerations - relevant in the current financial climate.

Chris is available for public and after-dinner speaking engagements on this and his related experiences, as well as developing the theme of applying holistic thinking in balancing life and work. These ideas are set out in a pair of inspirational books written and published by Chris -

Messages from the Mountains

Echoes in the Atrium

See "The Books" for further details.