About Mark Harmer
My work encompasses people in organisations, online technologies, media production and creativity.
I am a harpist who plays solo and with a 7-piece celtic band here in the UK. I worked at the BBC as a studio manager in all genres of radio before moving into training and development. There I ran NVQ assessor schemes and worked with many organisations using video and audio as part of the learning events I designed. My largest project was designing and running a BBC-wide programme for new managers, a blended learning programme based on a mix of traditional and online business models - I asked people to work in cross-functional teams on a leadership project that interested them, and those projects became additional learning materials for people who followed.
I graduated in the Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting in 2006 and for my disseration, explored ways of combining my musical and OD experience. Currently, working with one of my colleagues at Ashridge Consulting, I run workshops addressing creativity and strategy development through the use of musical and other artistic means, in groups, as a way not only of looking at these issues in a different way and thereby getting different data, but also as a way of allowing people to experience the power of free dialogue in groups towards a common, co-created goal - something all too rarely experienced in organisations.
In addition I have been running an online business since 1999 and recently produced a DVD for Gloucestershire county in the UK, looking at best practice in working musically with under-7s in the county. This project included sharing the emerging video work amongst the practitioners, so the final DVD not only represented a rich mix of inputs but also, through the process of creating it, grew the expertise of the participants.
I enjoy connections and think they’re increasingly important in a fragmented world. I hope this site will give you an insight into how I help people in organisations discover and release their own potential.
Mark Harmer
BA (Hons) music, University of Southampton
MSc in organisation consulting, Ashridge
If you have a creative, musical or organisational project please do get in touch!