Stories about People

Ian Geddes

Hello, my name is Ian Geddes and I graduated from the Masters of Organisational Psychology in 1998.

My first six months in the field of Organisational Psychology was spent working in a top end recruitment agency doing psychometric assessments. I then began some part time research work looking into leadership, team work and group processes for a Professor in the Graduate School of Business. At the same time I was subcontracting as a consultant to Integra (Human Resource Consulting). After several months my focus became full time consulting in the areas of: Training in performance management; Team building; Change management; and Leadership development. During this period, I also won a major tender to evaluate the Health Departments Management Development Strategy which required recommendations for future leadership development strategies. Just to keep myself busy, I also facilitated a managerial skills unit for the Australian Graduate School of Management.

In September 2000, I received a call from Jacque Hagan (a director of Cumberland Consulting Group) who I knew from my work on the committee for the College of Organisational Psychologists Western Australia. Jacque invited me to come and have a coffee and talk about doing some work with them. I started sub contracting work with Cumberland in October, 2000 going full time in January, 2001. In August, 2002 I became a partner in Cumberland and completed my supervision for my specialist title in early 2003.

The work I undertake is focussed on Leading people to business excellence and my projects are varied, interesting and constantly challenging. Cumberland works primarily in the private sector with large international and domestic companies in a range of industries. Visit our website on www.cumberlandconsulting.com.au to gain a greater understanding of what we do. My primary areas of work are in Organisational Culture and with the Selection and Development of people. Some of the projects Ive undertaken are:

o Conducted research to identify organisations culture
o Assisted in cultural change programs
o Conducted Psychometric assessments
o Designed and assisted in the implementation of world class selection systems
o Researched, developed and validated tailored psychometric tools for selection purposes
o Undertaken executive coaching
o Designed and assisted in the implementation of Values based performance management systems
o Trained people in targeted selection, conducting effective performance management meetings and coaching
o Facilitated leadership development and team building workshops

Being an organisational psychologist is highly rewarding, very interesting and varied. The Masters of Organisational Psychology program at Curtin University of Technology provided me with the basic building blocks to further develop my skills in the area. I highly recommend Organisational Psychology as a career to any one who is interested in assisting people and who has an interest in business and the human side of the workplace.