UA-171643620-1 Christine Bell Working Hours Interview - Working Hours

Episode 45

full
Published on:

17th Jan 2023

Work Makes It Happen

Christine Bell recorded on 14/12/22

Christine Bell is the co-Director of The Centre for Facilitation. She is based in Leeds and has a business partner based near Hastings, together they run a virtual organisation.

Christine came to Bradford when she was 20 to study at the University and then moved to Leeds when she met her husband. She’s never wanted to move back to London but after over 30 years living in Leeds she still gets asked “you are not from here are you?” (Don’t worry Christine, that’s what everyone used to say to me when I went to school here. Leeds is so exclusive, dontcha know!)

The Centre for Facilitation works with other experienced facilitators on a freelance basis so that they can cover requirements for different work both in the UK and globally.

The Centre for Facilitaion’s style of facilitation is focused on getting people to talk to each other to come up with new ideas, to develop new connections or to solve problems together. The work they do is very varied and each project is unique and designed with the client. It’s a very creative process (although it also requires a lot of attention to detail so that on the day it seems effortless)

During the pandemic Christine had to quickly move the business from face to face events to virtual events and, as the “techy” one in the business, Christine was the primary driver of this change. Challenging but worthwhile their work is now a mix of virtual and face to face. This makes it much easier to provide services globally from the back room of a house in a suburb of Leeds!

It has also reduced the amount of travel, and in particular the amount of international travel they need to do. [And, as we mention in the discussion, not only reducing their costs but, also saving time and reducing risks and stress.]

To find out more about the centre for facilitation go to: https://www.centreforfacilitation.co.uk/

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About the Podcast

Working Hours
The Story of Work in Leeds in the 2020s
What do you do?
Western Studios, Leeds presents Working Hours: a podcast series surveying the people of Leeds on their thoughts and feelings on the topic of work. I want to talk to my city about work. Why do we do it? Do we like it? What could we do differently? What will we? How does work change and how does it change us?
Leeds, the largest city in the largest county on the UK mainland, is a former imperial textile centre and is now a major UK financial centre. This series will document the city’s experiences through Lockdown, Brexit, creeping technological unemployment, new and continuing resource wars, the ongoing dismantling of the welfare state and our accelerating ecological emergency.
If you are in Leeds or from Leeds then help me to reach my target of interviewing 1000 Loiners over the 2020s. Let me ask you, what do you do?
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