Who I am
I am on a mission. When we hear 85% of people are not engaged at work I believe there is an opportunity for “a new work order,” wherein the workplace becomes a place where people are truly able to thrive, and where every aspect of our humanity is integrated with the expectations and demands of corporate life. The COVID-19 pandemic, has provided the disruption to corporate life as we know it as a tipping point for a change that has been long overdue—and an opportunity to rebuild the way we have been working from the ground up.
My work is based on the sentiments expressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu; “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.”
For too long we have known that “work is not working” but for a number of reasons we have ignored this but we cannot ignore it any longer. We also need to make sure that we don’t take a scattergun approach that lacks focus. What we need is a roadmap to lead us out. To be truly effective, we need a framework that can help us identify what exactly has gone wrong and actionable items that can help us to make changes that we need to make work, work again.
Drawing on over 25 years of consulting, I developed the M.A.G.I.C. model to help countless businesses, teams, and individuals rediscover what makes work work for them.
M.A.G.I.C is the acronym for what I believe are the core drivers of people being engaged and thriving at work: Meaning, Authenticity, Ground Rules, “I”, and Curiosity. I invite you to think of it as a manual for bringing more M.A.G.I.C. to your workplace and your life. Working with these principles I think provides the opportunity to realise what the World Health Organization describes as the a virtuous cycle between work, health and productivity, where: “improved conditions at work will lead to a healthier workforce, which will lead to improved productivity, and hence the opportunity to create a still healthier, more productive workplace.”
Sharon Darmody is an Organisational Consultant and Coach, Author, Mediator, and Founding Director of Strive Occupational Rehabilitation, which she launched in 2004 with the aim of helping to support people to be more engaged at work so that they can thrive both at work and at home.
Early intervention is the ethos that sits at the core of Sharon’s work with Strive - which begins with encouraging workplaces to look towards their people first and make business decisions that support the overall health and wellbeing of their workforce. The pillars of Sharon’s work include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Conflict Coaching, Positive Psychology, Alternative Dispute Resolution and Organisational Mindfulness.
Through Strive, Sharon has enjoyed long-standing relationships with organisations in the public and the private sectors.