How it works
01. What's actually yours
A lot of what drives you was installed early and never questioned: the should, the could, the would. We go slowly and take it apart: what's genuinely yours, what you inherited from family or absorbed from career, if there is a version of yourself you don't need to keep paying rent to. What's left for you is a steadier place to lead from, and cheaper to run.
02. In the body, not just the head
Pressure isn't only a thought. It lives in the jaw, the breath, the wringing of hands, the sentence you don’t finish before a hard situation. We pay attention to what's happening between us, in the moment, rather than a tidied account of it. Vague strain becomes something you can work with.
03. Using the thing you already trust
You make your living from skills and ideas but they’re not easy to apply to other life challenges. So we use image, metaphor, notes, and play to loosen what logic has already tried to chew. Imagination gets places analysis doesn't.
04. Language, not labels
Sometimes a pattern needs a name before you can do anything about it: a part of you that drives, a part that protects, a part that performs. We use psychological language lightly and only to give us a better range of responses than the one you're stuck in.
How it’s done
The Long Conversation
For leaders and those on their way,
four sessions minimum, 75mins each.
A sustained, confidential piece of work. We start with a long diagnostic conversation, agree what we're actually here for, then work through it: identity and pressure, the relationships that carry weight, the decisions sitting in front of you.
Reseated
For organisations reseating their teams: restructure, onboarding, immersion,
days not sessions, onsite, customised.
For reseated individuals. Whoever is leading the change feels the reshuffle too: not only in the structure around them, but in themselves. What moves through an org chart usually keeps moving through a person long after the chart says it's settled. The Turn.
For reseated organisations. When a team's shape changes: a new person in a familiar role, a familiar person carrying new responsibility, or both at once. We work with the team to settle into onboarding, transitioning, performance. The Rota.
Undoctored
For client-facing teams,
onsite, one day extendable, customised.
Businesses pour resource and attention into doctoring their pitch: content, structure, visuals, rehearsals. Nothing near exists for the person delivering it. We work to profile presence with authenticity, gently yet directly, so it’s there when you want it.
Reflective Space
For those who are seeking, curious or in need,
one hour, individual, monthly, ongoing.
No agenda beyond thinking clearly in the company of someone who knows your context. For people who've finished a longer piece of work, or who just want one hour a month where nothing is required of them.
Where you land
A shift
The work is no good unless it changes something. Thirteen Chairs is not trying to make you a different person, it's built to leave you a better equipped one.
Your person.
Clarity between what's genuinely you and what are aspects you took on along the way, be it from family, industry, or friendly advice. An authentic you that retires the version of you.
Your perspective.
A different seat for whatever you want to feel more clearly about. Not new information, but a different vantage point on what you already have.
Your decisions.
The ones coming next, in front of you, made from conviction rather than habit or performance, and trust to make the calls that are too easily avoided or deferred.
Composure under pressure.
Confidence under scrutiny.
Conviction under tension.
