Edmund Cross, sticking with it

Edmund Cross is a trainer and facilitator, and specialist in creating developmental spaces for individuals and teams.

After a childhood in Northern Ireland, Edmund attended the University of Sussex where he studied French, and learnt to identify patterns and understand systems. He then trained as a nurse in Sheffield. He says “it taught me about the practicality of intervening in people’s lives.”

Partly as a result of a back injury he moved into workingwith primary care teams on sexual health. After several years with the local health authority he worked at the University of Sheffield. Since being made redundant in a reorganisation he has been working independently – this compelled him to learn how not to be part of an organisation and a hierarchy.

Edmund has a reputation for being able to sit with people while they resolve conflict. He puts it down to several skills he has picked up on his journey: sticking with people when they tell you something important, an understanding of rank and power, working with issues as they arise in the moment, and leaning into matters rather than shying away.

He says “power underlies everything and we need to talk about it.” All of our relationships have an element of power in them. We experience power very early on, but we don’t talk about it: “it becomes invisible to us, and yet it shapes everything.” Once people have the tools and space to talk about, it becomes easier to surface the associated issues.

Over the past five or six years Edmund has developed a way of working that involves introducing people to models, such as the Johari window and the window of tolerance, and then encouraging them to apply them to the business of the group as it arises in the moment. He seeks to help people to trust their own thoughts and emotions.

Edmund is an enthusiast for ‘not knowing’: when you approach a problem with an open mind, more possibilities emerge. He adopts an orientation of curiosity and exploration. He finds David Snowden’s Cynefin framework helpful in this respect.

Edmund has a daughter with a medical condition. Before her birth, Edmund envisaged a predictable future, afterwards he was dealing with uncertainty and crises as they came up. It taught him to live in the moment and give things his best shot as they arose.

Edmund’s proudest achievement in his career concerns when,as a nurse, he acted as an advocate for a seriously ill patient who hadn’t made a will. One of his biggest mistakes was to speak for part of a group that he was facilitating without an invitation, taking on the mantle of leadership when it hadn’t been conferred upon him.

The most formative experience for Edmund was a residential at Findhorn (https://www.findhorn.org/) which involved teaching on conflict and change by Ben Fuchs and Andrew Murray.

The three books that Edmund would recommend to aspiring leaders are: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Ronald Heifetz, Sitting in the Fire by Arnold Mindell, and Difficult Conversations by Sheila Heen, Douglas Stone and others.

Edmund’s self-care regime includes sailing, platform diving, and running. His advice to his 20-year old self would be “stick with it and let it unfold.”