• The LifeTree Story
• LifeTree Vision and Values
• The Team
• Our Clients
• LifeTree's links to Charities
• Our Location

The LifeTree Story (The roots of LifeTree)

Joe Lafferty, the founder of LifeTree, worked as an Engineering Manager in a large public sector organisation during the time of privatisation. During this process, Joe observed and experienced for himself the diverse effects of a major change on individuals and teams. He witnessed the power of releasing potential when good leaders believed in their teams and how poor leadership only served to create hindrances and barriers to improved performance.

In the mid 1990’s, Joe began to find his ‘niche’ as an internal consultant, as he deepened his reflections on the nature of organisations and change. He did a distance learning MBA at the time, to help consolidate his learning and observations. During and after his MBA, Joe sought to immediately apply his learning, grounding theory to practically deliver improvement as an internal consultant and operational manager.

In 1999, Joe started his own consultancy specialising in change management and organisational development, and the model for LifeTree began to emerge.

The LifeTree team of today stemmed from a 3 day meeting of minds in 2002 to discover the spirit behind LifeTree and explore the heart of the LifeTree concept. The LifeTree vision statement was distilled at this event – ‘growing people and organisations’.

This name and the logo perfectly reflect the core philosophy and ethos of LifeTree, seeing people as unique individuals, and organisations as living systems. The vision demonstrates the dual focus of LifeTree – at both the individual and organisational level. Our belief is that growth whether for an individual or an organisation is organic and therefore, meaningful, sustainable development is an organic process.

From the launch meeting until the present day, Joe Lafferty, Deborah Peacock and Stewart Nicol, have been on a journey of development and discovery, translating the concept of LifeTree into practical reality. The team has been able to serve a growing client base using their values lead approach to help their clients more clearly achieve their mission.