Vanessa Browne

Vanessa specialises in management development, personal effectiveness and project management.

Vanessa spent years working in the creative and non-profit sector – often concurrently as part of a portfolio career. Before joining =mc learning, she specialised in digital marketing and communications. She has coordinated digital campaigns with a nationwide and international reach, in addition to grassroots community outreach projects.

She has experience managing people’s performance and productivity to help them deliver their best to busy teams and support their learning.

At the moment

I’ve been spending time with a wide range of teams over the past few months, delivering sessions on assertiveness, time management, leadership and coaching skills.

It’s been a joy to connect with future managers at Cancer Research UK through our bespoke training programmes. Together, we’ve been exploring the skills of effective managers, and I’ve enjoyed guiding them through reflective exercises to consider their own experiences, strengths, and development opportunities.

It’s helpful for staff of all levels to be able to have difficult and challenging conversations at work, while remaining  respectful and assertive. In our assertiveness training, I’ve enjoyed helping individuals from Waythrough and the British Film Institute.

Personal effectiveness and the ability to prioritize within fast paced environments is an essential tool, which I have been sharing with teams from the Society For The Protection Of Animals Abroad. Together we’ve explored the role purpose plays in anchoring our goals and priorities at work, and strategies to help us make effective choices with our time.

And during our Project Management training, I have been helping groups from Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, the Association for Nutrition, UK Sports Institute and more to understand the fundamentals of managing projects of all forms and sizes. Together, we’ve successfully explored the essential importance of a robust scoping stage and ways to effectively communicate with different groups of people involved in our projects.

I’ve also been helping leaders from Social Development Direct to unlock the power of non-content coaching, using a mix of active listening and coaching questions to help individuals process and solve their own challenges.

In the coming weeks, I look forward to delivering more sessions for aspiring managers, with teams from Cancer Research UK. I’ll also be unpacking Assertive Conversations with teams from the National Institute for Health and Care Research. Plus, I’ll be returning to the Healthcare Infection Society and the Victoria & Albert Museum to talk through the essentials of Project Management.

Before =mc learning

I worked for a non-profit focusing on children’s literacy and emotional wellbeing, where I delivered digital marketing campaigns with a national reach.

I’ve always loved grassroots community work, and alongside my day job I worked for an independent bookshop & C.I.C in South East London, where I had the privilege of managing and facilitating funded creative outreach projects for children, and connecting with local families as a storyteller.

And before my journey in the non-profit sector began, I worked in children’s book publishing, where I got to read fantastic stories and work with incredible people in marketing, agency and editorial roles. You will likely find me in a bookshop when I’m not training!

The throughline of all my roles has been a love of learning, creative problem solving, and a belief that sharing knowledge truly does lead to greater social good.