About Cultivated Management

About Cultivated Management

Welcome to Cultivated Management.

I'm Rob Lambert: founder of Cultivated Management, HR professional and leadership coach.

I run Cultivated Management - a consultancy and training company specialising in helping leaders and managers Release Business Agility and move to a bright future.

I share as much as I can through my podcast, newsletter, books, courses and videos.

My goal is be a trusted source of guidance for people building amazing workplaces - workplaces where work gets shipped and that enriches the lives of all who work in it.


It’s my belief that almost every problem in a business is caused by ineffective communication.

That’s why I help leaders and managers communicate with clarity, think critically and express their creativity.

With this super power they provide clarity, alignment and the right action.

“The future belongs to those who can communicate about it”

If you’re a leader, manager or someone wanting to develop the effective communication super power, I have plenty of goodies for you

Through Cultivated Management I offer Storytelling Workshops (with a Sunday Times best selling author), strategy workshops, problem solving workshops where we build a vending machines (yes, you read that right), the award winning in-person communication super power workshop, zero to keynote workshops, coaching and consulting.

Check out our services here.


About Rob Lambert

Short “About Rob” snippets

  • Built a “frighteningly agile” team named “UK top start-ups to watch in 2017”.
  • Built a team voted “Best companies to work for 3 years running”.
  • Took the team (DevOps) from Investment to successful sale
  • Vice President of HR
  • Vice President of Engineering (twice)
  • Vice President of Agility
  • HR Team was described as the ”least evil HR team ever” (A compliment I think)
  • CIPD Qualified HR practitioner
  • Blogger, podcaster, keynote presenter, writer
  • Former Editor and journalist at a local newspaper
  • Coach and trainer
  • Author of several books on leadership, career management, management, agile and squirrels
  • Husband and Father to three boys
  • Obsessed with mixed media storytelling – and fast cars – oh yes, and basketball

The longer version

Rob started his career as a Software Tester before becoming an Engineering Manager, then Vice President of HR in a successful startup described as “frighteningly agile”.

His HR team was described as “the least evil HR team ever”, which Rob is taking as a compliment given the reputation HR has.

Rob then went on to be interim Vice President of Software Engineering twice, Head of Agile and Head of Internal Communications.

He now works with large companies helping managers and leaders to Release Business Agility through effective communication.

Rob is CIPD HR qualified and a veteran of a successful tech startup. He has a wealth of experience consulting in Telecoms, Energy, Oil and Gas, Mobile and Finance.

Rob is also a well respected and trusted international Keynote speaker, and runs an award winning “communication super power” workshop.

Rob is a Media Scientist by education and on-going personal development; someone who breaks complicated concepts, ideas and problems down, and then communicates them to a variety of audiences. This is Rob’s super power.

This wide background allows Rob and the team to help you solve the many problems that businesses face. 99% of which are likely to be to do with communication!

“All problems are interpersonal relationship problems” – Alfred Adler


Mission.

We spend around 90,000 hours of our lives at work. My mission is to help you make the most of these hours, have a career and body of work you are proud of and to cultivate great workplaces.

Values.

The values that I aspire to with Cultivated Management …

Creativity – the topics of work, management, leadership etc can be dull. Very dull. But there are creative ways to solve problems, communicate about these topics and design our careers. No point in being boring if there’s a creative way to move ahead.

Humour and Playfulness – tied to the above – there’s fun to be had. After all, if we’re not having fun with it – we should be done with it.

Appreciation of Excellence – there is excellence all around. We often just need to learn to see it – and then appreciate it.

Do no Harm – the advice and support I provide through Cultivated Management should lead to no harm if you implement it. There’s some shady advice out there from people who are simply spouting theory – my advice is grounded in evidence.

Critical Thinking – I am not one to take theories on face value. I apply a critical eye to that which we often call normal in work. This can result in content that may jar with your thinking – but I back it all up through research and experience

Inclusivity – I am HR qualified and spent years as a VP in HR – I am therefore keen to ensure my work is accessible and relevant to a diverse audience. I make content for people from all walks of life – everyone.

Curiosity – at the heart of all I do is curiosity. Is there a better way to do something? How does this thing work? How can we get better? Curiosity ripples through all that I share and do.

Accuracy – I show you how I do my work, how I come to my conclusions and how I form these ideas I share. I use data where data exists. I aim to be accurate in all that I share.


Other Projects

Stationery Freaks Podcast

I co-host a podcast about stationery! Yes, the potential that good analogue stationery can bring to our lives.

We wax lyrical about the potential – and how to unleash it – with stationery. Sounds odd but we started this as a ramble chat and quickly realised there were plenty of freaks like us out there!

Listen here.

Photography

Photography has long been a passion of mine, as such I am practicing each and every day to be a better photographer; to tell better stories through photos; and to learn how choosing what to focus on bleeds into my world as a manager, leader and consultant.

I even did a video about how the art of photography is the art of leadership.

If photography interests you, I share my photos over on Insta.


Cultivated Charity

I believe ALL organisations exist to serve the greater purpose of society.

I believe very strongly that every person (and animal) has the right to the best quality of life they can, even if that life may be short.

That’s why I donate 5% of all revenue from my products and affiliate links to charity.

2.5% always goes to Naomi House – a hospice in Winchester for life limited children and their parents.

The other 2.5% sometimes goes to a different charity each year, or I donate this to Naomi House.

  • 2015 – Unicef (complete)
  • 2016 – Pencils of Promise (complete)
  • 2017 – Saving Linnea (complete)
  • 2018 – WWF (complete)
  • 2019 – Naomi House (complete) – Full 5% this year.
  • 2020 – British Heart Foundation (complete)
  • 2021 – Shelter Box (complete)
  • 2022 – Naomi House (complete)
  • 2023 – Become and Naomi House