Creating space to think before you act.
Garrison Consulting is Brendan Barry's company. Speaking, facilitation and writing are its principal work.
Brendan Barry is a writer, speaker and facilitator based in country Tasmania. He has worked nationwide with school staff, police, emergency services and private business, along with individuals impacted by their role and service, to strengthen wellbeing before difficult events and support people in the aftermath.
Having spent time in Defence and years in the public sector, he uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and the Choice Point daily - in his work and his own life. That is where his take on leadership, mental health and decisions under pressure comes from.
He writes and speaks about what guides us when circumstances are difficult, when choices carry weight, and when we find ourselves in the space between what happened and what comes next.
What Garrison is
A garrison is solid ground: somewhere to think.
Somewhere to test an idea. Sometimes to recover, and definitely to prepare, before heading back out ready for what comes next.
The work here is about values, purpose, pressure, leadership, psychology and deliberate choice. The aim is not to hand out neat answers. It is to help you make enough room to stop and think before acting, recognise that a choice exists, then decide which path to take.
What the writing and speaking covers
- Deliberate choice under pressure: the choice we make and the action we take, and why the choices in front of us may be narrower, or broader, than we first think.
- Leadership when certainty runs out: what leadership asks of us as parents, mentors, friends and managers, not only in the workplace.
- Values: working out what you stand for, and whether your behaviour in the moment matches the person you want to be.
- Creating space: sometimes the right response is to stop, breathe and think, rather than obey the old adage, "Don't just stand there, do something."
What is on its way
The full site is being built properly behind this page: articles worth sitting with, the story behind the rook emblem, and details for talks, workshops and facilitated conversations.
Get in touch
Speaking, workshops or a conversation sparked by an idea: email is the best place to start. Tell Brendan about the audience, the question you want explored and the date you have in mind.