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I help people face and solve the lingering, and maybe even intractable, problems in their work, their business, their professional and creative lives.
Humans tend to like problem-solving, but some problems seem irresolvable. Maybe they slowly, niggle away, and you almost get used to their uncomfortable presence. Some are horrid merky piles we cannot begin to sort through.
Lots of things stop them from being resolved; a lot of human things, like a sense of guilt or confusion, overwhelm, the screaming urgency of other matters.
1 Problems are supposed to exist
Fundamentally, our professional lives, and much of our wider lives too, are a series of problems we solve. There is no end, no completion apart from the existential one! There is no fundamental human standard for problem-solving achievement. There is a deluge of social pressure which has to be metabolised within us so we can decide what is important to our work. There is also approx. 315,000 years of human wisdom and experience behind us; we learn from history.
2 Problems are related to one another through systems
A common reason why problems become that-which-must-be-avoided is that they are always in a web of conditional and correlated relationships with other problems and systems. I regularly watch clients manoeuvre through the realisation, “this is way bigger than I thought it was”. My job is to contain the explosion of implications, no matter how big it may be, and calmly help you edit and rationalise what needs to be done.
3 Some problems are not the problem
We are all learning to refine the terms of our questions for AI. Beyond the chatty style, it is not actually an intelligence but a non-human, commandable, but biased, librarian with access to a vast but still limited library. Diligent and precise analysis makes sure the problem is defined accurately so that a sensible strategy can be decided upon.
4 Some problems are irresolvable
We need to solve the solvable problems because we must live with complexities and unpredictability. We have important things to do in life, making sense of our relationship with our own mortality, reflecting on our relationships and our ideas about the beyond. These are processes, endless circles of ever-enriching understanding and doubt. They are vital to human life. And I would implore you to make sure you leave space for them by solving what is at hand. I might even go so far as to say that testing that delicate line between what is in our hands and what is beyond them is what work is about.
"Natasha is always focused on exploring and resolving problems, she's not concerned about being right."
Designer
"We freed up my mind, and then the work flowed naturally. I could focus; things that had been stuck a long time were suddenly easy to take care of."
Company Director
Working with me
Introductions & fit
If you're considering working with me, please email and we can arrange an introductory call. At no charge, we'll have 20 minutes to answer your questions and get a feel for working together.
Online & in-person
I work mainly online and also in person with clients in and around both Worthing, West Sussex; St Albans, Hertfordshire and Norwich. We can record and use auto-transcribe for your sessions, if you would like.
Fees
I charge £58 per hour for face-to-face time and editing time. I charge £20 an hour for preparation, such as reading or listening to materials. I offer lower rates for clients on UC.
Biography
I began professional life in student politics in the late 90s. I went on to manage a charity, and in 2005, I moved to Singapore. I worked for the National Arts Council on the first Singapore Biennale, began writing for local magazines and became a life model.
I wrote for Time Out Singapore and Australia's GQ equviliant and and began to freelance on website and branding projects. I developed specialisms in verbal branding and content planning, projects included an early consumer logistics site and brand guidelines for India's largest telecomms company. Meanwhile, I volunteered in the Singapore equivalent of MIND and ran a weekly meet-up for people who ran their own businesses.
Over Christmas 2011, I turned down a role at McKinsey and said yes to the role of corporate communication manager in a family-owned multinational. I managed a team of internal consultants, working across South East Asia. Creatively, I ran a regular spoken word event, wrote poetry and returned to visual art making.
I moved to Amsterdam in 2015, seven weeks pregnant. My pregnancy cohort happily included several artists and a theoretical physicist, with whom I began learning Dutch with. I continued to work with ongoing international clients, including a luxury retail management consultancy and an inventor developing a patented learning aid. Besides Dutch, I took theatre, movement and critical studies courses, and experimented with performance art. I helped maintain the nature reserves in the Vondelpark, formed mutual aid groups during the pandemic and grew vegetables at the community garden.
After 18 years overseas, I returned to the UK - maintaining work with long-term clients and welcoming new ones. Now a seasoned new-place maker, I found the artists and the social innovators of Worthing. Most recently this led to a group of us developing a meanwhile use project, trying to convert empty shops into space for creative work. I continue to model and am part of a mutual aid group, amongst other things we are developing ideas around sustainable shared housing for later life.
I solved the problem of needing physical work, besides the intellecual by taking up cleaning. As part of this work I help people with the most difficult of housekeeping problems including clearing and organising after a bearevement and dealing with the overwhelm of both "hoarding" and OCD.
Natasha Golding
"Natasha helped me think about how I ask people questions. I had felt I was being condescending, but when I keep to explaining my own experience, I am just being curious."
Sociologist & Activist
"I don't know the answers yet. But now I know what I need to explore. I have the right questions in front of me."
Learning scientist & Inventor
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