People decisions that hold.
Helix People Advisory works with boards and executive teams on leadership, succession and transformation. And with the leaders living through those decisions.
The idea
A helix is two strands wound around each other. Bound, but distinct, and strong enough to hold under tension.
The strands are the organisation and the individual.
Most people advisory works one strand at a time. Boards get counsel on the decision. The people affected by it receive a process, and an outcome. Both halves are handled well in isolation and at times badly together.
Helix works both. Advisory for the organisation. Direct support for the individual, through Bearings Advisory and Cairn & Co.
Decisions made well at that intersection hold. Decisions made from one side alone rarely do.
For organisations
Where to start
Helix helps boards, CEOs and executive teams make clearer people decisions during growth, restructure, succession and transformation.
Interim and fractional CPO. Stepping into a people function to lead it through uncertainty, crisis or a gap in the seat, and leaving it materially stronger.
Advisory. Organisational design and strategic workforce planning. Leadership succession. Organisational transformation and future of work. Complex people decisions where the trade-offs are real.
Clear thinking, senior HR judgement and practical execution. Not another initiative that stalls.
Helix helps boards, CEOs and executive teams make clearer people decisions during growth, restructure, succession and transformation.
Interim and fractional CPO. Stepping into a people function to lead it through uncertainty, crisis or a gap in the seat, and leaving it materially stronger.
Advisory. Organisational design and strategic workforce planning. Leadership succession. Organisational transformation and future of work. Complex people decisions where the trade-offs are real.
Clear thinking, senior HR judgement and practical execution. Not another initiative that stalls.
For Individuals
The second strand. Because the organisation gets the advice and the individual gets an outcome, and someone should be working the other side of that.
There are two unique offerings
Bearings Advisory
One-to-one work with senior leaders where a career changes direction: stepping into or up to a larger role, or moving out of full-time corporate life into portfolio, board and advisory work. Built around the whole person, not just the next title. Commissioned by the individual, or by the organisation on their behalf.
Digital support at scale for professionals navigating redundancy, restructure or a move they have chosen. Its programme, Forward in 30, gives people the structure to work out what comes next. Written from 25 years of designing and running those processes from the inside.
Where to start
Two differing pathways, depending on where you are.
Bearings. Start with a conversation. Thirty minutes, confidential, no charge. We work out what you are actually deciding before anyone talks about engagements. Please email drop us an email to schedule a discussion.
Cairn & Co. Start on your own. “Your First Week” is a free five-day guide covering the practical steps to take straight away. No conversation required, visit, www.cairnandco.co.uk
One is high touch and one is self-directed. Both are built from the same twenty-five years experience
About
Colin Hamilton
I help boards and executive teams get the leadership, succession and organisational decisions right when performance, risk and reputation matter.
Chief People Officer and global HR executive, 25 years across regulated, multi-business environments in financial services, professional services and travel management.
Most of my work sits at the point where people strategy meets commercial reality: building leadership depth, planning succession, and aligning how an organisation is structured to what the business is actually trying to do. I have led through growth, restructuring, transformation and strategic reset. Those are the situations where the right call is not obvious and the cost of the wrong one is high.
What I bring is judgement under pressure: the ability to challenge a position constructively, influence at executive level, and turn a decision into execution rather than another initiative that stalls. Deep technical grounding across the full HR lifecycle sits underneath it, but the value is derived from the judgement and execution.
I have also spent 25 years on the other side of those decisions. Designing restructures and then sitting with the people they landed on. That is why Helix works both strands rather than one, and why the individual side of the practice is not an afterthought.
GAICD qualified, with board-level perspective on leadership, succession, governance and people risk. Accredited executive coach through the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership (IECL).
beyond helix
Not everything sits inside Helix.
Minted Generation builds practical financial literacy for families, giving parents and children aged 8 to 15 the tools to make better money decisions together. Different audience, different problem, same standard.
