Training

What to expect

Training is the process of developing new skills or behaviours, through experiential learning and practice. It can be short and sweet, or take place over the course of our whole lives. I offer a variety of training frameworks that can be applied and adapted to different contexts.

My training can take the form of interactive and engaging workshops, or more ongoing processes to establish new behaviours through practical action.

Below is a series of topics I am experienced at delivering training in, and each one contains example sessions I have delivered in the past. For more information about any of the examples, or to discuss other needs, please get in touch.

Building Resilience

Personal resilience

Resilience is the ability to respond to change, but many things can affect this ability from moment to moment, and not all are within our control. This is an interactive session to introduce the concept of resilience as a series of patterns, patterns that we can identify, practice and improve. We explore the internal drivers that push us towards burnout or exhaustion, and the feedback loops we are most responsive to and that affect our ability to prioritise our own wellbeing.

Who it’s for
  • Activists, farmers, teachers, absolutely anyone who wants to increase their own resilience in the face of our interconnected crises
  • People who are interested in wellbeing, whether they are familiar with it or are only just starting to pay attention to it
What you’ll get
  • Practical tools to apply yourself and with others
  • A new framework to understand resilience and the patterns required to prioritise it
  • Reflections from others on their own approaches to resilience, and feedback on your own
Group/team/organisational resilience

Organisations and groups can also work to build their collective resilience, both as a collection of individuals and as a functioning system. Using tools that can be made specific to any group of people, we identify the dynamics that occur while we are working together, and how we can build and practice new patterns that help us sustain ourselves and thrive.

Who it’s for
  • Community groups, third sector organisations, businesses – any group of people who work together for a common purpose
  • People responsible for the wellbeing of others, or the culture of their group or organisations
What you’ll get
  • Practical tools to apply yourself and with others
  • A new framework to understand resilience and the patterns required to prioritise it
  • A list of practical steps and collective priorities to take away, and plans for how to integrate them into how your organisation currently operates
Climate resilience: Dealing with change

Transformative change is an inevitable consequence of the intersecting crises we face. We can’t know exactly what is coming, or when, although we have more information on the future than at any point in our history. But we can become more aware of how we respond to change, as individuals and as organisations, and how putting specific systems and patterns in place can make us more resilient to predictable unpredictability.

Who it’s for
  • Anyone struggling to find resilience in the face of the climate crisis
  • Teams and groups working collaboratively in the climate crisis
What you’ll get
  • Practical tools to process grief, fear, anger and other emotions
  • Space to share your thoughts and feelings
  • Actions for holding uncertainty
  • Examples of good practice

Effective Networks

Designing, building, and maintaining effective networks

What do we mean when we talk about networks? Can you accurately describe the networks you are a part of, or the ones you want to create? This training will help you find the language and tools to approach network building strategically, and how to choose the appropriate shape, size, and function to meet the purpose you want.

Who it’s for
  • Network managers and weavers, people responsible for building or maintaining networks
  • Individuals within a network or networks, wanting to work more effectively
What you’ll get
  • A clear and compelling way to understand networks, and communicate them to others
  • Practical examples of how to create social capital, and which types of actions can build the network characteristics you need
  • Examples of good (and bad) practice
Evaluating networks

Once a network is up and running, it’s easy to look only at what goes in (e.g. how many people) and what comes out (e.g. number of events), but it is what goes on inside a network that creates the potential for incredible value to be created. This session shares different techniques for quantifying the effectiveness of networks, and how to know what to look for when something isn’t quite right.

Who it’s for
  • Network managers and weavers, people responsible for building or maintaining networks
  • Those responsible for evaluation, impact and monitoring within organisations
  • Individuals within a network or networks, wanting to work more effectively
What you’ll get
  • Practical tools to use for evaluation networks, including the social capital framework
  • Interactive sessions to put new ideas into practice
  • Troubleshooting Q&A
  • Examples of good (and bad) practice

Transformative Governance

Designing effective governance systems

Governance is the structure through which we achieve transformative action, but it can often feel slow, or clunky, or performative. In this workshop we will collaboratively explore different options and ideas for your governance model, whether building it from scratch or finding small changes to improve an existing system.

Who it’s for
  • Organisations or individuals wanting to develop new or improve existing governance models
  • Teams and groups who want to co-design new ways of working with each other
What you’ll get
  • A structured and collaborative process to develop a new governance model
  • Interactive sessions to explore the systemic impact of existing and potential ways of working
  • Tools to put ideas into practice
Doughnut Economics: Doughnut Design for Business

This session uses the Doughnut Economics Action Lab toolkit outlining how businesses and other organisations can engage with Doughnut Economics. It guides you through an action-oriented workshop that is practical but ambitious, and aimed at catalysing innovations in their deep design. By focusing on the deep design of business, the workshop invites companies to engage in a transformative agenda of becoming regenerative and distributive in their strategies, operations, and impacts.

Who it’s for
  • Businesses and other organisations with a desire to have a better impact on the world around them
  • Groups or networks of organisations looking to collectively adopt new ways of working
What you’ll get
  • A clear and compelling understanding of the principles of Doughnut Economics
  • Interactive sessions to map out your current and potential impact at local and global levels of scale
  • Tools to apply the principles in practice

Working with systems

Thinking in systems

As our understanding of climate, ecological, and social systems improves, the more we realise that everything is connected and approaching each challenge in isolation can only bring limited results. This training will help you to step back and look at your work in the context of systems, and how you can identify where to apply your energy when the task feels overwhelming.

Who it’s for
  • Anyone interested in how the world really works, and how we can increase our impact
  • Organisations and groups aiming to contribute to systems change, at any level of scale
  • Teams wanting to better understand and reach the maximum potential of their impact
What you’ll get
  • Clear and compelling frameworks for understanding and communicating how systems work and why they are important
  • Simple games to explore how systems can be influenced by specific interventions
  • Targeted next steps to apply in practice to your work
Positive Tipping Points: How change happens

Building on the latest academic research, this session will guide you through the Positive Tipping Points framework. We will look at examples of how change happens, in social, technological and ecological contexts, and what we can learn from historical transformations. You will use the framework to focus on how your work is contributing to wider systemic tipping points, and how reinforcing feedback loops can amplify the impact of your actions.

Who it’s for
  • Anyone interested in how the world really works, and how we can increase our impact
  • Organisations and groups aiming to contribute to systems change, at any level of scale
  • Teams wanting to better understand and reach the maximum potential of their impact
What you’ll get
  • Clear and compelling frameworks for understanding and communicating how tipping points work and why they are important
  • A practical framework to apply directly to your work
  • Insight into the latest academic into tipping points
Doughnut Economics

Doughnut Economics is a compass for human prosperity in the 21st century, with the aim of meeting the needs of all people within the means of the living planet. Using resources developed by the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, this workshop will apply the model to your context, and visualise the systems you are affecting and affected by, and how it can support a different kind of decision making in response to intersecting challenges and competing priorities.

Who it’s for
  • Anyone interested in how the world really works, and how we can increase our impact
  • Organisations and groups aiming to better understand their impact at local and global levels of scale
  • Doughnut Economics beginners, right up to those with plenty of experience with the idea
What you’ll get
  • Clear and compelling frameworks for understanding and communicating Doughnut Economics and what it can do
  • An interactive application of the model for your context, and specific areas of interest
  • A collaborative process built around celebrating different perspectives and finding common ground for moving forward

What people say about me

Peter’s contributions to STIR Magazine and workshop facilitation both at our festival and online, have consistently delivered a wealth of information, cause for reflection, and encouragement to take action both individually and professionally.

Peter is a pleasure to work with – his friendly and open manner combined with his extensive knowledge and experience creates stimulating conversation without fail.

Abby Gordon-Farleigh

Communications Director, Stir To Action New Economy Programme

Peter helped design a webinar programme for a network of alliances working to tackle food poverty, who after a challenging 2020 were feeling exhausted. After an initial conversation, Peter suggested a suitable topic, developed a webinar agenda to suit our timings and audience, prepared a presentation and led the session.

Feedback from the group was very positive with attendees reporting it had been an invaluable session – so much so that I have booked Peter for a second session.

Cecily Spelling

Events and Communications Coordinator, Sustain

Pricing

The main variables for training are the amount of bespoke preparation required, and the complexity of the delivery. Some of the workshops above can be delivered quickly if your budget is tight, or I can design more specific and complex sessions if you have different needs and resources.

For example, a 1 .5 hour off-the shelf workshop could cost £150, whereas a more intensive process may require a higher day rate to include preparation and delivery.

If you think this training could be valuable to you or your organisation, that’s the important part. We can work the rest out from there. If you are wondering whether you, your team, or your organisation have opportunities or gaps that could be addressed through training on the above or related topics, I’d be happy to discuss your context – contact me.