The time, effort, energy and cost of bringing in subject matter experts to teach on a programme makes it necessary to give them the stage (literally and metaphorically).

The best speakers know how to engage an audience and create participation, yet however skilful they are, they typically spend 80% of the time on their material and 20% on interaction or Q&A.

We invert this equation, so that 80% of time is spent actively engaged and only 20% is receiving stimulus.

There are two main reasons for this.

First, most adult learning is social. It occurs in company and through inter-action.

• Different people see different things, ask different questions and have different insights. Sharing and contrasting these varied perspectives creates a much more complex, layered and nuanced web of learning.
• It also engages people actively in the process, which enhances understanding and integrates what they are learning into their working knowledge.

Second, the kind of knowledge and understanding needed to cope with complex, changing, nuanced circumstances is always contextual.

Thus:

• It is not about ‘content’ as such.
• It is as much about the ‘how’ as the ‘what’.
• Thus there is no ‘best practice’ to be transmitted, only 'emerging practice' to be discovered.

Knowledge needs to be created (and re-created) by people intimately familiar with their own particular context.

The character, behaviour and disposition of individuals is a fundamental part of what we are working with.

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