Workshops

You can’t simply agree your way out of a complex problem.

Who it is for: Partnership, policy and programme leaders in charities, social impact companies, funders and sustainable development organisations.
Format: One full day, 09:30 to 16:30. Delivered live online. Materials, toolkit and certificate included.
Choose your date: Friday 11 December 2026, Monday 5 April 2027 or Monday 24 May 2027. Pick the one that suits you at checkout.

Why you need this workshop

Across charity, social impact and sustainable development, leaders are being asked to deliver greater impact with fewer resources as health, housing, poverty, migration, climate and employment become increasingly interconnected. These challenges cross organisational and sector boundaries, while the institutions addressing them often remain organised around individual issues.

Strategic collaboration therefore matters more than ever. Yet many partnerships still rely on approaches designed for relatively predictable problems: an MOU, a logic model, a steering group and a quarterly dashboard. In complex systems, these can address one problem while creating consequences elsewhere, often for people with the least power to absorb them.

This workshop introduces practical methods for understanding the wider system before designing the partnership or convening. Participants will examine boundaries, power and competing worldviews, then apply these approaches to a live challenge they are responsible for.

Four modules across one day, each moving from method to application.

A

Seeing the system before you design the solution

An introduction to systems thinking and the main methodologies, and how to tell which one a given problem needs.

The difference between tame, complex and wicked problems, and why the diagnosis determines everything that follows
Why reductionist planning tools fail in interdependent systems, with examples from live sector programmes
A working map of the main methodologies: soft systems, viable systems, critical systems heuristics, system dynamics
Choosing a methodology deliberately rather than defaulting to the one you already know

B

The practitioner’s toolkit

Thinking tools, methods, frameworks and practical application for your areas of concern.

Rich pictures and causal mapping: getting a messy situation onto one page that a board can actually read
Boundary critique: who and what your current framing includes, excludes and marginalises
Surfacing worldviews, so that you can tell a genuine disagreement from a vocabulary problem
Reading feedback, delay and unintended consequence before they show up in your evaluation
Identifying leverage: the small number of places where intervention actually moves the system

C

Designing partnerships that can carry complex problems

Applying the methodologies and tools to your own strategic partnerships, including the ones currently going wrong.

Surfacing the level at which partners are thinking, and aligning that thinking
Diagnosing why a partnership is underperforming structurally, and designing what it can realistically do and not do
Designing purpose, governance and decision rights so that the partnership stays viable when conditions change
Cross-sector work: aligning public bodies, funders, corporates and the voluntary sector without flattening what each brings
Building in the capacity to adapt, so the partnership survives a funding cut, an election or a restructure
Thinking through archetypes in partnership design
Using behavioural science and truth tables in partner selection and asset mapping
Biomimicry: nature’s approach to large multi-collaboratives
Live clinic: you bring a real partnership and work it through the method with the group

D

Convening as a systems intervention

Using systems tools to shape roundtables, conferences and collaborative events that move a tough problem rather than describing it.

Building a shared purpose for your convening, and a barriers wall
Designing a convening backwards from the system change you want, not forwards from the agenda
Who is in the room, who is missing, and how that single decision determines the outcome
Structuring sessions so disagreement becomes usable rather than being managed away
Roundtables, summits and inquiry-style events: choosing the right format for the problem
Converting a day of good conversation into commitments, ownership and a next step that holds

What you leave with

Learning objectives

Diagnose whether a problem in front of you is tame, complex or wicked, and select a method that matches it
Produce a rich picture and a causal map of a live partnership situation that others can read and challenge
Apply boundary critique to expose who your current partnership design is quietly excluding
Assess whether a partnership is structurally viable, and identify the specific design flaw when it is not
Design a partnership governance model that adapts rather than fractures under pressure
Design and run a convening that produces decisions and ownership rather than a write-up
Make the case internally for a systems approach, in the language your board and funders use

The take-home toolkit

Editable templates and materials, yours to use across your organisation.

01
Rich picture and causal mapping packGuided templates with worked sector examples
02
Partnership viability diagnosticA structured assessment you can run on any live partnership
03
Boundary and stakeholder critique canvasFor testing who your framing includes and excludes
04
Convening design canvas and facilitation runsheetFrom shared purpose through to commitments and follow-through
05
Cross-sector partnership agreement checklistThe structural questions to settle before you sign
06
Workshop workbook and curated reading listEverything covered on the day, plus where to go deeper
07
Certificate of completionIssued to every participant after the workshop

Insider case studies

Hear stories of some of the biggest partnerships designed with these tools.

International Organization for Migration, UN Migration

UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Facilitators

Bami Osidele

Systems change leader. National Partnerships, Macmillan Cancer Support

Bami has spent over a decade designing partnerships where finance, policy and multisector collaboration meet. He has structured more than 50 partnership and commercial deals and secured international financing in partnership with UNICEF, UN-IOM and Partners for Development, and has worked with UK-DCMS, UK public bodies and African governments on programmes where the problem was never contained within a single institution.

At Macmillan Cancer Support he works on national partnerships across the four nations, building multisectoral collaboration on the most complex challenges facing people with cancer. He is an international advisor on systems intervention for the Nigerian Cancer Society, creator of the Biomimicry Partnerships Approach and the Viable Systems of Partnerships framework, and a trustee of the Royal Microscopical Society.

He teaches these tools the way he uses them: on live problems, with the messiness left in.

Blended finance
Multisector partnerships
Soft Systems Methodology
Convening design

Christian Baron, PhD

Trainer, consultant and systemic coach

Christian works at the intersection of systems thinking, collaboration and organisational change. His work focuses on social systems: on how people relate, how collaboration develops, and how patterns of interaction can enable or constrain change.

Drawing on research and experience with small and medium-sized businesses, he designs interactive learning formats that connect conceptual clarity with practical application. He works with real situations rather than simplified case studies, helping people use systems thinking to better understand complexity and identify possibilities for action.

Christian is the author of several methodological books, including Methods for Systems Thinking.

Systems practice
Systemic coaching
Organisational change
Collaboration design

Choose your date and book

The workshop runs live online, so you can join from anywhere.

Available dates

Pick whichever suits you, and tell us via email if your plans change. Early bird pricing applies until 30 October.

Friday 11 December 2026Places available 09:30 to 16:30, live online. Monday 5 April 2027Places available 09:30 to 16:30, live online. Monday 24 May 2027Places available 09:30 to 16:30, live online.

Pay by invoice, purchase order or bank transfer

If your organisation does not pay by card, email workshops@bamiosidele.com and we will raise an invoice, accept a purchase order or send a quote, usually the same working day. Tell us the name of each person attending and the date you want.

Bank transfer details are set out in the full course outline, which you can request using the form further down this page.

Book a group or bring the workshop in-house

For teams of three or more, and for organisations wanting a private session built around a specific partnership or an upcoming convening, email workshops@bamiosidele.com. Tell us the number of people, your sector and the problem you are working on, and we will come back with a quote and available dates.

Download the full course outline

The complete one-day agenda, module by module, with the full list of tools covered and the templates you take away. Useful if you need to get sign-off from a manager or a learning and development budget holder.

Thank you. Download the outline.
Download it directly here.

Questions

Do I need any background in systems thinking?

No. The day is built for practitioners, not theorists. If you have read widely you will find the applied modules push you further than most training does. If you have never used a systems method, module A gives you everything you need to work confidently through the rest of the day.

Who is this genuinely for?

Partnership directors and managers, heads of strategy and policy, programme and portfolio leads, convenors and event designers, funders and commissioners, and chief executives of smaller organisations who personally hold the partnership relationships. It is written for charities, social impact companies, funders and sustainable development organisations, and for public sector colleagues who work with them.

Is the workshop online or in person?

Fully online, delivered live on the day. Nothing is pre-recorded, so you work in real time with the facilitators and the rest of the group. You can join from anywhere, and joining instructions and materials are sent in advance.

What do I need to bring?

One live problem: a partnership you are building or trying to repair, or a convening you are designing. You will work on it through every module, so you leave with something you can act on rather than notes you will not revisit. Bring whatever documentation you have, though none of it is required.

Can I switch to a different date?

Yes. The dates are deliberately flexible. Email us at least ten working days before your booked date and we will move you to another one at no charge.

What is the refund policy?

Full refund if you cancel more than 21 days before your workshop. Within 21 days you can transfer your place to a colleague or move to a later date. If the workshop is postponed you are offered a full refund or a transfer, whichever you prefer.

Can my organisation book a private session?

Yes, and it is often the better option for teams. Private sessions are built around a specific partnership, programme or upcoming convening, so the whole day is worked on your own situation. Email workshops@bamiosidele.com with numbers and context.

How do I pay if my finance team will not use a card?

Email workshops@bamiosidele.com and we will raise an invoice, accept a purchase order or send a quote, usually the same working day. Bank transfer details are included in the full course outline, which you can request using the form on this page.

Do I get anything after the day itself?

You keep the full editable toolkit, the workbook and the reading list, and you receive a certificate of completion. Participants are also offered early access to future workshops.