'Unique Change' offers specialist training and coaching programmes for the development of human potential, within your business.

Use the links across the top of this section to discover how we can assist you in achieving your business objectives.

Business Events:

Using Symbolic Modelling with groups as a team building and conflict resolution process:

Venue: Ealing, London and Liverpool

Costs: Levels 1 and 2 (4 days) £400 (plus VAT) per person

Where does it come from?

Metaphors@Work was created by Caitlin Walker and is based on the work of David Grove, Penny Tompkins and James Lawley. It has been the subject of postgraduate research, evaluation and practice by Nancy Doyle and Caitlin Walker since 2001.

How do I get involved?

Nancy and Caitlin will be running the training course for people interested in learning more about Metaphors@Work. You will form part of a learning group and go through the 5 stage process with each other as well as reflecting on the experience.

The course is for people who already have a background in Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling.

What is it?

Stage 1: The preparation work introduces participants to self-reflection and engages their interest prior to training, which increases motivation to learn. It gives people time to generate and being to develop metaphoric thinking.

Stage 2: 'When I'm working / learning / operating at my best, I'm like what'?

'A perfect team for me, in which I can operate at my best, is like what?

Eliciting and developing individual models for the given context. This stage results in participants engaging in the uniqueness of their models and making sense of the specific behaviours that are inherent in their values and beliefs.

Stage 3: Sharing and Negotiating between the individual metaphoric models.

In this stage individuals ask each other clarification questions about each other's models. These questions are useful for revealing the values, styles and needs of the questioner and a skilled metaphor modeller can feed this information back into the group. This is the stage when the group's understanding of one another and the dynamics between them makes a quantum leap.

Stage 4: Participants negotiate a shared metaphor, for a specific outcome, i.e. perfect team, project, merger, which supports each to operate at their best and to which each can fully commit. The way in which the group works together at this point should be symbolic of their new dynamics and understanding.

Stage 5: Using the shared metaphor as the basis for communication, the group now begin to discuss the real issues and tasks involved in the team, project, or merger and begin allocating resources and roles to each other. The speed and ease with which they do this will be markedly different from the ways in which they have worked before.

How do I book a place or get more information?

Please contact either ourselves on 0191 2520011 or Caitlin and Nancy at Training Attention Ltd on 07957 591 329 for further details, and remembering to mention that you have come from 'Unique Change'.

An information sheet, in Adobe PDF format, is available as a download here.