Transforming Adversarial Relationships Into High-Performance Partnerships

For over 25 years, I’ve worked with organisations facing a problem that costs billions annually and destroys competitive advantage: adversarial workplace relationships that drain resources, stifle innovation, and create cultures of mutual distrust.

I’ve discovered something remarkable: every workplace conflict contains hidden intelligence waiting to be unlocked.

My specialisation is helping organisations transform these conflicts into collaborative partnerships that deliver measurable business results—not through compromise or finding middle ground, but by creating solutions that genuinely serve all stakeholders’ interests better than traditional approaches.

My Journey: From HR Manager to HPtE Pioneer

The Mountain Top Moment

My path to becoming the UK’s leading High Performance through Engagement (HPtE) practitioner began with an insight that changed everything.

In 2005, during a Theory of Constraints workshop in New Zealand, I had what I call my “mountain top epiphany”: If organisations are systems, and organisations are made of people, then people must be systems too.

This realisation—that we could apply systematic problem-solving approaches to human conflicts, not just operational challenges—became the foundation of what would evolve into the HPtE methodology.

Building the Methodology

My background combines:

Academic Foundation:

Practical Experience:

  • Employment advocacy and legal representation for employers, employees, and their unions since 1998
  • HR Manager roles where I embedded systematic problem-solving into performance development, team dynamics, and organisational change
  • Facilitating union-management transformations across multiple sectors
  • Developing internal practitioner capability so organisations build sustainable collaborative cultures

This combination of rigorous methodology and deep practitioner experience creates something unique: proven frameworks that actually work in complex real-world environments.

What Makes HPtE Different

The 3Cs Model: Beyond False Trade-offs

Most approaches force organisations to choose:

  • Commercial success OR employee wellbeing
  • Efficiency OR engagement
  • Management control OR union partnership

HPtE rejects these false dichotomies.

The 3Cs Model demonstrates that sustainable high performance requires strengthening three elements simultaneously:

Commercial Responsibility – Financial health and long-term organisational viability

Customer Value – Products and services that genuinely serve stakeholder needs

Constructive Culture – Workplace environments where people can be their best selves

When you optimize one at the expense of others, you create systemic conflict. When you strengthen all three together, you unlock breakthrough performance.

Interest-Based Problem Solving (IBPS)

At the heart of HPtE is a systematic approach that moves beyond positional bargaining:

  1. Surface underlying interests – What are people really trying to achieve?
  2. Identify shared objectives – Where do interests align?
  3. Challenge hidden assumptions – What beliefs keep us stuck?
  4. Generate collaborative solutions – How might we meet everyone’s genuine needs?
  5. Implement with joint ownership – How do we ensure sustainable success?

This isn’t facilitated discussion or mediation—it’s rigorous methodology that consistently produces breakthrough solutions.

The Evaporating Cloud

One of the most powerful tools in the HPtE practitioner’s toolkit is the Evaporating Cloud from Theory of Constraints, which I’ve adapted for human systems over 20 years of practice.

This systematic conflict resolution method:

  • Makes underlying assumptions visible
  • Transforms apparently intractable conflicts into solvable problems
  • Creates solutions that genuinely work for all stakeholders
  • Builds collaborative capability that outlasts facilitation

I’ve successfully applied this approach to conflicts ranging from personal career dilemmas to multi-union organisational transformations.

Proven Track Record: Case Studies in Transformation

Air New Zealand (2014-2019)

Facilitated the airline’s transformation from decades of adversarial union-management relationships to five years of collaborative partnership:

  • Zero strike days across five years (contrasted with previous pattern of recurring industrial action)
  • Major challenges resolved including base closures and fleet transitions
  • 40+ successful improvement projects across operational and strategic domains
  • Sustainable partnership structures functioning effectively post-facilitation
  • CEO Christopher Luxon later became New Zealand Prime Minister, demonstrating how collaborative leadership capabilities transfer to highest levels

Thomas Cook Airlines (2017)

Helped transform a crisis situation where pilot-management relationships had completely broken down:

  • Post-strike intervention preventing recurrence
  • First successful pay deal following industrial action
  • Partnership development from adversarial starting point
  • Systematic approach to rebuilding trust

British Airways (2020 and in 2024-present)

Following successful intervention during post-strike relationship repair in 2020, British Airways re-engaged Karl in 2024 to lead an expanding transformation programme:

  • Multiple HPtE Improvement Teams operating across operational and strategic challenges
  • Leadership governance through HPtE Leadership Team
  • Internal facilitator development building sustainable capability
  • Programme expansion demonstrating measurable partnership value
  • Multi-stakeholder approach addressing complex organisational dynamics

Beyond Aviation

HPtE methodology has been successfully applied across:

  • Healthcare: DHB partners improving clinical pathway efficiency whilst enhancing staff wellbeing
  • Manufacturing: Production facilities eliminating waste through frontline engagement
  • Public Sector: Government departments transforming service delivery through collaborative design

The methodology is sector-agnostic because it addresses universal human dynamics that exist in every organisational setting.

My Philosophy: Building Capability, Not Dependency

I don’t believe in consultant dependency.

Every engagement is designed to develop internal HPtE capability so organisations can sustain collaborative approaches long after my facilitation ends.

This means:

✅ Training internal facilitators in HPtE methodology

✅ Establishing governance structures that embed partnership

✅ Transferring tools and frameworks for ongoing use

✅ Building organisational muscle memory for collaborative problem-solving

✅ Creating practitioner communities that support mutual development

Sustainable transformation requires internal ownership, not external rescue.

The Human Cost That Drives This Work

I’ve witnessed the human cost of adversarial relationships across three decades:

  • Talented people driven from professions they once loved by toxic workplace cultures
  • Families experiencing financial and emotional strain from prolonged industrial action
  • Communities damaged by organisational conflicts that destroy economic opportunity
  • Leaders on both sides trapped in adversarial dynamics they desperately want to escape
  • Collective intelligence and potential wasted on fighting rather than creating value

But I’ve also witnessed transformation that seemed impossible:

  • Union and management leaders discovering genuine partnership after years of distrust
  • Teams solving ‘intractable’ problems within weeks using systematic methodology
  • Organisations shifting from recurring strikes to years of collaborative success
  • People rediscovering meaning in work they’d considered leaving

This is why rigorous methodology matters: It makes transformation replicable and sustainable, not dependent on charismatic individuals or fortunate circumstances. HPtE creates structural capability for partnership, not fragile détentes that collapse under pressure.

Beyond Consulting: Building Global Practitioner Capability

The world needs more than one HPtE expert. Complex organisational challenges require practitioner capability at scale.

I’m developing the HPtE Practitioner Community to:

  • Democratise access to proven transformation methodology
  • Create practitioner capability across sectors and geographies
  • Build a global community advancing engagement-driven performance
  • Ensure HPtE methodology continues evolving through practitioner innovation
  • Support organisations developing internal facilitation excellence

Current development includes:

  • Comprehensive methodology documentation (25+ years of field-tested wisdom)
  • Structured training pathways (Facilitator → Trainer → Master Practitioner)
  • Practice tools and implementation frameworks
  • Case study library demonstrating cross-sector applications
  • Peer learning networks connecting practitioners globally

Early adopters welcome: The founding practitioner cohort is currently forming. Experienced facilitators, coaches, OD and IR professionals interested in mastering systematic partnership development are invited to enquire.

Current Focus and Availability (2025)

Karl is based in London, leading a multi-year transformation programme with a major European aviation group. This work represents HPtE methodology evolution from single-union engagement to enterprise-wide partnership transformation across multiple stakeholder groups and operational divisions.

Due to current programme commitments, Karl has limited capacity for new enterprise engagements during 2025. Organisations interested in HPtE transformation are encouraged to enquire about programme opportunities from 2026 onwards.

Karl continues active development of the HPtE practitioner community, including facilitator training and supervision for practitioners delivering HPtE methodology globally.

Let’s Talk About Your Challenges

If your organisation faces:

  • Adversarial union-management relationships consuming resources
  • Recurring conflicts that resist resolution
  • Siloed decision-making preventing efficiency
  • Disengagement damaging performance
  • Major changes requiring collaborative implementation

The HPtE methodology might be exactly what you need.

I offer Discovery Programmes that:

  1. Assess your specific situation and readiness
  2. Demonstrate methodology through initial proof of concepts
  3. Build internal capability from day one
  4. Create clear decision points about longer-term engagement
  5. Ensure genuine value before major investment

No pressure, no long-term commitments until you’ve seen the approach work in your context.

Connect With Me

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/karlgperry

📚 HPtE Practitioner’s Guide: My comprehensive methodology documentation (in progress)

🎓 Practitioner Community: Join founding members shaping the future of engagement-driven transformation

What Colleagues Say

“Karl has a unique and extremely valuable skill set within the philosophy and practical implementation of High Performance Engagement. He has rich and real capabilities to think and engage strategically with internal and external stakeholders, build effective and improved working relationships, and facilitate workshops & training sessions across all levels of complex organisations.”

— Patrick Behrendt, Former Air New Zealand Executive

“NZALPA recommended Karl to Air New Zealand when they were seeking external High Performance Engagement facilitators in late 2014. He was the highest scoring candidate and has successfully facilitated a number of challenging issues using the HPE approach that NZALPA has had direct involvement in. Moving from a traditional combative and conflict-based relationship toward a more collaborative approach is not an easy task. Karl is able to remain a neutral and impartial facilitator while guiding the parties through sometimes complex and emotive problem solving. I can personally recommend Karl as a consultant, facilitator and as a leadership coach.”

— Dawn Handforth, General Manager, New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA)

Ready to Transform Conflict Into Competitive Advantage?

Let’s explore whether HPtE is right for your organisation.

Get in touch to discuss your specific challenges and how systematic partnership development might help.

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/karlgperry

No generic solutions. Just honest conversation about your situation and whether we’re a good fit for working together.