The HPtE Practitioner Pathway
The HPtE Practitioner Pathway
Start with one conflict. Build a practice that changes organisations.
The Pathway takes you from working your own conflicts with an AI coach beside you, to leading transformation across an enterprise. Seven levels, one method, and a first step you can take today.
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Why start at Level 1
Level 1 is called The Practice, and it is exactly that. Each day you take one real conflict, yours or one you are carrying for someone else, and work it through with RIC, the Rapid Improvement Coach. The aim is forty conflicts, ideally one a day. A conflict a day builds the habit, and the habit is what builds the capability.
An AI coach that speeds the reasoning, not the judgement
RIC keeps you moving through each conflict and keeps the count. The judgement stays with you, because you hold the context.
A community holding the standard
The Conflict Club gives you peers working the same method, so you are never practising alone.
Progress you can evidence
Every status on the Pathway is earned through evidenced practice. At the fortieth conflict you are Trained in TRIP.
Level 1 also keeps you in the method as you grow. A live Level 1 subscription carries your access to RIC and stays with you at every level above, so the tool never falls away, however senior you become.
What is TRIP?
TRIP is The Rapid Improvement Process, the disciplined way HPtE works through a conflict. Rather than trading one side’s position against the other’s, it brings out the two legitimate requirements holding a problem in place, tests the assumptions underneath them, and finds the change that satisfies both. That is how a conflict is dissolved instead of conceded. It uses The Perry Approach to the Evaporating Cloud Method from the Theory of Constraints.
TRIP runs inside a Rapid Improvement Session: the session is the container, and the process is what happens in it. RIC, the Rapid Improvement Coach, holds the method throughout, so every run follows the full sequence whether or not anyone is watching. That is what lets the standard hold when no trainer is in the room.
One process, four scales. The method never changes as you grow. What grows is the number of legitimate positions you hold in the room at once.
One person · Levels 1 to 4
Single
One person’s conflict worked through in full: your own dilemma, or someone else’s that you coach them through.
Two parties · Level 5
Two
Company and union, manager and colleague, Finance and Operations. RIC holds both parties’ assumptions at once while the facilitator holds the room.
Many parties · Level 5
Multi
Several positions in the room at once, as in an HPtE Improvement Team. However many parties there are, their positions gather onto the three Cs: Commercial Responsibility, Customer Value and Culture.
Whole system · Level 7
Enterprise
Work across functions, sites or a whole portfolio of improvement, with TRIP running at programme scale and proper governance.
This is why Level 1 comes first. Forty conflicts worked with RIC give you the method in your own hands, one person at a time, before anyone else relies on it.
The seven levels at a glance
| Level | What you build | What you earn |
|---|---|---|
| The HPtE Workshop One day | The method, end to end | Certificate of Participation |
| 1 · The Practice | Forty conflicts worked with RIC | Trained in TRIP |
| 2 · LSI 1 | Your own thinking patterns | Evidenced self-knowledge |
| 3 · LSI 2 | Your impact on others | Evidenced behavioural change |
| 4 · Conflict Club Host | Hosting other people’s conflicts, one person at a time | Authorised to deliver TRIP with RIC |
| 5 · HPtE Facilitator | Two-party and multi-stakeholder work in client organisations | Accredited HPtE Facilitator |
| 6 · HPtE Trainer | Building capability in others | Accredited HPtE Trainer |
| 7 · HPtE Enterprise Practitioner | Enterprise-scale transformation | Accredited HPtE Enterprise Practitioner |
Levels 5 to 7 together are the HPtE Practitioner levels, at team, organisation and enterprise scale. Levels 1 to 3 permit no client delivery. Level 4 is the first level that does, under professional supervision.
Each level in detail
The front door · One day
The HPtE Workshop
A single day that takes you through the method end to end: The 3Cs Model™ and the conflict zones between them in the morning, then the Rapid Improvement Process (TRIP) from framing to agreed action in the afternoon, with a live demonstration of RIC. Mixed management and union rooms are the point. It is recommended before Level 1, not required.
The gate
Attend the day.
You earn
A Certificate of Participation. It permits no delivery.
Level 1 · Start here
The Practice
Work one conflict a day with RIC beside you and the Conflict Club around you. You are building the single most useful habit in the method: finding the two legitimate positions holding a problem in place, and dissolving the conflict rather than conceding one side of it. You start with fifteen conflicts across the three conflict zones and sixteen across the behaviour styles, then bring nine of your own. The goal is forty, ideally a conflict a day. Trained in TRIP is granted at the fortieth, however long it takes.
The gate
Forty single-stakeholder conflicts worked through TRIP with RIC: fifteen across the three conflict zones, sixteen across the behaviour styles and nine from your own experience. RIC keeps the count.
You earn
Trained in TRIP: evidenced proficiency in working your own conflicts. No client work.
Level 2
LSI 1: Your own thinking patterns
Personal development using the Life Styles Inventory (LSI), privately held. You see how you think, build a development plan, and work against it. This is the preparation for working with other people. The conflicts you work here are your own, surfaced through the LSI.
The gate
A retest, at three months or later, showing more constructive thinking styles, read against your development plan.
You earn
Evidenced self-knowledge, and the entry point to Level 3.
Level 3
LSI 2: Your impact on others
From how you think to how you show up. Level 3 brings in descriptions from the people around you, so you can see your behavioural impact for yourself and change it deliberately. Nobody can ask for constructive behaviour in a room without demonstrating it, which is why this level sits before hosting. Level 2 comes first.
The gate
A retest showing more constructive behaviour styles, read against your development plan.
You earn
Evidenced behavioural change, and the groundwork for hosting others.
Level 4
Conflict Club Host
The step into working with other people’s conflicts, one person at a time: holding the space for someone else, and role-modelling the constructive behaviour you ask of them. Every session is observed by a supervisor, so the first time you work with another person’s conflict, someone sees it. It is challenging, and it is safe. This is the first level at which you can work with clients.
The gate
Five individual sessions, then five hosted Conflict Club Sessions, each observed by a supervisor.
You earn
Authorised to deliver TRIP with RIC: paid single-stakeholder coaching, under professional supervision.
Level 5 · HPtE Practitioner
HPtE Facilitator
From one person to many. One person in front of you is coaching; two or more is facilitation. Facilitator training begins with telling a two-party negotiation from a multi-stakeholder problem, then you facilitate in client organisations, including HPtE Improvement Teams, and begin developing others.
The gate
Facilitator training, then ten supervised multi-stakeholder projects, each reaching consensus with the 3Cs standard met, confirmed by your supervisor.
You earn
Accredited HPtE Facilitator: two-party and multi-stakeholder practice, including improvement team work.
Level 6 · HPtE Practitioner
HPtE Trainer
Building capability in other people. You train HPtE Improvement Teams, Co-Leads and HPtE Facilitators, so the method keeps growing after you have left the room.
The gate
Completed Trainer training plus five supervised workshop deliveries, signed off against a published rubric.
You earn
Accredited HPtE Trainer.
Level 7 · HPtE Practitioner · By invitation
HPtE Enterprise Practitioner
Leading whole-enterprise transformation: the governance, charters and leadership alignment that make HPtE Strategy® sustainable at scale, and professional supervision of every level beneath. Level 7 is by invitation only, which keeps it genuinely rare.
You earn
Accredited HPtE Enterprise Practitioner.
How the levels fit together. A live Level 1 subscription is the keystone: it carries your access to RIC at every level above. Level 2 comes before Level 3. Completion order and enrolment order can differ, so you can be part-way through Level 3 with your fortieth conflict still ahead. Every status is earned by evidenced practice. Current pricing is shown on the platform.