Transform Conflict into High Performance

You’re the Architect of Transformation

Facilitating change. You guide teams through difficult conversations and complex challenges.
Building capability. You develop others’ ability to solve problems and navigate conflict constructively.
Creating breakthroughs. You help people see possibilities they couldn’t see before.

You know transformation work is rewarding—but it’s also demanding. You’ve seen initiatives stall, teams regress, and “solutions” that don’t stick. You’re looking for methodology that’s proven, systematic, and teachable—not just charismatic facilitation that works when you’re in the room but collapses when you leave.

What if you could master a systematic approach that transforms adversarial relationships into strategic partnerships—and builds capability that sustains long after your facilitation ends?

The Methodology: High Performance through Engagement (HPtE)

HPtE is a systematic methodology for transforming adversarial relationships into collaborative partnerships across any organisational boundary:

Union-management relations – From industrial conflict to strategic partnership
Cross-functional teams – From silos to integrated problem-solving
Organisational change – From resistance to co-created transformation
Customer/supplier partnerships – From transactional to collaborative relationships

It’s not facilitation magic. It’s replicable methodology.

Built on Proven Foundations

HPtE integrates four foundational approaches into a systematic methodology:

The 3Cs Model – (by Karl Perry) – Commercial Responsibility, Customer Value, Constructive Culture as integrated necessary conditions, not competing priorities. Developed whilst at Air New Zealand and refined through decades of practice, built on Dr Eliyahu Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (1994).

Interest-Based Problem Solving (IBPS) – Getting beneath positions to underlying interests, pioneered by Roger Fisher and William Ury at the Harvard Negotiation Project in their seminal work Getting to Yes (1981), and proven at Kaiser Permanente’s 28-year labour-management partnership.

Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes – Systematic conflict resolution through the Evaporating Cloud and other TOC tools that surface and challenge the assumptions holding conflicts in place.

Human Synergistics International – Life Styles Inventory™, the Circumplex Model, and How Culture Works – The world’s most thoroughly researched assessment tools for measuring thinking and behavioural styles at individual, team, and organisational levels. The Circumplex reveals the fundamental security/satisfaction conflict that drives human behaviour, whilst the How Culture Works model shows how structures, systems, and leadership shape culture.

Together, these create a comprehensive framework for transformation work that develops practitioners from the inside out and strengthens all three dimensions simultaneously.

What You’ll Master

Conflict Resolution Tools: Theory of Constraints

Master the Evaporating Cloud method and other TOC Thinking Processes:

Surface underlying assumptions holding conflicts in place
Test those assumptions to reveal which are valid and which can be challenged
Find breakthrough solutions that honour all parties’ interests by dissolving false conflicts
Create implementation pathways that overcome obstacles systematically

These tools transform conflicts from “impossible dilemmas or paradox” into “solvable problems with creative solutions.”

Facilitation Methodology: Interest-Based Problem Solving

Master the four-step IBPS process developed by Roger Fisher and William Ury at Harvard’s Negotiation Project and proven at Kaiser Permanente, Air New Zealand, and a major UK airline:

Step 1: Define the Issue – Achieve shared understanding of the problem, separating facts from assumptions

Step 2: Identify Interests – Surface everyone’s underlying needs, moving beyond positions to what people actually care about

Step 3: Develop Options – Generate multiple potential solutions collaboratively, expanding the pie rather than dividing it

Step 4: Craft the Solution – Select and implement through consensus, ensuring everyone can support the decision

This isn’t generic problem-solving. It’s a systematic methodology for resolving conflicts that seem intractable.

Strategic Framework: The 3Cs Model

Learn to diagnose where organisations are optimising one dimension at the expense of others—and how to find synergy across all three:

When you get it wrong:

Industrial conflict between management and employees
Operational conflict between departments
Departmental silos blocking collaboration
Waste where breakthrough performance should be

When you get it right:

Collaboration between teams that used to compete
Innovation from employees who feel safe to contribute
Throughput from reduced waste and faster problem-solving
A positive reinforcing cycle that makes high performance self-sustaining

HPtE Strategy® and Phased Implementation

Master the systematic approach to enterprise transformation that protects stakeholder interests whilst building sustainable partnership:

Five-Phase Implementation Model:

Phase 1: Exploration – Introduce HPtE concepts, assess organisational readiness, and build initial relationships between management and union stakeholders. This phase explores whether HPtE is the right fit through leadership briefings, union consultations, and assessment of cultural readiness. Decision gate: “Do we want to explore HPtE further through a proof of concept?”

Phase 2: Proof of Concept – Demonstrate HPtE methodology in action through a focused project that delivers measurable results within 3-6 months. Create joint management-union improvement team, introduce accelerated IBPS methodology, and deliver tangible outcomes that build confidence. Decision gate: “Do we want to commit to the HPtE Strategy® based on demonstrated results and stakeholder experience?”

Phase 3: Governance Structure – Establish the organisational architecture for sustainable HPtE implementation. Form HPtE Leadership Team with joint union-management leadership, create formal Charter defining roles and responsibilities, build Project Management Office (PMO) function, and establish documentation and communication systems. Decision gate: Commitment to a new way of working represented by signed Charter and resource allocation.

Phase 4: Project Teams – Scale HPtE methodology across the organisation through multiple improvement teams delivering measurable results. Teams use accelerated IBPS to address specific challenges, finding synergy across all 3Cs. Develop internal facilitation capacity, capture learnings, and build growing community of trained practitioners. Success: Multiple teams delivering visible impact whilst building organisational capability.

Phase 5: Embedding HPtE as Business as Usual – Transform HPtE from programme to operating system, making collaborative 3Cs-focused improvement “the way we work around here.” Integrate HPtE principles into strategic planning and daily operations, demonstrate cultural transformation through behavioural assessments, and achieve self-sustaining improvement capability without heavy external facilitation.

Why this matters: Most transformation initiatives fail not because of poor methodology, but because stakeholders are rushed into commitment before trust is established. HPtE Strategy® explicitly builds trust and capability at each phase, with clear decision gates that allow either party to pause or exit without damage to the relationship.

Governance Structures: Building Sustainable Partnership

Learn to design and implement governance that sustains partnership beyond initial facilitation:

HPtE Leadership Team – Joint governance tying the three Cs together through collaborative leadership

Co-Leads – The joint partnership leading each HPtE Improvement Team, with equal voice and shared accountability

HPtE Improvement Teams – Working in the integration zones where the 3Cs connect, strengthening multiple dimensions simultaneously

You’ll learn not just how to facilitate well, but how to build systems that work when you’re not in the room.

Proven Across Sectors

HPtE methodology has delivered measurable transformation across:

Aviation:

Air New Zealand – Five years of zero strike days across multiple unions, complex operational challenges resolved collaboratively
A major UK airline – from adversarial to collaborative governance with multiple unions

Healthcare:

Kaiser Permanente – 28 years of partnership, union membership doubled, zero strikes
DHB applying HPtE to strategic and operational challenges
Union-management partnerships in complex healthcare environments

Manufacturing:

Production facilities improving efficiency whilst strengthening employee engagement
Supply chain collaboration replacing adversarial relationships

Public Sector:

Government departments transforming service delivery through workforce partnership
Council teams breaking down silos to improve community outcomes

Every transformation followed the same systematic methodology you’ll learn.

Your Development Pathway

HPtE practitioner development follows a single pathway, and it starts with your own thinking rather than with methodology. You cannot hold space for someone else’s conflict until you have learned to work your own.

Everything begins with the book, and the book is free. Rising Above the Clouds teaches the Perry Approach to the Evaporating Cloud Method — the process at the heart of HPtE facilitation. Read it, use it, and see whether the method does what it claims before you spend anything.

Start with the free preview →

Level 1: The Practice

A weekly subscription. No lock-in; cancel any time. Current pricing for this and every level above it is shown on the platform.

The book is free. The Practice is where you get good at it. Level 1 gives you:

RIC, the Rapid Improvement Coach – an AI coach that works real problems with you through The Rapid Improvement Process, whenever you need it
The Conflict Club – weekly live sessions working real conflicts alongside practitioners from other organisations
The cloud library – a growing collection of dissolved clouds you can learn from
The discussion tab – ask questions directly as you go

Level 1 stays with you for the whole journey. RIC and the practitioner community live here, so your Level 1 enrolment remains live at every level above.

Start at Level 1 →

Level 2: Thinking Coach – Understanding Your Thinking Patterns

A one-off programme, including your Life Styles Inventory™ 1 assessment.

Life Styles Inventory™ 1. Your own thinking made visible on the Circumplex, including the security and satisfaction conflict that shapes how you respond under pressure. This is the self-knowledge that makes facilitation genuine rather than performative.

Level 3: Thinking Coach – Understanding Your Behaviour Patterns

A one-off programme, including your Life Styles Inventory™ 2 assessment.

Life Styles Inventory™ 2. How your thinking shows up in behaviour, as others experience it. Levels 2 and 3 together are what separate a practitioner who can hold a difficult room from one who can only run a process.

Level 4: Conflict Club Host

A weekly subscription, alongside Level 1.

The capability to host others to think. Hosts run their own Conflict Club sessions, bring their own members, and share in what those members pay. This is where using the method becomes carrying it.

Level 4 requires your Level 1 enrolment to remain live.

Levels 5 to 7: HPtE Practitioner

By application

The facilitator levels. Designing and leading HPtE improvement teams, working with the governance structures — the HPtE Leadership Team and HPtE Improvement Teams — and installing the architecture inside organisations rather than facilitating from outside them.

Levels 5 to 7 are where the pathway ends, and where practitioners begin doing the work that made HPtE what it is. If that is where you are heading, let’s talk.

Talk to Karl about the Practitioner levels →

Why Formation Comes Before Methodology

Most facilitation training starts with methodology: here are the tools, here’s the process, now go practice. HPtE takes the opposite approach.

The sequence matters:

First, develop capacity (Levels 1 to 3) – Before you can hold space for others’ conflicts, you must learn to harness your own. The Circumplex reveals your defensive patterns. The Evaporating Cloud teaches you to dissolve false conflicts. You develop the formed capacity to stay present when others are triggered, to ask rather than tell, to trust process rather than control outcomes.

Then, learn to carry it (Level 4 onwards) – With self-knowledge foundation forming, you can now learn the 3Cs Model, IBPS, TOC Thinking Processes, and governance structures. The methodology makes sense because you have the capacity to apply it without imposing solutions or creating dependency.

Finally, integrate through practice (Levels 5 to 7) – Years of supervised application across contexts, building fluency in all three 3Cs domains, until capacity and methodology become seamless integrated practice.

Why traditional consulting fails:

Domain expertise without formed capacity creates consultant dependency. You’re brilliant in the room—solutions flow, conflicts resolve, breakthroughs happen—but the moment you leave, the system reverts. Why? Because you were doing the thinking for them, not holding space for them to think.

HPtE practitioners bring both: Formed capacity to hold space integrated with domain fluency across the 3Cs. People discover what needs to change, build their own capability, sustain transformation long after you’ve gone.

This explains why HPtE takes time—and why it works when quick fixes fail.

Formation cannot be credentialed through examination. It must be developed through apprenticeship under master practitioners, in real contexts, with real conflicts, through cycles of practice and reflection. The capacity to hold space is not preparation for real work—it is the real work.

The HPtE Practitioner Community

Together, we’re building a global community of practitioners who:

Share evidence-based practice – What works, what doesn’t, and why

Develop methodology – Continuously improving HPtE through practitioner feedback and innovation

Support each other – Peer learning, case consultation, complex challenge navigation

Advance the profession – Establishing standards, sharing research, building credibility

Create social impact – Transforming adversarial relationships into collaborative partnerships across sectors and geographies

Community Resources

Knowledge Base – Comprehensive methodology documentation, case studies, tools, templates

Practitioner Hub – Members-only platform with forums, resources, and peer support

Practice Groups – Regular case consultation and peer learning sessions

Master Classes – Advanced methodology development with Karl Perry and senior practitioners

Conference & Events – Annual gathering, regional workshops, online sessions

This isn’t a certification programme. It’s a professional community committed to practitioner excellence and social impact.

What Makes HPtE Different

Not Just Facilitation Skills—Systematic Methodology

Many facilitation approaches rely on facilitator charisma and intuition. HPtE provides:

Replicable frameworks (3Cs Model, IBPS, TOC)
Structured processes (four-step problem-solving, five-phase implementation)
Diagnostic tools (integration zones, conflict architecture)
Governance designs (HLT, Co-Leads, Improvement Teams)

You’ll facilitate better because you have better methodology, not just better presence.

Not Generic—Specialised for Adversarial Relationships

HPtE was developed specifically for the hardest transformation context: union-management relations. If it works there, it works anywhere.

You’ll learn:

How to build trust when history is adversarial
How to navigate power dynamics and protect vulnerable stakeholders
How to create genuine partnership, not consultation theatre
How to sustain transformation through leadership changes

Not Consultant-Dependent—Capability Transfer

HPtE focuses on building internal capability from day one:

Co-Lead partnerships where both sides develop facilitation skill
Internal facilitator development within organisations
Practitioner mentoring creating independent capability
Knowledge transfer so methodology lives beyond consultancy

Success means organisations don’t need you anymore—they’ve built the capability themselves.

Not Isolated Practice—Professional Community

You’re joining a global network of practitioners working on similar challenges:

Aviation practitioners sharing lessons across airlines
Healthcare practitioners adapting methodology for clinical contexts
Manufacturing practitioners addressing production challenges
Public sector practitioners transforming service delivery

Together, we advance methodology faster than any individual could alone.

Evidence-Based Practice

HPtE isn’t theoretical. Every methodology element has been proven in practice:

The 3Cs Model – Demonstrated at Air New Zealand across multiple unions (Luxon’s explicit focus), validated in a major UK airline transformation

IBPS Methodology – 28 years at Kaiser Permanente, five years at Air New Zealand, and current enterprise work in UK aviation

Phase Implementation – Successfully applied across multiple sectors, proven pathway from exploration through embedding

TOC Thinking Processes – Decades of application in business and increasingly in human systems

Governance Structures – The HPtE Leadership Team, Co-Leads, and Improvement Teams validated through sustained partnership success

You’ll learn methodology with robust evidence base, not untested theory.

Ready to Master HPtE Methodology?

Together, we can:

Develop your systematic facilitation capability using proven HPtE methodology
Build your expertise in transforming adversarial relationships into collaborative partnerships
Connect you with a global community of practitioners advancing the profession
Support your journey from facilitation skills to transformation expertise
Create social impact through the work you do with your clients and organisations

The methodology is proven. The community is growing. The need for skilled practitioners has never been greater.

Let’s start with a conversation.

Contact me via LinkedIn →

What You Need to Know

This isn’t quick. Practitioner development takes time and practice. Foundation learning is self-paced, but mastery requires application, feedback, and continuous development. Plan for months, not weeks.

This isn’t certification-focused. We don’t offer a certificate that declares you “qualified.” We offer methodology, community, and support that develops genuine capability. Your work demonstrates your expertise.

This requires practice. Reading about IBPS doesn’t make you competent. Facilitating real sessions, getting feedback, learning from failures, and continuously improving creates capability.

This values your experience. You bring facilitation expertise, sector knowledge, and change experience. HPtE methodology enhances what you already know—it doesn’t replace it.

This is collaborative, not competitive. Practitioners support each other, share insights, and develop methodology together. We succeed together, not at each other’s expense.

Together, we’re building practitioner capability that transforms organisations and creates social impact.