C ATA LY T I C W AY S

t o l e a p f o rwa rd
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C ATA LY T I C W AY S
t o l e a p f o r w a rd

Published by nowhere group ltd

Printed in the United Kingdom on FSC certified uncoated paper

© Copyright 2021 nowhere. All material in this book may not be

reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any form without the
written permission of nowhere.
 CONTENTS

There is a different way 1

1 CATALYSING SENIOR TEAMS 3

2 CATALYSING COMMUNITIES OF TEAMS 5

3 CATALYTIC WAYS OF WORKING 7

4 CATALYTIC CONFERENCES 9

5 CULTURES AND ECO-SYSTEMS OF INNOVATION 11

6 CATALYSING LARGE-SCALE TRANSFORMATION 13


WAYS
Clie nts a r e us ing o u r C atalytic
Pr a ctice to le a p f o rward
There is a different
WAY
There has never been a more important time for leaders to
accelerate the rate of change, innovation and transformation in
their organisations – and yes, even virtually.
It isn’t enough, in our remote working Covid world, to just maintain
existing levels of productivity. As we move through and beyond
the pandemic, the real challenge is to learn how to do the more
complex and subtle work too in new and better ways.
For over twenty-five years nowhere has been working behind
the scenes and at the highest level with a diverse array of global
corporations from all over the world, helping them break through
some of their biggest challenges, develop game-changing strategies
and build purpose-driven, peak performing cultures of innovation.
At the heart of our work is a fundamental belief that organisations
can move into peak performance and enhance their wellbeing at
the same time; and that the current push-push-push model of
performance that confuses busyness with productivity, pits our
health against our performance, and stifles our creativity at every
turn, has reached its ceiling and is no longer fit for purpose.
nowhere has itself always been a remote working, distributed
community of practice and innovation, that uses hybrid ways of
working to catalyse breakthroughs in highly geared ways.
Here are six ways we have used our catalytic practices to help
large complex organisations leap forward over the last 12 months.
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Catalysing
SENIOR TEAMS

One of the most important challenges has been helping

senior teams do breakthrough work virtually – a blend of
strategy, team and community building, and in some cases
core purpose work.

This way of working is designed to help teams make discontinuous

leaps forward and catalyse step-change movements in their
organisations, business units or functions.

We’ve found ways of doing this virtually that are arguably better
than face-to-face because they tap into both collective and
augmented intelligence and leverage the benefits of a diverse
community and asynchronous working.

This catalytic work includes…

• Setting an evocative challenge
• Onboarding the team
• Sharing the ‘knowns’ and identifying the ‘unknowns’
• Questing into the unknowns and becoming hungry learners
• Seeing new patterns and pathways, getting to insight and
essence
• Shaping an ecology of bold moves that will really move the dial
• Testing and Story-ing the optimal way forward

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Catalysing
COMMUNITIES OF TEAMS

Another exciting challenge has been building self-organising,

and distributed communities of teams around complex,
business-critical challenges – from bold ideas to bold moves.

This type of work is designed to interrupt old mindsets that want to

maintain the status quo, and siloed thinking that wants to fragment
the work. Both can make it feel like you’re driving with the brakes on.

This catalytic work includes…

• Building a core leadership team able to evoke a phase change
• Onboarding a community of creative teams to the bold moves
• Working the bold moves as a pattern of innovation quests and
experiments
• Embedding continuous feedback mechanisms across the
community
• Establishing ‘BrainsTrusts’ to work the larger and emergent
patterns of possibility
• Creating forums and flows to accelerate progress and drive
systemic innovation
• Upskilling leaders and teams throughout
• Fostering new partnerships (both internally and externally)

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Catalytic

WAYS OF WORKING

Shaping the future of work has become a hot topic. By

introducing more catalytic ways of turning up, relating,
thinking, meeting, leading and working into your organisation,
at scale, you can elevate entire populations – unleashing wholly
new levels of creativity, innovation and energy, and shaping
more future-fit workplaces, spaces, forums and flows.

A critical part of this is transforming the way organisations meet

at scale so they can break free of their unproductive and
dysfunctional meeting cultures.

This catalytic work includes:

• An immersive and practice-based catalytic curriculum for
senior leaders
• Virtual programmes designed to introduce the foundations
of the practice at scale to mid- and first-level leaders
• A suite of digital tools, applications and platforms to
support the practising of the practice
• Upskilling and licensing internal practitioners to ensure
sustainability and legacy

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Catalytic

CONFERENCES

We’ve also been busy designing catalytic (next gen) conferences, workshops
and meetings that weave content and human process together to create peak
and pivotal experiences, whether face-to-face, virtual or blended.

Conventional approach Catalytic approach

Message-based communication events.
Agenda-driven designs focused on
inputs and tasks.
Talking about the work.
Team building and energiser exercises.
Traditional formats – presentations,
panels, Q&As, tradeshows…
Replicating, and being limited by, the
dominant culture.
Giving out random gifts and brandware.
People being filled up with more
information.
Spending money on and worrying about
things that don’t make much difference.
Describing the change you want to see
at the event.
Metrics focused on evaluating the event
itself and on people’s immediate reaction.
Thinking-together events – that disrupt the status quo
and inspire new movement.
‘Arc of revelation’ designs that weave content and human
process together to take participants on a journey.
Doing the work in real-time in more agile, self-organising
and productive ways.
Building powerful teams and communities as an outcome
of doing breakthrough work together.
Post-conventional ways of working with time, space,
energy and information.
Having experiences of the culture you want to move
towards in action which can be replicated back at work.
Creating signs, symbols & artefacts that support the work.
People making-meaning of and shaping the information
– so they can make it theirs and pass it on powerfully.
Attending to the details that shift human experience,
deepen connection and help you think and move together.
Embodying the change – in the prep for, during and as a
result of the event.
Metrics that focus on the impact of the experience and on
the work in the period following the event / intervention.

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CULTURES & ECO-SYSTEMS
of Innovation

If you are not making your culture, your mindset and your ways
of working one of your top priorities, then you are already being
left behind.

Building on one of our core strengths, we have continued to

develop frameworks that unlock the communal energy and
collective creativity of organisational cultures. We help the best
of your people turn up every day – their imagination, ingenuity,
determination and perseverance; and their ability to appreciate
multiple perspectives, work collaboratively, and move to their
performance edge, in service of something larger than themselves.

This catalytic work includes:

• Discovering core purpose and values
• Building organisational backbones – joining the transformation
dots for your people
• Upskilling an internal community of catalysts
• Shaping evocative change narratives
• Introducing Teams Stars – harnessing the power of teams, and
communities of teams, both vertically and horizontally

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Catalysing large-scale

TRANSFORMATION

And finally, because there has never been a better time to

leap forward, we’re also seeing an increase in large-scale
transformations. Unfortunately, we also see way too many
organisations rely on out-dated change management
methodologies, reducing them to process and programme
management and/or a systems implementation at best.

Yet, by attending to the human dimensions of change you can

catalyse the necessary mindset and shifts in ways of working
needed to support, accelerate and secure the success of most
commercial, HR and digital transformations.

This catalytic work includes:

• Developing core teams
• Crafting change narratives and playbooks
• Onboarding meetings and quests
• Building communities of practice that lead the way
• Designing sequences of large-scale catalytic interventions
• Curating multi-layered choreographies

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It’s time for a different
6
C ATA LY T I C W AY S
WAY to le ap fo r w ar d
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