CATALYTIC

WAYS O F WOR K I NG , L EA D ING & M EET ING

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 BUILD PEAK-
PERFORMING
CULTURES OF
INNOVATION
...with an eco-system of catalytic practices,
Micro-Skills, workouts and digital tools.

Peak-Performing Cultures C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

 WHY? WHY NOW?
• We are living and working in an increasingly
volatile, uncertain and ambiguous world
• Problems and opportunities are becoming
more complex
• People / consumers are becoming more
connected, empowered and discerning
• The push-push-push performance model of
organisational life that confuses busyness with
productivity, pits our health against our performance,
and stifles our creativity at every turn … is reaching
a ceiling

Fortunately, there is a different way ... a catalytic

practice that enables us to breakthrough this ceiling
by tuning the creative frequency at which
organisational cultures operate.

2 3

Why? Why now? C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

 TO ‘PULL’ (PEAK) PERFORMANCE CULTURES

ENERGY RICH INTEGRATED SAFE EMERGENT PURPOSEFUL LEAP

TIME RICH COMMUNITY CANDID FEEDBACK ADAPTIVE PASSIONATE LEAP
MULTI-SPEED ECO-SYSTEM FOCUS & FLOW SWARMING ENLIVENING LEAP

TIME POOR FRAGMENTED UNSAFE LINEAR FEARFUL PUSH

BUSY INDIVIDUALIST RISK-AVERSE RIGID AGGRESSIVE PUSH
ONE SPEED HIERARCHICAL STRESSED SLOW UNHEALTHY PUSH

FROM ‘PUSH’ (HIGH) PERFORMANCE CULTURES

4 5

Pull Culture C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

 ACTIVATING BOTH
UP & DOWN ARROWS

Driving efficiency Increasing insight

& effectiveness & innovation
Ever-refining circles Vertical leaps and
of efficiency and effectiveness discontinuous step-change

• Seeking excellence • Seeking moments of insight and flow

• Reducing errors / eliminating risks • Increasing rate of change / innovation
• Decreasing uncertainty • Decreasing inertia

= PEAK PERFORMANCE

6 7

Up & Down Arrows C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

ULTIMATELY, TO BE WE NEED TO BE

MORE MORE
PROD UCT IVE H U MA N
INNOVAT I VE C O N N E C TE D
NOURISH IN G I N S I G H TF U L
PURPOS E F U L C R E ATI V E
D IG ITAL FOCUSED

8 9

More Human C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

CATALYTIC WAYS OF
WORKING, LEADING
& MEETING
Catalysis is not a theory; it’s a practice. It can only be
learned through practice and experience. When
introduced and applied at scale this practice can lift
entire populations and unlock wholly new levels of
organisational productivity, creativity and innovation.

10 11

More Human C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

BENEFITS OF .
p
t

LEARNING THE o
f O

CATALYST PRACTICE r
o
a u t

e
h r
t e

Your creativity, productivity, innovation, gh Your pattern recognition faculties expand.

collaboration and communication skills all go thro u

als

r.
pie
be

o
coming hap
Your physical, mental, psychological, social,
creative and decision-making capacities all become You evoke the best possible version of yourself and others

e
anc
orm
p erf
A whole new world of conscious, e ak
p
creative and commercial possibilities begins to You move from high performance to

You are able to literally

and co-create the emerging f u t u r e. You become up to 5x more productive.

12 13

Business Benefits C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

A UNIQUE HUMAN
OPERATING SYSTEM
for building peak-performing cultures
of innovation.

THE ART OF
CATALYTIC LEADERSHIP
FOR EXECUTIVE & SENIOR LEADERS

THE CATALYST CHORDS

FOR MID-LEVEL / FIRST-LEVEL LEADERS

MICRO-SKILLS, SIMPLE PRACTICES, TOOLS AND APPS

FOR FIRST-LEVEL LEADERS AND INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS

14 15

C AT W o W C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g
 THE ART OF
CATALYTIC LEADERSHIP
FOR EXECUTIVE & SENIOR LEADERS
An immersive learning journey designed for
leaders who want to catalyse new levels of
productivity, creativity and innovation in and
across their organisations.

Four modules of 2 days – residential*

1. Being Catalytic
2. Holding Space
3. Catching Moments
4. Meeting Codes
* Also available in various virtual formats.

16 17

E xe c u t i v e & S e n i o r Le a d e r s T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p
 Being Holding Catching Meeting
Catalytic Space Moments Codes

Being Catalytic Catching Moments

The first module is about YOU, the catalyst. It focuses on the stance The third module focuses on optimising the conditions for break-
of the catalyst and introduces a framework that reveals the invisible through and on catching those sublime moments that irreversibly
patterns of thought and action that either enable or disable us from deepen connection, shift our thinking, bind us together, and enable
stepping into the unknown and riding the creative-rollercoaster. us to leap forward.

Holding Space Meeting Codes

The second module shows leaders how to step out of the middle
and move to the edge, and create spaces that feel held, purposeful
and charged with energy, and that call people forward to do things
you and they never thought you could do, together.
The fourth and final module brings it all together, embedding the
catalytic practice into the way we meet and work every day – for
transforming the way we meet is the simplest and most profound
way of catalysing new levels of productivity, creativity, innovation
and organisational energy.

18 19

E xe c u t i v e & S e n i o r Le a d e r s T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p
BEING CATALYTIC “The challenge of our time is to bring the
new into the world – as innovative and
more sustainable products, services,
strategies and business models.”
In order to bring the new into the world, we must first bring the new
to mind. Moreover, in a complex, disruptive, fast-moving world, it is
not enough for this to be an individual endeavour; it must now be a
collective and communal one.

Catalysing new patterns of collective thought that lead to new and

more innovative patterns of movement and action is both a subtle
and a high skill – for it requires us all to:

• know who we are and what we stand for

• bring to the table what we already know and then be willing to
move beyond it
• see, value and move towards difference as the fuel for creativity
• step into the unknown together and stay there long enough for
new insights, possibilities, patterns and pathways to emerge that
enable us to shape and make the unmade future

The challenge is we are all conditioned, and to some extent have

been rewarded, to stay within our comfort zones and manage
performance in the known. Therefore, we haven’t really developed
the skills to work with and hold the emotional and creative tension
needed to catalyse step-change discoveries, strategies and
innovations from the unknown. Instead, we default to our habitual
patterns of thought and action, pretty much doing more of the same
but a little bit better each time.

20 21

Being Catalytic T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

 arrior Sha
W pe
s
Warrior
en
J ud ge m t Su p
r
Workhorse Sh
a
e er io er od Ju pe
dg

rs
e

Se
r
r

sh ent
m
ho

m
Ra

ift
er
k I nd
e
or

hif
W u

Nurturer
Se

Creator
Superior
Victim
lg

ter
rship cultu

en
d

e
ead
ro

l r es

t
it on tim
e
Ram

iv of

Pa
t

nt
i a

ge
M
ca
fin ya ul

C ir

t
th

is
In d t
de Ar

nn
r
o
C ir c u s

c us
ev

ov
informa E x plorer

e
Vi ct i m

at i
Nurturer

on

Creator
creative teams

Ma y a
Being catalytic is therefore about learning
new skills, new ways of working and new

space
creative team
ways of being that help us step into the
Maya

unknown, more frequently and for longer

periods of time, and catalyse breakthrough

Vi c t i m
thinking and action by design.

Catalytic leaders work with purpose,

s cu

energy presence and poise to help them tune

s
on
Cir

into what is needed or missing in any

R
ti

given moment – making sure they don’t

a
va

mr
ev
get ‘knocked off centre’ when the tension
no

oc
t

o
rises and the system starts to push back.
n

f in at i

d
ge

o ve
s e ad l
l t ur e
l

u W Instead, they know how to deepen the

A
r

cu e r sh i p
I nd or
quality of relationship, how to flood the
e

kh
ors room with energy, and how to interrupt
i or e
d

tr is
their own and other people’s disabling
Su pe J u d g e me n t

fin t patterns of thought and action – which

ultimately hold us all back – so together
we can bring the new into the world in
th Exp more creative, purposeful and vital ways.

Pa lorer
22 23

Being Catalytic T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

HOLDING SPACE “Great leadership is a movement
from taking up space to beautifully
holding space.”
Leaders are experiencing a quantum shift in context, where both
problems and opportunities are becoming more complex, blurred,
hyper-dependent, digital and diverse.

This shift in context means it is no longer possible for an individual

(be it in a team, an organisation, or a government) to hold all the
information, to spot the warning signs, or to find the most elegant
solution.

The challenge for leaders is to step out of the middle, and from
being at the centre, and instead create spaces that feel held,
purposeful and charged with energy, so people are called forward
(evoked) to do things they never thought they could do.

It is in these spaces that new possibilities arise and latent potential

can be released. And that is before a thought is thought, or a word
is spoken.

These spaces also need to be strong enough to hold the uncertainty

and emotion that comes with disrupting the status quo – and safe
enough to speak the truth. They must create the need and the desire
to step into the unknown, as well as the stillness needed to catch the
fragile and fleeting glimpses of ‘the new’ that inform and fuel new
patterns of thought and action.

This is how we move from pseudo high performance to peak

performance – and its breakthrough-recovery cycles.

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Holding Space T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

 26 27

Holding Space T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

CATCHING MOMENTS “The challenge of thinking together
is tuning into, leaning into and/or
intervening in moments that matter.”
A growing number of people are already working all hours of the
day, most weekends and into their holidays. It is of course an
unsustainable way of increasing productivity – and radically
reduces both innovation and wellbeing.

Unfortunately, we find ourselves trapped in these ‘achiever’

cultures that relentlessly and obsessively focus on so-called
‘best-practice’ and push for ever increasing levels of performance
in lazy and ultimately unhealthy ways.

The tragedy here is how this very push for high-performance

undermines any chance of reaching peak performance, and of
unleashing new levels of productivity and creativity.

Peak performance is not about relentlessly pushing. Rather, it is

about optimising the conditions for breakthrough – those sublime
moments that irreversibly shift our thinking, move us forward, bind
us collectively, and release the energy needed to create new
movement – and then knowing how to recover and go again.

Tuning into and shaping these moments is a core skill of

advanced organisational cultures, because in peak performance
the moment is always full of both power and danger.

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Catching Moments T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

In these cultures, individuals and teams have honed the way they
work and interact in the moment. They know that when they
deepen their listening, use their voice, give candid feedback,
disclose, appreciate others, value difference, step into the
unknown, see pattern and catch the fragile glimpses of ‘the new’
– that these moments energetically move us and transform us,
such that we change, the way we think changes, and the way we
think together changes, enabling us to move forward with heart,
mind, power and focus.

Moments that Moments that Moments that Moments that

Open us Connect us Shift us Move us

30 31

Catching Moments T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

MEETING CODES “What I thought a meeting was all
about has fundamentally changed.
This is a game-changer – not only
for me, but for us all.”
Executive and senior leaders spend the vast majority of their time in
meetings, preparing for meetings, or having meetings about
meetings. And yet most meeting cultures are wholly unsatisfactory
for all involved at the level of effectiveness, use of time, cut-through
and breakthrough – often achieving none of the above.

The way we think about, plan and run meetings is simply out of date.
You could go as far as to say that most organisations are stuck in a
collective trance, where ill-disciplines and bad habits run the show,
and yet for some reason we accept this as the way things are.

This is crazy when we come to understand that meetings are the

main stage upon which leaders perform their craft, a craft that they
should continue to grow into and master over time.

Transforming the way we meet is needed more than ever before, not
only to help businesses grow, transform and reinvent themselves, but
also to help us all face into the super-wicked problems of our time.

We need to unlearn what has become the norm, and we need to see
with fresh eyes how we can use time, space, information and energy
differently in the way we meet.

This is how meetings stop being a huge waste of time, and start being
a great use of time, enabling us to shape amazing futures together.

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Meeting Codes T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

 34 35

Meeting Codes T h e A r t o f C ATA LY T I C L e a d e r s h i p

 CATALYTIC WAYS
OF WORKING
FOR MIDDLE / FIRST-LEVEL LEADERS

A virtual development program designed

for leaders who want to catalyse change
and unlock the performance of their teams.

The program focuses on 6 ‘Chords’ (sets of Micro-Skills) that are

central and essential to peak-performing cultures of innovation.

Six modules of 3 hours each:

1. Turning Up
2. Relating
3. Thinking
4. Meeting – part 1
5. Meeting – part 2
6. Leading

...with practice periods in between, access to the Micro-Skills App

and hosted by core nowhere catalysts.

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Mid / First-Level Leaders T h e C ATA LY S T C h o r d s

 Each chord strengthens the core
muscles needed to work catalytically
and lead evocatively.
The Turning Up chord points to how you can use your ‘being’ to
catalyse change. This chord is about seeing, working with and giving
energy – because to work at your edge you need to be energy rich.

The Relating chord focuses on building the psychological safety,

levels of trust and quality of relationships needed to see, value and
embrace difference – because ‘difference’ is the magic ingredient.

The Thinking chord introduces a simple feedback mechanism for

transforming how we think, and think together – allowing us to test,
challenge and iterate our thinking, and get to insight more often.

The Meeting chords (x2) bring this all together by focusing on the
main mechanism by which work gets done – the meeting. These two
chords attend to the beginnings and endings of meetings, and
different meeting types – respectively.

The final Leading chord explores how you open and create spaces
that pull in, inspire, challenge and resource diverse talent to work at their
performance edge and surprise themselves with what they can achieve.

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Mid / First-Level Leaders T h e C ATA LY S T C h o r d s

 MICRO-SKILLS
FOR ALL
Move
Micro-Skills are the simplest yet most essential
building blocks of the catalytic practice,
Connect Open
designed to help us attend to the micro-
interactions that take place within us and
Shift
between us.

Micro-Skills are discrete human processes for noticing, leaning into

and intervening in those fleeting and fragile moments that open us,
Micro connect us, shift us and move us forward.

SKILLS When used with skill and discipline they can significantly increase
our awareness, effectiveness, efficiency, creativity, communication
and decision-making capabilities.

And when deployed at scale they can elevate entire populations to

work at a higher creative frequency and level of productivity.

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For all MICRO-SKILLS

 MICRO-SKILLS
MICRO-CLASSES
Over the last 25 years, we have codified 30
Micro-Skills, which we have recently curated
into three courses.

• The Foundational Micro-Skills

• The Advanced Creative Micro-Skills
• The Advanced Meeting Micro-Skills (not in this brochure)

Each course consists of 10 Micro-Skills*, taught as short, online, self-

directed, micro-classes of around 20 minutes each – designed to
set up week-long practice-periods.

Each course is supported by the Micro-Skills app and a practical

workbook which outline:

• The background and intent of each Micro-Skill

• Step by step process guides
• Tips to maximise their impact and traps to watch out for
• Templates/slides to use and share with your people and teams

* Also available in various virtual formats.

42 43

Micro-Classes MICRO-SKILLS Micro-Classes

FOUNDATIONAL The 10 foundational Micro-Skills...

MICRO-SKILLS
Tuning into Energy: how to see, give and receive energy, so you
can work at your creative and performance edge.

Setting Context: orientates you to how your work fits into a wider picture,
so you can in turn focus on what will make the greatest difference.

This course introduces the core and PO3: ensures you are clear on the purpose of your meetings so you
fundamental Micro-Skills, upon which the whole can increase your collective efficiency and effectiveness.
catalytic practice then builds. They are designed Stilling & Silence: consciously creates moments of pause, so you
to help you be energy rich, deepen the quality of can interrupt your busy and/or reactive mind.
your relationships, and unlock new thinking and
Deepening the Listening: helps you listen behind the words, so you
action. They also happen to be the building can tune into what’s missing/most needed as well as gain new insight.
blocks, the DNA, of cultures of innovation.
Check-Ins and Outs: build the relational container and psychological
safety needed to think together and hold the tension for breakthrough.

CADD: supports you in bringing your full self to work and how in turn
you can encourage others to do the same.

GTD: opens you and your work to the power of candid and continuous
Tuning into Energy Setting Context Purpose Stilling & Silence Deepening Listening feedback so you can accelerate your work to breakthrough.

Journaling & Tagging: teaches you how to catch those subtle

moments that matter to see and unlock new ways of moving forward.

Creative Dialogue: taps into the collective intelligence of teams and

Check-Ins & Outs CADD Good Tricky Different Journaling & Tagging Creative Dialogues
groups so you can breakthrough complex challenges and issues
together.

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Foundational Foundational MICRO-SKILLS Micro-Classes

ADVANCED CREATIVE The 10 advanced creative Micro-Skills...

MICRO-SKILLS
Storytelling: raises people’s gaze, interrupts the status quo and
opens the space for something new to emerge.

Breakthrough Questions: takes you out of the known and into the
unknown, while fuelling your curiosity and expanding your vitality.

Once you have learned the foundational Micro- Creative Briefs: challenge teams to move beyond what they know
Skills you can move onto the more advanced and shape and make discontinuous leaps forward.
courses. This next set focuses on those Micro- Stems: deepen the quality of trust between people in a team so they
Skills that enable you to ride the high and lows of can ride the highs and lows of the creative-rollercoaster more fully.
the creative-rollercoaster more often, in more
Holding a Question: enables you to linger in the unknown long enough
extreme ways, and for longer periods of time. for new possibilities, patterns and pathways to reveal themselves.

Intuition Walks: give you access to a wider knowing field by helping

you break free of your intellectual and rational filters.

Sleeping on It: allows your unconscious mind to offer you pointers to

new insight.

Mark-Making: animates our collective thinking so you can find and

Storytelling Breakthrough Questions Creative Briefs Stems Holding a Question play with new patterns. sequences, foregrounds and backgrounds.

Empty Space: an iterative, collective intelligence, creative mapping

!! process that enables groups to reach breakthrough.

BrainTrusts: a disciplined process for sharing work in progress and

Intuition Walks Sleeping on It Mark-Making Empty Space BrainTrusts
giving and receiving candid feedback to unlock new movements.

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Advanced Creative Advanced Creative MICRO-SKILLS Micro-Classes

THE UNDERLYING
PRAXEUM PEDAGOGY
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

• A modular system of trainings layered one upon the other

• Practice-periods to make it real and bring it to life in the day-to-day

• Experiential learning to get the praxis in you in an embodied way

• Continuous feedback mechanisms to help you evolve at speed

• Failing fast to get to the breakdown before the breakthrough

• Using the collective creativity and intelligence of the community

• All enhanced by an integrated eco-system of digital tools

Many of these trainings are available face-to-face, virtually and

online. They can also be delivered as enterprise and white-labelled
Personal experiments, daily workouts and design challenges.
products and programs.

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Pedagogy C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

 50 51

Support materials C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

DON’T JUST DEVELOP A FEW
INDIVIDUALS, ELEVATE
ENTIRE POPULATIONS.
CERTIFICATION
AND MEMBERSHIP INTO THE
COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

All of the trainings include certification on completion as well as

membership into the wider community of practice.*

White membership
Given on completion of any of the Micro-Skills courses and/or the
Catalytic Ways of Working program.

Black membership
Given on completion of the full Curriculum – the Art of Catalytic
Leadership.

Gold membership
Given to those that complete the train-the-trainer programs
ie. are licensed to run and scale the programs.

Membership benefits include:

• Ongoing access to my nowhere – and the wider community/
network of catalysts around the world
• Priority access to the latest programs, masterclasses, events,
apps and experiments
• Discount on catalyst materials and apparel

* Coming soon.

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Certification & Membership C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

 WHERE CATALYTIC
WAYS OF WORKING,
LEADING AND MEETING
COME FROM…
nowhere was founded in the mid-nineties to shift the
consciousness of leaders and tune the creative frequency at which
their cultures operate. nowhere works behind the scenes and at
the highest levels with large complex organisations helping them:

• break through some of their biggest challenges

• develop breakthrough strategies and innovations
• build purpose-driven, peak performing cultures and eco-
systems of innovation
• transform the way they work, lead and meet

www.now-here.com

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Origins C ATA LY T I C W a y s o f W o r k i n g , L e a d i n g & M e e t i n g

now-here.com