Encounters
Bramble Encounters are immersive, place-based learning experiences that take organisational leaders out of their familiar environment and into an immersive contact with people, initiatives and ways of living and working that operate outside their conventional paradigm.
By stepping into the ‘other worlds’ that exist right under their noses, leaders can question their basic assumptions and glimpse novel possibilities, generating new insight into how their organisation can flourish within wider societal, ecological and economic systems.
Recent examples
Experiencing frugal innovation and resilience in organisations with grassroots communities and purposeful entrepreneurs in Camden, North London who pioneered new forms of energy and economy
Resourceful innovation
A private tour of London Zoo, exploring how our assumptions about nature have given rise to metaphors of leadership and organisation that reflect the dominant values of the time, exploring whether they still serve us, and what other models nature has to offer
Nature as mirror
Encountering the edge of quantum computing and AI
In Istanbul and in London we worked with technology partners to create a rapid tour of the emerging future of quantum computing and AI.
A long-term perspective on financing energy
An interactive walking tour of the city of London to learn about the history of how energy resources and finance have shaped each other over time, culminating in a roundtable discussion with modern energy and finance pioneers
Organisational benefits
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Leaders encounter unfamiliar ways of working, thinking and organising - helping them challenge assumptions, recognise blindspots and better understand the wider system shaping their strategic context.
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Encounters create embodied, memorable insight that traditional workshops cannot replicate. Leaders witness real examples of resilience, innovation and constraint, enabling deeper understanding and retention.
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By engaging with people and places outside their everyday sphere, participants develop greater curiosity, humility and systems awareness - qualities essential for leading in complex, uncertain environments.
Stakeholder benefits
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Community members, innovators, practitioners and partners can articulate realities that rarely reach executive forums.
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Stakeholders gain insight into the constraints and pressures leaders face, helping reduce distance and create a more human, reciprocal connection.
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Visits open organisational leaders’ eyes to new opportunities for partnership with pioneering organisations, helping them to invest wisely in supporting the rise of healthier new paradigms and ways of creating value.
How we design an encounter
No two encounters are the same, but they typically involve a half-day or full-day curated field experience for a cohort of organisational leaders.
Each Encounter is designed around a specific theme or topic that has powerful resonance and relevance for the challenges the organisation is facing, even if on first inspection the connection may seem unfamiliar.
We spend time exploring this theme through time, place and through engagement with people and/or initiatives operating in that emerging paradigm. They are selected because they offer meaningful exposure to alternative models of value, agency, resilience or innovation. We work with them in advance of the experience to maximise the reciprocal relevance and benefit.
Participants visit sites, meet practitioners, talk with people whose lived experience challenges their assumptions and observe first-hand how different worldviews shape work, decisions and outcomes. Encounter hosts may include community leaders, entrepreneurs, grassroots practitioners, innovators, engaged academics, social activists, local partners and landscape stewards.
Every Encounter includes structured reflection, guided inquiry and facilitated dialogue to help leaders connect what they have witnessed back to their own organisational dilemmas and responsibilities. In all cases we draw strongly on the history, culture and ecological roots where the Encounter is held, ensuring the experience is grounded, vivid and crucially, of reciprocal benefit to those we encounter.