Leaders grow through cycles of learning and action with those who challenge, support and inspire them.

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  • We design and run executive-level leadership programmes for organisations that must perform well today while also discovering the breakthroughs humanity needs for a viable, sustainable and fair future. 

  • We design and facilitate leadership offsites, retreats, workshops and other gatherings that tackle a specific challenge in liberating and productive ways. 

  • We co-design and host unusual and powerful collective experiences for groups of leaders seeking to challenge their basic assumptions, surface uncommon insights and discover opportunities at the intersection of business, society, ecology and technology. 

  • "Bramble's programme design is unparalleled, equipping our leaders to navigate the complexities of modern business while championing sustainability and systemic transformation."

    Beth Ashman, Senior Global Learning Manager, Unilever

  • "A phenomenal course. A timely reminder that we have the ability to solve many of the complex challenges we're facing if we lean into collaboration -- both inside and out. The answers are there, but we won't find them if we keep looking in the same places, or in the same way.

    VP-level leadership programme participant

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Credit: BMW Foundation / Marc Beckmann

Recent projects

  • We designed and ran the “outer game” module for a global FMCG company’s flagship, VP-level leadership programme. Our 4-day 'in-market' immersive journey used live business challenges as the anchor vehicle for learning, enabling cohorts of leaders to immediately apply new tools and frameworks. The journey culminated in leaders developing bold personal commitments and collective recommendations for the business challenge sponsors to take forward.

  • Since 2023, we have co-created and run an annual development programme for senior leaders (VP/GM) to develop the self-awareness, relational skill, and intrapreneurial drive to lead performance with purpose.

  • We co-designed and facilitated a three-day retreat for 40+ start-up founders, VCs, industry leaders and other practitioners working on the energy transition, integrating leadership practices, expert insights, relationship and field-building, and ample space for reflection.

Case study: Developing leaders to power an energy system in transition

The change we needed

In 2023 a global energy company approached us to help its senior leaders (GMs & VPs) develop the will and skill to lead boldly in pursuit of both performance and sustainability. We set out to co-design an intervention that would result in positive attitudinal and behavioural shifts among leaders, and a strong portfolio of collaborative change initiatives.

The tension or dilemma

The execs in this organisation have to constantly hold and navigate the tension between stakeholders’ expectations to boost the performance in the current energy system and while hastening the advent of the next.

Maintaining this tension, and not letting it slacken in the face of so many pressures and constraints, required leaders to combine vision, pragmatism and entrepreneurialism, underpinned by shared values and systems awareness.

The outcomes

Our evaluation data show Bramble’s theory of change in action. Leaders on the programme (a) come to appreciate and internalise external and challenging perspectives (Awareness), (b) improve their ability to identify and pursue tangible business improvement opportunities (Hope) and (c) feel empowered to realise them in ways that have longer term and wider benefits (Agency).

The inspiration

Although the meta-challenges we face today are unprecedented, we drew inspiration from many energy-economy-ecology system thinkers and changemakers. Our approach was informed by Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory. Learners are enabled to discover future-fit worldviews by encountering and assimilating challenging perspectives and working on bold, relevant missions.

The intervention

Over the past three years we have co-developed and run with our clients an eight-month senior leadership programme (both virtual, asynchronous and in-person) that works at levels of Individual (Me), Organisation (Us) and Energy System (It). Each year a cohort of 50 senior leaders enhance their awareness at all levels and put it to work in pursuing bold change initiatives that deliver on the corporate strategy to achieve more sustainable performance.

What we’re learning

This work is subject to intense and highly dynamic internal and external pressures, from geopolitics and economics, to ecology and society. The conditions for learning are continually shaped by these factors and by our very human responses. One of the things we are learning is about how to sustain our own resilience, and to maintain our energy to experiment with the programme when so much in the world is arrayed against it.

Work With Us

Designed and delivered by: Julian Thompson, Myrna Jelman, Gareth Davies

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Let’s shape this together.

We love working with partners and clients who are ready to create brave, generous, transformative experiences for their leaders and organisations.

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