Training that transforms – Food Ethics Council
The Climate Change Coaches are known for running multi-week courses within organisations, however just as important is the work we do with networks, where we are often running single workshops, spread over time, or to meet a specific need. This can be training for people who have formally joined a programme, such as a fellowship, or as part of a looser programme aimed at people focussed on a particular issue.
A great example of this comes from pre-pandemic, when we had the pleasure of running an in-person workshop (remember those?) for the Food Ethics Council at their Food Citizenship event in London. Bringing together over a hundred change makers from across the food system, the event created a dialogue about how we can move from being disconnected consumers to more active citizens, driving a sustainable food agenda.
Our workshop taught simple influencing techniques that participants could immediately put to work in a range of scenarios. Anna Cura, Lead Systems Strategist from the Food Ethics Council told us:
“This was a fantastic session, giving very practical and simple tools to better support and empower one another.”
We believe that coaching skills are best learned by doing, not listening, so all of our trainings include a demonstration by one of the team with someone plucked at random from the crowd, together with everyone having a practice with someone next to them. The room was buzzing following a really powerful demo between our co-founder Charly and a lady who volunteered on the spot to have a conversation on stage. The conversation began with her admitting to feeling stuck and demotivated by the uphill battle of trying to influence policy-holders in Northern Ireland. Within just a few short minutes of conversation, using only a handful of basic coaching skills, Charly was able to shift her back to feeling capable and that change was achievable. Anna Cura again
“The live coaching was particularly inspiring, seeing first-hand how simple techniques can really shift the energy and self-belief in someone.”
We love working with networks like the Food Ethics Council, because they bring together true local heroes, who are plugging away at the grassroots, and who collectively are shifting whole systems, each holding their own unique piece of the jigsaw. Social change can be hugely rewarding and tremendously difficult. Anna made our day when she told us
“Participants left feeling empowered and hopeful and praised this session.”
For us there can be no greater reward than watching a room full of people feeling a sense of excitement, possibility and their own significance.