Why it matters

Co-design and systems change are now everywhere in policy and funding language, often without the conditions that make them possible. Practitioners carry that gap personally. They are expected to deliver participatory work within structures that resist it, often without anyone nearby who understands the tensions.

Training helps to build capability. Sustaining it takes somewhere to keep thinking, testing and learning after the program ends. Practitioner Coaching Sets offer that.

This is for you if…

—  You’re working on a live challenge in co-design, participatory practice or systems change

—  You want to think more clearly, not be told what to do

—  You want to work out what transfers from past experience, and what needs testing in a new context

— You want to strengthen your coaching and listening skills for participatory work

—  You value honest peers from outside your own organisation

— And you’re a New Know How alumni member.

How it works

Each set brings together 4–6 alumni, composed deliberately. Members share enough common ground to connect quickly and bring enough difference to see each other’s situations freshly. Sets never include direct competitors.

The set meets four times, in 2.5-hour online sessions every six weeks. Emma Blomkamp facilitates every session.

In each session, the set focuses on each person in turn. You describe your challenge. Set members ask searching questions that help you clarify what you want, plan what to try, and reflect on what’s happening. No advice, only questions. You leave with actions to test. At the next session you can choose whether to report back, and the group helps you draw out what you’ve learnt.

Each session closes with a debrief on the process itself: which questions worked, what got in the way, and what emotions were present. This is where much of the deeper learning happens.

Between sessions, your set has a private Slack channel to share the actions you’re testing, check in mid-way, and keep momentum until you meet again. 

Building coaching skills for co-creative practice

Every session is also practice. When you’re not presenting, you’re coaching: listening closely, asking open questions, holding silence, and resisting the urge to fix. Over several sessions, these become habits you take back into your work.

Genuine co-design doesn’t transfer expertise from professionals to communities. It draws out knowledge people already hold and builds new understanding together.

The skills that help a peer think through a challenge are the same ones that help you:

— Ask questions that open up thinking with communities, colleagues and decision-makers, rather than steering towards an answer you already have

— Listen for how others make sense of their situation, and notice how your own assumptions shape what you hear

— Hold back advice long enough for people to reach their own insight, so it becomes theirs

— Stay with uncertainty and discomfort, rather than rushing to resolve or reassure

— Offer and receive honest critique as an act of solidarity, not judgement.

Challenges in systems work rarely have a single right answer. They need practitioners who can create the conditions for others to think, not just supply solutions. Practitioner Coaching Sets build that capacity on real problems, with peers who will tell you which questions helped.

The learning journey

Session 1 — Setting up the set. Agree how we’ll work together, orientation to Action Learning Sets, practise questioning and listening, model one round with a real challenge.

Session 2 — Testing in practice. Complete one full learning cycle as a group. Experience right-sizing your challenge for coaching. Practise asking and answering clarifying, challenging and catalytic questions. 

Session 3 — Widening the lens. Report back on first actions and deepen the quality of questioning. Look beyond your own practice to what it takes to bring colleagues, leaders and stakeholders along.

Session 4 — Ripples and next steps. Push your coaching practice further. Reflect on what has shifted, what you'll carry forward and how to sustain your practice beyond the set

Schedule

Four sessions, each six weeks apart, totalling 10 hours together.

The first set will commence in January/February 2027, at participants’ preferred time (see EOI form for options).

Investment 

We use tiered pricing to support individuals who self-fund, encourage early registrations, and to reflect the additional admin involved in organisational invoicing. All prices are AUD, including GST.

Individual — $295 per month over five months; or pay upfront and save: $1,375 total per person.

Organisational – $1,500 per person, on invoice.

Joining a set

Submit a short expression of interest, then we check availability and fit to shape the right set.

Subject to interest, the first group will be selected and contact in early December 2026 and begin in late January or mid February 2027.