Overall we believe creating a different environment can in itself be a catalyst for positive change.

We support a spirit of mutual learning in what we do. This means recognising existing skills and valuing what each person can bring to a situation and encouraging a curiosity to learn more, this includes ourselves too.

Another way of saying this is we create and 'hold a space' for the ideas within the group to be heard and explored.

If you were to give a label to our approach we would say we bring together 'self-led learning' and the 'coaching approach' in a group setting.

We apply this because we believe too often people are 'done to' and 'talked at' rather than the energy and ideas being drawn from within the group. That after all is the powerful bit, which is where the grounded, understood and owned ideas really come from.

"Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections"
- Vilfredo Pareto

We all learn in a unique mixture of auditory (learning by listening), visual (learning by looking) and kinaesthetic (learning by touching and making) learning, alongside other styles - e.g. reflective learning which recognises people need varying amounts of time to let things 'sink in' before we can question and double check and move onto the next bit of information.

The challenge is that most teaching/instruction, both in school and beyond, is auditory/visual yet most males lean towards kinaesthetic learning as there favoured style, as do some females, and we all do to one degree or other.

The BIY Project emphasises self-led and kinaesthetic learning partly because it can connect in a deeper way with the world around us and also to include the Kinaesthetic learners.

That is why we go outside and move away from sitting down or behind desks or relying on paper or PowerPoint but instead use other processes to create a different dynamic (and use of PowerPoint has been challenged as a teaching tool by the work of Edward Tuft amongst others).

And if you were to substitute 'communication styles' for 'learning styles' it gives an indication why in some environments 'men' are thought difficult communicators.

We also understand learning something new involves moving past the bit where you 'know stuff' to where you 'don't know stuff' - and that might also be on the edge of where you feel comfortable.

Because it is new it might challenge what you have thought before; but that is where your answers lie, that is where the gold is. We take you there safely, at your pace and the varying paces within any group.

While holding 'Adult to Adult' conversations.

So when was the last time you learned something new? Something which really shifted your perception.

Was it a bit 'lumpy', that 'Duh - now I get it!' moment when suddenly it became clear or maybe 'but why didn't you say that before' feeling. Was there some resistance before you 'got it'?

And of the lessons which stay in your mind was there an emotional aspect? Is there a feeling which goes with it?

And was it reinforced by doing or making?

We would also love to hear about the last time you learned something new. If you have time please tell us your story. We won't use for it for any marketing stuff, but just to have a conversation, to keep learning ourselves.

"Behind me is infinite power, before me endless possibility,
around me is boundless opportunity. Why should I fear?" - Stella Stuart