Sponsored by The Carbon Neutral Islands Project & The Community of Raasay
If you are serious about shifting the dial in your personal or professional life or delivering significant change in your community culture, do not miss this! f Consequence of Consequence will teach you how humans experience change, what motivates and inspires them, and what hinders and sabotages progress - individually and collectively.
Paul Howell has over 28 years experience as a professional coach, educator, facilitator, psychotherapist and wilderness rites of passage guide, having studied and taught worldwide.
**UPDATE**
We have exceeded the minimum number of 12 and are delighted to
confirm this event is going ahead!
Instead of Conversations of Consequence, this day-long event could have been called ‘Conversations That Count’ or ‘Conversations That Connect’ - any of which refers to a different kind of conversations than those we have in passing about the weather or what we watched on TV last night.
Conversations that count are conversations that have an effect on how we think, on how we perceive and understand the world and our place in it. They influence our choices, enhance the quality of our relationships, and amplify our sense of awareness, agency and participation, and over time they change things in subtle, but meaninful ways.
Conversations that connect sometimes put us in contact with ideas and values we might initially find foreign, challenging us to pause, reflect and dig a little deeper in search of meanings we otherwise might miss. They ask us to hold ambiguity, nuance, and complexity, just long enough for fresh ideas and new insights to appear. Over time, they invoke a sense of gravity and inspire our efforts to create a world to which we wish to belong, each in our own unique ways.
At best, they weave the cultural narratives and stories that empower us to live creative, fulfilling lives - rooted in community, belonging, and reciprocity.
Change is a law of nature - there is no off switch.
Some of us fear change, while some of us are more comfortable with it, until we’re not, but either way, when the need to change presents itself, most of us get caught up in the ‘what’ of change, arguing about what should or shouln’t change and the reasons for or against…etc.
This day will introduce what change is as a natural process, exploring the ‘how and why’ of change.
Change can mean many different things, but in any context and at any scale, we find it’s made up of several core threads.
In the day’s experiential programme, we’ll be looking at change as a personal and collective process and how it can have both positive and negative impacts on our Communication, Community, Conflict and Culture. If all goes well these threads are carefully woven together - or otherwise can seem tangled or tied in an overwhelming knot.
We’ll explore different ways to think about and understand what change is and how, as humans, we experience it. - which is not the same as talking about what we think should or shouldn’t be changed and how we might then go about changing a specific thing.
To bring the learning alive, make it dynamic and relevant to each of us, we’ll spend a significant chunk of time in small groups, learning to apply the core principles and practices of generative change to scenarios we each choose to explore.
Some of the questions we might consider to help us along are: what is Culture (a generative Culture with a capital C)? How is it created? What are the building blocks of a healthy, creative, dynamic culture? and why is it not just important but essential we make time and space to reflect on and nurture these different aspects - especially when it seems easier not to!
How do we identify what’s most important (our values), create clarity, consensus, building (or repairing) trust and understanding whilst doing so - making the best use of our skills, knowledge and resources?
What motivates us to consider changing something? How do we know when it’s wise to change something or keep it the same? How do we perceive change and embrace it?
What do we do when faced with conflict? What is the point of conflict, and how might we learn from it for mutual benefit whilst maintaining respect for our values and those of others?
These things, the questions and group discussions, will shape the day and make it relevant to those who attend.
I promise it’ll be fun and that everyone will leave having gained some powerful new ways of understanding the world, some new or upgraded communication skills, and useful tools for shaping the future, however they see fit.
If you’d like to join us, Raasay is a 25-minute ferry ride from Skye, where you’ll share the day connecting and having conversations that count along with those who live and work on Raasay, who inspired this event.
We’ll share a homegrown, freshly baked lunch, and discounted accommodation has been kindly offered at Raasay House Hotel. Plus, on Sunday the 13th, Patricia Carvalho has offered a guided walk up the local peak of Dun Caan or along to Hallaig, depending on the weather.
Carbon Neutral Islands Raasay is sponsoring this workshop for residents of Raasay. The day will be an interactive exploration of relationship-building, communication, and navigating change together, designed to give participants the practical tools for improved collaboration and decision-making in any context.
No previous experience is necessary - perfect for community group members, storytellers, and change makers in any context.
Email connect@pauljhowell.com to register.
Schedule
12th April 2025
Arrival & Registration - 0900
Begin - 0930
Lunch - 1230 to 1400
Close - 1730
Cost - Earlybird £105.00 pp before midday 28/03/25, £125.00 thereafter.
Minimum 12 - Maximum 24 People
Please Email connect@pauljhowell.com - Residents of Raasay wishing to take advantage of the CNI funding, please email tom.cniraasay@outlook.com
Discounted Accommodation + Gift Package at Raasay House Hotel for Delegates Travelling to Raasay
Inclusive of Tea, Coffee, & Locally Sourced Lunch
Group Evening Meal at Rassay House Hotel- 1800 - 2000
Visit Raasay.com for Location, Travel, and Accommodation Info.
There will be a group walk (2- 3 hrs) on Sunday for those who wish to join.
Read More…
“Change is a universal law of nature, like gravity - a subtle yet potent force that is always shaping us, influencing our understandings, beliefs, and behaviours. It’s always apparent yet often unacknowledged.”
Conversations of Consequence - Conversations that Count & Connect.
Designed to foster a spirit of curiosity, exploration, collaboration, and mutual benefit amongs individuals, communities and organisations from different age groups, disciplines and backgrounds, (including those with differing ideas and values), this day-long workshop blends storytelling, mythology, applied psychology and deep ecology to explore several important, interwoven themes - Communication, Community, Culture, Change and Conflict - core themes of my work as a psychologist for 28 years.
Who’s it for?
Those who wish to learn, refresh, and/or upgrade their understanding of human Communication, Community, Culture, Change, and Conflict,
Those who would like to connect with others while developing skills for building individual and collective agency, resourcefulness, and resilience in the face of a turbulent world.
Those who want to make a positive contribution in shaping the future in any way.
It will be insightful, playful and inspiring, delivered in plain English and accessible to everyone, and no prior experience is necessary.
The day will be of particular interest to those who are responsible for initiating, leading, or implementing change, those who develop and clarify policy, those who need to establish consensus, or identify and work effectivly with blocks to progress and engage complex community dynamics, including conflict, lack of engagement, patterns of sabotage and regressive power dynamics, etc.
Key Themes?
The art of listening - listening to connect, especially across real or imagined divides.
Learn to ask clarifying, motivating questions of ourselves and others, ones that lead to inspiring visions, meaningful intentions and outcomes.
Learn about the generative power of stories and how cultural narratives and mythologies can both help or hinder us.
Explore the subjective and objective building blocks of culture as the living, breathing, meaning-making journey of connection, relationship, and belonging in ways that help us honour the past, embrace the present and chart a fulfilling future.
Explore values - what they are, how we recognise them, and how they influence our behaviour and shape our sense of ‘what matters most’.
Explore conflict as a catalyst for change, including our personal attitudes toward it.
Learn about different types of change and their motivational aspects.
An overview of trauma and the impact it can have on our ability to connect and collaborate in a community context.
We’ll take a step back and intentionally explore the universal nature of change as a fundamental human experience—one that defines any healthy culture, as we explore new ideas, learn powerful communication tools and develop new skills via a series of active learning sessions - a hands-on approach where, after a brief introduction to a specific topic, participants form groups of two or three to practice, discuss/reflect, before returning to the larger group to ask questions and share their experience, learning and insight.
To ensure these active learning sets are as meaningful as possible, attendees are invited to draw on experiences from their personal, professional, and social lives as they wish, supporting each other as they proceed.
We’ll gather in Raasay’s solar-powered community hall, with its unparalleled views across the Sound of Raasay toward the Cuillin of Skye, as we explore maps and models of change and its core motivational drivers.
A few questions that help frame our time together might be…
Why, how, and when do we change?
What happens if we don’t change?
What stops us from changing when we want to?
What forces us to change when we don’t want to?
How can we conceive, approach, and navigate change more effectively, more efficiently, more consciously, and collaboratively?
Delegates will leave with…
A clear appreciation for their values and those of others - and why that matters.
A simple, effective, practical map for approaching and navigating change in any context with greater confidence, agency and acuity - making good decisions rooted in clear values and reason rather than fear of uncertainty.
A toolkit of transformational communication skills - asking razor-sharp questions that cut through the BS and clarify specific intentions, outcomes, and consequences.
An understanding of and respect for conflict.
A deeper appreciation and respect for the complexity inherent in community, including the hidden gifts of conflict and the healthy challenges of collaboration.
Insight into how trauma impacts any change process, with some tips on how to help acknowledge and include it with respect.
Testimonials - Press
Further Background
After 10 years of living and working in the North of Scotland, I want to empower the individuals, communities, and organisations across the Highlands and Islands towards a deeper realisation of the mutual benefits Scotland’s nature, psyche and culture have to offer future generations.
Beyond that, over the past 28 years, working around the world with those facing significant change, I have learned what a profound impact the right question or comment, offered in the right way at the right time, can make to the outcome of a situation.
Over that time, I have learned a very important thing - the way people perceive change defines the change they can perceive.
I also know change can be complex, difficult, and scary, and that it will always take courage to embrace uncertainty. Yet, I understand how much damage is done when a person or place acts as if they are helpless, as if life is happening to them, and they deny their agency and creative potential to embracing the right change, in the right moment for the right reasons.
A little understanding of what change is and what it is not can go a long way, especially if that understanding is shared.
In The Beginning…
We modern humans have come to derive great comfort from the familiar rhythms and routines that best support our established and often cherished ways of life. From this position of relative security, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always so and that for many people around the world, a stable way of life remains a distant dream.
But how did we get here, and what has changed since homo-sapiens first arrived that brought us to this point in our evolution? What might that teach us about how to approach the future?
Raasay Gallery
