A senseia leadership programme

PACT.

Difficult conversations.
 Defused.

An in-person programme that gives leaders the psychological tools to hold steady when realities collide, and to turn difficult conversations into dialogue that moves the work forward.

Let’s talk about your team ↗The programme ↓
WINDOW OF TOLERANCEADAPTED BY SENSEIA
HYPERAROUSAL fight · defend · dig in WINDOW OF TOLERANCE HYPOAROUSAL freeze · shut down · “I’m fine” P A C T “COULD WE MEET AT 2PM?”TIME
With PACTWithoutUnder threat, the brain stops listening and starts defending. PACT will give you four ways back.
  • One day, in person, with practice built in
  • Built on senseia Neuroscience 101
  • Five disciplines, one way of working
  • For managers, supervisors and leaders
Why difficult conversations go wrong

The conversation starts long before
anyone walks into the room.

  1. PREDICT

    Why 2pm? Why not just say what it’s about?

  2. PREDICT

    Is this about Tuesday’s meeting?

  3. STORY

    I bet they’ve been talking. Everyone knows but me.

  4. Lunch, untouched.

  5. STORY

    OK, Been in the car long enough. I know what I’m gonna say. I’ll show ’em.

  6. DEFEND

    Heart pounding. Jaw set. Ready.

  7. “Thanks for coming in. I just wanted to ask how you’re doing.”

    Too late. You’re already defending. You don’t believe he cares.

Two hours and eighteen minutes. Nothing has been said, but the conversation has already gone wrong.

Outside of our window of tolerance we stop listening and start defending. Our system floods with adrenaline. PACT can steady the ship, when two nervous systems collide.

Built for real work

For conversations
leaders actually face.

PACT isn’t built around role-play and tidy case studies. It’s designed to help you with the conversations that are scheduled in your diary, and the ones you’re hoping will resolve themselves – but probably won’t.

Every conversation carries a power dynamic. A conflict with your manager is very different to raising an issue with someone you lead. PACT treats them differently too so you have a framework for friction, wherever it comes from.

THE CONVERSATIONUPACROSSDOWN
Performance and developmentHonest feedback that lands, rather than wounds.
Challenging behaviourNaming what isn’t acceptable without escalating it.
Conflict between colleaguesWhen two versions of reality have stopped talking.
Change people didn’t ask forRestructures, new ways of working, bad news.
Speaking up the hierarchyDisagreeing with someone who outranks you.
Wellbeing and pressureNoticing when someone isn’t coping, and opening the door.

Up, across or down: the direction changes what’s at stake, for both people.

The PACT programme

Four connected parts.
Four ways back to the work.

PACT is structured around four parts. Each one deals with a different way a difficult conversation goes wrong, and each draws on the toolkit in its own way. Together they take a conversation from threat back to dialogue.

Learn the tool → Try it on a real conversation → Reflect → Leave with a plan

A woman speaking earnestly to a colleague across a table
PWhen it gets personal, purpose is the way back.
01Purpose

When realities collide, return to purpose.

Unseen fears about identity, status or belonging can pull both people away from the purpose of the work. Each may be certain they see the situation clearly. Under pressure, the conversation quietly stops being about the work and starts being about who’s right.

LEADERS LEARN TO
  • Sense-check reality when you’re under stress
  • Bring the conversation back to what the work needs from you both
DRAWS ON
  • senseia Neuroscience 101
  • Storytelling linked to neuroscience
01 / 04
A woman listening thoughtfully
AAcceptance isn’t agreement. It’s where thinking starts.
02Acceptance

Less blame. More room to think.

Acceptance means acknowledging where things stand without blame or shame. It isn’t agreement. It creates the space to address the issue without getting caught in your own stress response: the raised voice, the shutdown, the “I’m fine”.

LEADERS LEARN TO
  • Shift attention away from your own stress response
  • Name where things stand, without blame or shame
DRAWS ON
  • senseia Neuroscience 101
  • Gestalt techniques
02 / 04
Two people talking side by side by a window
CDifferent perspectives, kept in play.
03Co-creation

Stay curious. Especially when you’re sure.

Acceptance makes co-creation possible. Staying there takes practice: the comfort of “knowing we’re right” can quickly close the conversation down again.

LEADERS LEARN TO
  • Notice the pull back into familiar reactions
  • Keep different perspectives in play and build a way forward together
DRAWS ON
  • Psychodynamic communication tools
  • Solution-focused practice
03 / 04
Colleagues in a meeting, one leaning in to make a point
TUp, down and across the hierarchy.
04Tactics

A plan that fits the people. And the power dynamics.

A conversation with your manager is different from one with someone you lead. Communication styles, stressors and context all shape what will work.

LEADERS LEARN TO
  • Bring the tools together in a plan that fits the situation
  • Navigate power dynamics up and down the hierarchy
DRAWS ON
  • Solution-focused practice
  • Psychodynamic communication tools
  • Storytelling linked to neuroscience
04 / 04
OUR METHODOLOGY

Five disciplines,
one way of working.

Most training on difficult conversations stops at technique: what to say, in what order. PACT brings together the approaches psychotherapists and coaches use every day, grounds them in senseia Neuroscience 101, and translates them for the pressures of real leadership.

The five disciplines in practice +
  • senseia Neuroscience 101The foundation under everything: how the brain predicts, how the threat response narrows thinking, and how to come back inside the window of tolerance.
  • Psychodynamic communication toolsSee the emotional terrain: status, belonging, old patterns of one-up and one-down. In practice: recognise the role you’re being pulled into, and choose a different one.
  • Storytelling linked to neuroscienceChange the story and you change the state you bring into the room. In practice: separate what happened from the story you’ve told yourself about it.
  • Gestalt techniquesAttention on the here and now, not the rehearsal. In practice: notice what’s happening in the room, and say so, cleanly.
  • Solution-focused practiceLess excavating the problem, more building what you both want. In practice: move from “whose fault is it?” to “what would better look like?”
Colleagues working through a problem together at a table

But why do we need to do all this?

Because a brain that feels under threat is built to win, not to understand.

And this is WHY difficult conversations so often go round in circles, escalate, or never happen at all. Leaders who understand the neuroscience of narrative can shift all parties back into to a mindset that’s productive.

The result: conversations that move the work forward.

What changes for your leaders, and for the people on the other side of the table.

01

Notice it sooner

Recognise your own threat response early, before it decides how the conversation goes.

02

Hear what’s underneath

Listen for the fear, the story and the need beneath someone’s position, not just the words.

03

Hold steady

Stay clear and kind under pressure, without either backing down or digging in.

04

Leave with a plan

Walk out with a practical plan for a real conversation you need to have next.

Who designed it

Built by people who sit in difficult conversations for a living.

Clinically groundedDesigned and developed by accredited clinical professionals who use the tools in clinic and in business. The techniques in PACT have been successfully deployed in large organisations across the UK for many years including police services, fire and rescue services, councils, regulatory bodies, and corporate media and retail companies.
Evidence BasedPACT uses psychological models used and practiced in coaching, learning and development for decades. In PACT, they are newly configured to leverage the most current findings in neuroscience, ensuring these models have greater credibility, use and positive impact on business and the wider community.
13+ years senseia’s leadership and development programmes have been used in the public service sector, from local councils to emergency services. In the corporate sector, our programmes have won employee engagement awards, supporting clients in retail, finance, media and entertainment.

Proven where the pressure is.

The tools in PACT run through all of senseia’s programmes. These results come from those programmes.

  • North Wales Police
  • Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
  • South Wales Fire and Rescue Service
  • Nationwide Building Society
  • Savanta
  • Prospect
+90%perceived organisational support against the national average, North Wales Police
−53%intention to quit among frontline staff, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
+18%perceived leadership effectiveness, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service
92/100average recommendation score from Prospect representatives

Figures come from individual client programmes, each with its own sample and evaluation method. They are not a pooled study.

senseia’s work gave me a profound insight into the strengths and vulnerabilities of our culture…
Kath BillingChief Fire Officer, Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service
Going further

Make it yours.

How PACT flexes around your organisation, where it sits in the senseia suite, and a few common questions.

01Bespoke additions+
  • BEFOREListening firstConfidential conversations to find out which conversations are proving hardest, and why.
  • BEFORESenior team sessionVisible buy-in, and a shared language from the top.
  • AFTERCoachingOne-to-one support to prepare for a specific conversation, or to make sense of one afterwards.
  • AFTERTrain the trainerYour own capability to carry the work forward.
02Other programmes+

Culture happens one conversation at a time. CHOICE focuses on the culture you want to create; PACT on the conversations that help you live it.

03Common questions+
Is this therapy?
No. PACT uses tools drawn from psychotherapy and coaching, but it’s a course about work, not about anyone’s personal history. You will be asked to notice what happens in you when a conversation gets hard, because that’s where the useful learning is.
What’s senseia Neuroscience 101?
The grounding under all of senseia’s work: an accessible, evidence-informed account of how the brain predicts, responds to threat and recovers. In PACT it gives the other disciplines a shared language, so participants understand why a tool works, not just how to use it.
Is it only for the public sector?
No. It was shaped in public and emergency services, and works in any large organisation where hierarchy and pressure make conversations hard.
At a glance

Is PACT right for your team?

The practical details, in one place.

A facilitator leading a small group workshop
Who it’s for
Managers, supervisors and leaders at every level, for conversations up, across and down the hierarchy. Especially relevant to public and emergency services; works in any large organisation.
Not designed for
Therapy or personal counselling. It doesn’t replace your formal HR, grievance or disciplinary processes; it helps people handle the conversations that sit around them.
Format
In person, facilitated, with practice on the conversations participants actually face. Online option: to confirm
Duration
One day.
Group size
Up to 20 participants.
Foundation
senseia Neuroscience 101, built into the programme. No prior knowledge needed.
Also available
Bespoke additions before and after, including coaching and train the trainer. See Make it yours.
Cost
By proposal, once we’ve agreed the scope with you.
Start with a conversation

What’s the conversation
your team needs to have?

Different realities. Rising stress. A difficult power dynamic. Let’s talk about what your team needs to work through.

Let’s talk about PACT ↗

Prefer a form? Send us an enquiry

Using neuroscience to strengthen and boost performance. Helping you achieve culture change for self-sustaining success.
Our Company
Basepoint, Rivermead Drive, Swindon, Wilts, SN5 7EX
Jason.Langley@senseia.co.uk
+44 7939 084976‬
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