Entanglements: Weaving Our Futures

Wednesday 7 October 2026
Living and Leading in the Precarious-Interdependent Age with Dr Simon Western

One of my desires is to create space for conversations that need to happen but mostly don't. So much of leadership development still assumes the ground beneath us is stable, that if we find the right strategy, the right structure, enough effort, we can manage our way through.

But the ground has shifted and is shifting. Precarity and interdependence aren't a phase to push through: they're the new normal. The world needs a different kind of leadership, one that stops trying to control the system from outside it, and starts asking what it means to be woven into it.

John Hill Coach + Facilitator

It requires us to see our own entanglements clearly: the relationships, systems and experiences that shape us, sustain us, and sometimes constrain us. Let's map them together.

We want to create a space to locate yourself within these entanglements, and discover what becomes possible when you can see them plainly.

Who this is for

Leaders and practitioners who sense the old model; solve the problem, fix the system, manage the disruption - is running out of road, and want new ways of thinking about their place within complex, interdependent systems.

For those working in leadership and change, the assumption has long been that we stand somewhat apart from the systems we lead: observing them, intervening in them, fixing them. But you're not outside the system. You're entangled in it, and it's entangled in you.

What if the way forward isn't to solve your entanglements, but to compost them: to work with what's already there, rather than around it?

Workshop with Dr Simon Western

Your Facilitator

Dr Simon Western is the founder of the Eco-Leadership Institute and a leading academic and practitioner in leadership and coaching. He coined the term "Eco-Leadership" in Leadership: A Critical Text, describing a new leadership paradigm suited to a networked, interdependent world. A past president of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO), he hosts the Edgy Ideas podcast and is the author of Entanglements: Weaving Our Futures, on which this workshop is based.

What is this workshop really about?

It's about mapping the entanglements (personal, organisational, societal) that shape your work and your leadership, and discovering how to work with them rather than trying to escape or solve them.

You can find out more about Simon on his LinkedIn profile.

Morning
Exploring Our Personal Entanglements

Why precarity and interdependence became the starting point for the book, and Simon's own entangled work experiences.

What you'll experience

An exploration of what has authored you: the work, relationships and experiences that quietly shape how you lead.

The shift you'll leave with

A clearer picture of what you're entangled with: what sustains you, what constrains you, and what's remained invisible until now.

Time

10am—1pm

Afternoon

Exploring Current
Life-Work Entanglements

A live fishbowl exploration: one participant works on a real organisational or societal entanglement with Simon, while the group observes and reflects and extracts valuable learning .

What you'll experience

Three perspectives on a single issue: the visible story, the hidden systemic dynamics, and the unconscious dynamics beneath it.

Weaving Our Futures

Rather than asking "how do we solve this?", you'll ask how you can put your symptoms to work, for yourself, and for the wider system.

Time

2—5pm

What you'll get

Honest reflection, collective sense-making, a signed copy of Simon's book, and a room full of people willing to look at what's usually left unseen.

What you won't get

A fix. There isn't one, that's the point.

Why this matters

Because most leaders try to solve disruption with more strategy, more structure, more effort, and still hit the same walls. Until you can see what you're entangled with, you can't change how you move within it. The people and systems around you already feel the entanglements you avoid; you're the only one who can't see them.

What you'll walk away with

A clearer map of your own entanglements.

New ways of thinking about complexity and interdependence.

A cohort of peers exploring the same terrain.

A signed copy of Entanglements: Weaving Our Futures.

Practical details

Date

Wednesday 7 October 2026

One full day

Location

Venue in Belfast TBC

In person

Format

Morning + afternoon sessions

Lunch and refreshments provided

Sliding scale pricing

We use a sliding scale to make the workshop accessible while ensuring the work is properly resourced. Please choose the rate that best reflects your funding situation. Higher-rate places help subsidise supported places for individuals and organisations with fewer resources.

Use code EARLYBIRD for a 10% discount - Valid until 31 August

Supported Place

  • Unwaged

  • Students

  • Low Income

  • Early Stage Social Entrepreneurs

£100

Standard Individual

  • Self Funded Professionals

  • Freelancers

  • Small Charities

£325

Organisation Funded

  • Employer Paying

  • Public Sector

  • Established NGOs

  • SMEs

£475

Solidarity / Corporate

  • Large Companies

  • Consultancies

  • Well Funded Individuals

£750

If you've been trying to solve your way out of a world that won't sit still, it's probably time to look at what you're entangled with instead.

We’d love you to join us.

John trades as Gort Luis Ltd, 
a company registered in Northern Ireland.

 

Registered Office
216-218 Upper Newtownards Road
Belfast BT4 1PD

 

Registration No. NI627534