Caitlin Walker PhD
Director
Caitlin is a director of Clean Learning and the developer of Systemic Modelling™. She is the author of From Contempt to Curiosity, which details many of the innovative and transformational projects she’s led across our community from the most dispossessed to leading think tanks, and has recently been awarded a PhD from Liverpool John Moores University for her thesis on "Using Clean Language Interviewing to model Curriculum Design in Higher Education: Curriculum Design is Like What?"
Caitlin graduated in Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies and completed four years post graduate research in ‘Strategies for Lexical access’ including fieldwork in Ghana. She began modelling teaching and learning while at SOAS, volunteering intermediary classes to translate information presented at lectures into different learning styles for the students. At the same time she was a youth worker in Kings Cross bringing these leading edge tools to groups of young people.
She went on to set up literacy clubs in King’s Cross, where children could come to learn to spell. From 1996 – 1999 Caitlin was an Education tutor with the Dalston Youth Project, a Home Office run experiment to offer accelerated learning to at-risk students, alongside mentoring, to keep them in school. She ran these sessions as NLP modelling workshops and achieved excellent results with the students. The project won a Crime Prevention and Community Safety award for Great Britain. In 1999 she was offered the opportunity to develop her work in a business context and she created the ground breaking metaphors@work process. These techniques are available on the Creative Management section of the Open University MBA program and on a 10 week modular course on Practical Thinking. She has co-designed and she co-delivers a Masters Level module in Coaching and Mentoring at Liverpool John Moores University.
She has since developed her modelling skills from small scale group development to whole scale organisational culture change programmes. She designs and delivers tailor made learning and development programs for addressing diversity, conflict, leadership, managing mergers and creating ‘learning organisations’.
Caitlin practices in a variety of contexts. Clients include: Jeyes Group, Liverpool John Moores University, Pharmacia, Hull City Council, South Yorkshire Police Service, Bexley Care Trust, New Information Paradigms, Work Directions UK, Crime Concern, BT, Police National Search Centre, Celerent Consultancy, Carbon Partners, Ealing LEA, and Working Links. She has trained a number of in-house trainers to carry on and develop the work without creating dependency on her expertise. She has systematically tested and developed her ideas in challenging arenas and her robust products have become sought after learning aids.
Upcoming events
Systemic Modelling Rolling Programme April 2024 - morning
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Monday 15 to Friday 19 April 2024, 8.30am to 12.30am BST each day
Systemic Modelling Rolling Programme April 2024 - afternoon
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Monday 15 to Friday 19 April 2024, 2pm to 6pm BST each day
Basic Clean Interviewing - mornings - April-May 2024
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Thursdays 25 April, 02 May, 09 May, 16 May, 23 May and 30 May, 8.30am to 12.30pm BST
Basic Clean Interviewing - afternoons - April-May 2024
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Thursdays 25 April, 02 May, 09 May, 16 May, 23 May and 30 May, 1.30pm to 5.30pm BST
Clean for Teams May 2024 - Mornings
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Monday 20 to Thursday 23 May 2024, 7:30am to 11:30am BST each day
Clean for Teams May 2024 - Afternoons
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Monday 20 to Thursday 23 May 2024, 1pm to 5pm BST each day
Clean Coach Certification Programme 2024 in-person
- Places available
- The Practice
- Two in-person modules: 6-9 July, 7-10 September, 9:30am to 6pm BST each day. Plus 2 online sessions, Saturday mornings in October and November (see details).
Adventures in Clean 2024
- Places available
- The Practice
- Sunday 21 July (2:30pm BST) to Wednesday 24 July (2pm BST), 2024
Northern Taste of Clean 2024
- Places available
- The Practice
- Saturday 27 to Sunday 28 July 2024, 9:30am to 5:30pm BST each day
ICP-SYS - September 2024
- Places available
- Online via Zoom
- Monday 9 to Thursday 12 September 2024, 1pm to 5pm BST each day
ICP-SYS - October 2024
- Places available
- The Practice
- Thursday 10 October to Friday 11 October 2024, 9am to 5pm BST each day
Blog posts
A metaphor for Systemic Modelling
15th Nov 2023
Building a #DramaFree Community
12th Sep 2022
Testimonials
I'd like to thank you personally and on behalf of the BCI for the wonderful training you offered us. You are one of the best trainers I've ever met! These 2 days gave me much information about myself but also it made me more enthusiastic to work with groups and teams, now I've got these fantastic tools!
Hanna-Kaisa-Lindfors, Business Coach with Business Coaching Institute (BCI)
Working in a tumultuous setting as business manager of several schools, I have found myself in need of external expertise to resolve a complex web of interpersonal conflicts from within a Leadership team to a team of catering assistants. The issues were as convoluted as they were detrimental to our workplace harmony, causing ripple effects in several environments. Caitlin, however, demonstrated an exceptional capability to not just understand, but reshape these dynamics into a framework for collaboration and growth. The result? A transformation that not only resolves conflicts but cultivates a culture of empowerment and improvement - meaning the team is left skilled to self-manage. Her services come highly recommended for any organisation in need of ironing out team dynamics and productivity, and promoting a healthier workplace culture.
Stephen Johnson, Business Manager, St John Bosco Arts College
This course was highly enjoyable and I took away a bunch of tools and techniques to support the work I do as a systems coach. Caitlin was really flexible through the programme working hard to meet the needs of everyone and I felt privileged to have learnt from someone who is clearly exceptional in their field.
Louise Yates