Production Process
A course is not a book read aloud with slides. It is a separate learning experience with its own architecture: different pacing, different sequencing, and different outcomes. Chapters are combined, reordered, and restructured around what the participant needs to be able to do, not just what they need to know.
Course Overview
Course title
The Identity Protocol
Modules
6 modules, 12 sessions
Total duration
12 hours (full programme)
Delivery formats
Workshop, in-house, training pack
Audience
Leaders and teams under pressure
Core framework
Identity first, evidence second, results last
Module Breakdown
Six modules from twelve chapters. Each module combines two chapters around a shared learning outcome. The sequence builds: foundation first, then discipline, then pressure, then innovation, then legacy.
Finding the Channel
Drawn from Chapters 1 and 2: Finding Flight in Resistance; The Price of Invincibility and The Crash
Why high performers stall, self-destruct, or feel permanently misaligned. Participants examine where their energy is currently directed and whether the environment is the problem, not the person.
- Distinguish between a performance problem and a context problem
- Identify where high energy without a constructive channel becomes destructive
- Separate fault from responsibility in setbacks and failures
- Misalignment Map: audit current role, team, and environment against natural strengths
- Fault vs Responsibility Reset: apply the framework to a real professional setback
The Architecture of Identity
Drawn from Chapters 3 and 4: The Architecture of Vision; The Dark Room
The core framework. Identity is claimed before evidence exists. Participants define their identity statement, then design the private protocols that will build evidence for it when motivation fades.
- Understand the difference between vision (the picture) and sight (the plan)
- Write an identity statement that precedes external proof
- Design a personal protocol using the Dial not the Switch principle
- Identity Before Evidence: draft a personal identity statement and test it against current behaviour
- Dark Room and Titanic Drill: build a minimum-viable daily discipline for one specific goal
Pressure Testing
Drawn from Chapters 5 and 6: The Proving Ground; The Ego Trap
Identity and protocol are built in private. This module covers what happens when they meet the real world: proving grounds that test the system, and the ego traps that derail it.
- Recognise the difference between a proving ground (growth) and a performance trap (ego)
- Understand how alignment must precede strategy
- Identify the Smartest Person in the Room dynamic and its cost
- Proving Ground and Iceberg Audit: map visible results against the invisible work that produced them
- Uniform and Ego Audit: identify where ego is substituting for alignment
Performing Under Pressure
Drawn from Chapters 7 and 8: The Panic in Lisbon; The Stamina of Excellence
How to perform when the moment arrives and the plan falls apart. The Second Window concept: the space between the first reaction and the chosen response. Then sustaining performance over time, not just in peaks.
- Apply the Second Window framework to high-pressure decision-making
- Distinguish between intensity (unsustainable) and stamina (built into rhythm)
- Design a sustainable performance rhythm for long-term delivery
- Second Window Rehearsal: simulate a high-pressure scenario and practise the pause
- Stamina and Rhythm Review: audit current workload for sprint patterns vs sustainable rhythms
Cross-Pollination and Authenticity
Drawn from Chapters 9 and 10: The Collision of Spheres; Street Lessons
Innovation rarely comes from within a single discipline. This module examines how intersecting spheres of experience create original insight, and why authenticity is a competitive advantage, not a vulnerability.
- Map the intersection points between different areas of expertise and experience
- Understand innovation as combination rather than invention
- Articulate a personal authenticity advantage rooted in real experience
- Collision of Your Spheres: identify three to five spheres of experience and map their intersection points
- Authenticity Map: define what you know from direct experience that cannot be replicated by credentials alone
From Performer to Guide
Drawn from Chapters 11 and 12: The Summit and the Slide; The Guide
The final module addresses what happens after the summit: the slide that follows achievement, and the transition from hero to guide. Participants design their own guide rhythm for transferring what they have learned.
- Recognise the summit trap: the disorientation that follows peak achievement
- Understand the hero-to-guide transition and why it is the mark of lasting impact
- Build a personal system for turning experience into transferable value
- Summit Debrief: reflect on a past achievement and identify what was lost or missed in the aftermath
- Guide Rhythm: design a repeatable practice for sharing what you know with the people around you
Delivery Formats
The same material adapts to three delivery formats. The outline above represents the full programme; shorter versions select the modules most relevant to the audience.
Half-day workshop
Three to four hours. Select two or three modules. Best for team away-days or conference sessions where participants leave with one framework they can apply immediately.
Multi-session programme
Six sessions of 90 to 120 minutes, delivered weekly or fortnightly. Participants work through all six modules with time to apply exercises between sessions.
In-house training pack
A facilitator guide, participant workbook, and slide deck for each module. Everything someone else needs to deliver your material on your behalf, inside an organisation, without you in the room.
Quality Standards
The Outcome Test
After completing the course, can a participant do something they could not do before? Not because the content was interesting, but because the experience changed what they are able to do. The course must deliver capability, not just knowledge.
The Specificity Test
Read any exercise without its module heading. Can you tell which book it belongs to? If it could appear in any leadership course, it is too generic. Every exercise must reference the book's specific frameworks and stories.
The Time Test
Add up the timing for every element in every session plan. Does the total match the allocated course duration, including breaks? Timing is not approximate in facilitation. It is operational.
What You Receive