Learning is something many initiatives genuinely want to do.
In practice, it is often the first thing to be squeezed out by delivery, urgency and the pressure to keep things moving.
A learning partnership helps keep learning alive while the work is happening.
I work as a learning partner with teams, organisations and networks who are trying to do something new in conditions of uncertainty. The focus is on learning in action: noticing what is emerging, making sense of complexity together, and adapting as the work unfolds.
This often sits alongside facilitation, research or advisory work, but the partnership itself is centred on learning as a live, shared practice rather than something assessed at the end.
What I mean by a learning partnership
A learning partnership is a way of working together over time, where learning is treated as a collective endeavour.
I work alongside people as they try things out, reflect on what’s happening, and adjust their approach. My role is not to judge from a distance or provide definitive answers, but to help create the conditions for noticing patterns, surfacing assumptions and making sense of what’s unfolding.
This differs from traditional evaluation or consultancy. While evidence and insight matter, the emphasis is on supporting people to learn their way forward, rather than prescribing solutions or assessing success after the fact.
Learning partnerships work best where there is curiosity, permission to adapt, and a willingness to pause and reflect alongside action.
Who I partner with
Learning partnerships are usually anchored in a group rather than an individual.
I often work with a team, organisation, network or initiative, including those that span multiple organisations or roles. The partnership may be closely linked to one or two people, but the learning itself is shared and relational.
Learning is often something a group wants to do, but it can be hard to sustain alongside delivery and decision-making. Having someone whose primary focus is learning can help create space to pause, notice what’s happening, and make sense of it together.
In some cases, I work most closely with a single person stewarding a wider initiative. Where that happens, the learning partnership remains oriented towards the system they are part of. Work that is primarily about individual development tends to sit more clearly within coaching or thought partnership.
How I work as a learning partner
A learning partnership usually unfolds over time, alongside the real work.
Early on, I often help a group articulate what “good” looks like for their initiative. This may involve creating a light learning or impact framework and agreeing a small set of learning questions. These act as a shared compass rather than a fixed plan, and tend to evolve as the work evolves.
As the work progresses, I support rhythms of reflection and sensemaking. This can include learning conversations, moments of pause built into existing meetings, or facilitated sessions to step back and notice patterns. Where useful, I also carry out interviews, surveys or other light data collection.
I often work closely with one or two people leading an initiative, in conversations that sit somewhere between coaching, critical friendship and strategic reflection. There is often a light pastoral element to this, particularly when the work is demanding or uncertain.
Throughout a partnership, I synthesise emerging insights into shared learning artefacts, such as internal learning notes or reports. These are usually brought back to the group through facilitated conversations, supporting reflection, decision-making and next steps. I also draw on design and strategy skills to help learning lead to adaptation.
Towards the end of a partnership, I often support the creation of outputs to be shared more widely, building on what has been learned through the journey.
What this looks like in practice
Learning partnerships take different shapes depending on the context and the people involved.
Recent work includes:
- Supporting a community-led funding initiative to reflect, adapt and learn across delivery, engagement and governance over two years (Summerfield Community Chest).
- Working alongside a multi-organisation inquiry into governance, combining interviews, sensemaking and shared learning outputs (Many-to-Many Governance, Dark Matter Labs).
- Acting as learning partner to a pioneering initiative exploring race, faith and violence against women and girls, working closely with the project founder and a peer advisory council (SAFE Communities).
Across these partnerships, my role has been to help hold the learning thread so it doesn’t get lost as things move and change.
“This report and the last three years would not have been what they were without the gentle and holding support of Jamie Pett. As a learning partner you have been able to provide a safe space in which I could critically but kindly look at what was done, how and what possible futures could be imagined.”
Huda Jawad, Founder, SAFE Communities
Where this approach comes from
My approach to learning partnerships is shaped by earlier work on adaptive practice and learning in complex systems.
From 2017–2020, I was part of the LearnAdapt programme, working with ODI, Brink and DFID to explore how organisations learn and adapt when outcomes cannot be known in advance. That work provided a grounding in adaptive management and learning loops, which I now apply in a more embedded, relational way through long-term partnerships. You can read more about this via my Writing page.
Around the same time, I worked as part of the Curiosity Society team, supporting dozens of organisations to articulate the impact they wanted to have, learn from experience, and adapt their strategies and interventions. This was formative for me, and where I deepened my practice as a facilitator of learning.
Working together
If you’re navigating complexity and want to keep learning at the heart of the work, I’d be glad to have a conversation.