Home
Programmes
Fundamentals of Coaching Award Developing Confidence in Coaching Certificate Coaching for Leaders Foundations of Effective Mentoring Practice Café AC Membership and Accreditation
Community Events
Lunch & Learn C4C Practice Café Listen to the C4C podcast
Meet The Team

Compassionate Leaders, Empowered Teams, Healthier Organisations.

Conversations4Change is a fully funded leadership development programme for employers across York and North Yorkshire. It helps leaders recognise and build on the innate skills and insights they already have, so their teams feel empowered, committed and valued, and their organisations become healthier as a result.
Apply Here

What becomes possible?

The quality of everyday workplace conversations determines whether people stay, grow, perform and feel valued.

When you listen with genuine intention and approach your team with curiosity rather than assumption, colleagues feel heard, people take greater ownership, and those who might otherwise disengage find reasons to stay and contribute.

Organisations that build this culture create workplaces where a much wider range of people can thrive.

'They're literally getting on with the job themselves. They're not coming to be more often. They've been literally trying to change the world themselves, which to me is a lot better. It means I can actually get my stuff done for a change.' 

Foundations of Effective Mentoring participant 
Click here to apply

A different kind of leadership development

The culture of your organisation is shaped by the everyday conversations that happen within it. Those conversations directly influence whether your people stay or leave, contribute or disengage.

Our research shows what a healthy conversational culture looks like in practice, what gets in the way of it, and the difference that Conversations for Change creates for organisations across York and North Yorkshire. 

'I'm a lot more aware now of when I'm going to become reactive and I choose when I want to be. That's probably the thing.'

Head of Operations, Manufacturing, Coaching Award 

95%

Listen with greater intention

95%

Lead with more curiosity 

85%

Moved from fixing to facilitating

89%

Better equipped to retain talent

95%

More confident supporting disengaging colleagues

'The biggest shift for me has been understanding that coaching is less about asking the 'right' questions and more about how I show up in a conversation. I hadn't fully appreciated how much my presence, whether I'm calm, rushed, or solution-focused, shapes the conversation.'

Coaching for Leaders 

The programmes: 

Below are the programmes currently available as part of the Conversations4Change programme. To be eligible for funding your business or employer needs to be registered in York or North Yorkshire and have at least one employee. 

Places are restricted to one place per employee, apart from those marked 'unlimited'. For more information, please click the 'find out more' button or if you have any questions please see the FAQs at the bottom of this page, or email us.

Coaching:

Coaching for Leaders

An accredited programme for leaders and managers who want to embed a coaching approach into their everyday leadership, building the confidence, mindset and skills to have more effective, person-centred conversations. 

10 places | Starts 17 Sept| 3 days over 3 months.

Find out more and sign up

The Fundamentals of Coaching Award

An accredited four module programme developing confident, ethical coaches, grounded in their own health, practice and self-awareness.

8 places | Starts 14 July | One day per month over 4 months

Find out more and sign up

Developing Confidence in Coaching Certificate

An accredited seven module programme completing the full wellbeing trilogy, extending from the coach's own practice through to the health of their coachee and the wider organisation. Open to new starters (start 2 July: 4 places) or those building on the Fundamentals of Coaching Award (start 3 Dec: 4 places). 

8 places | Starts 2 July/3 Dec | One day per month over 7 to 8 months

Find out more and sign up

Unlocking Coaching for your teams

A self-paced micro-learning programme preparing your team members to engage confidently and effectively in coaching conversations.

Unlimited places | Start anytime

Find out more and sign up

'You're not here to try and fix. We're letting them fix the problem. That was the big takeaway, in block capitals for me.'

Factory Manager, manufacturing, Coaching for Leaders

Mentoring:

Foundations of Effective Mentoring

A practical programme equipping leaders with the knowledge, skills and confidence to hold effective, structured and informal mentoring conversations that support and retain their teams. 

8 places | Starts 15 October | 3 days over 3 months

Find out more and sign up

Unlocking Mentoring

A self-paced micro-learning programme preparing your team members to engage confidently and effectively in mentoring conversations.

Unlimited places | Start anytime

Find out more and sign up

'My team are getting a better version of me. Because I am actually there and present and listening to them.'

Advice Service Manager, NGO, Foundations of Effective Mentoring

Community:

Monthly Lunch and Learns

A 60-minute online session bringing together leaders from across York and North Yorkshire to explore inclusive leadership practice, with guest speakers and peer discussion.

Unlimited places 

Find out more and sign up

Monthly Practice Café

An informal online forum for those on our programmes and beyond to practise and deepen their coaching and mentoring skills alongside peers.

Unlimited places 

Find out more and sign up

'I have been planning a conversation with a team member; however, I have now decided to approach that conversation completely differently following on from what I have heard today.'

Manager, technology sector, Lunch and Learn participant 

Not sure where to start? Join a Lunch and Learn

Who is Conversations4Change is for? 

If you want your team to bring solutions rather than problems, to feel genuinely empowered and supported rather than managed and directed, and to create the kind of workplace where a much wider range of people can stay, contribute and grow, Conversations4Change is for you.

You will not be starting from scratch too. Many of the leaders who come to Conversations4Change already have great instincts. What they develop is the language, the structure and the confidence to act on them with more intention, in every conversation that matters.

'An old me would have arrived today and thought, okay, I've got 15 minutes, I'm going to fire off these emails. Whereas I've gone 'those emails can wait'. It's more important I go and say hello and see how they are.'
Head of Department, NGO, Coaching for Leaders

'The positivity is outweighing the negativity. The people who were negative yesterday are becoming more positive today.'

 Coaching for Leaders 

'People have got answers inside them, you've got the questions inside you, it's just honing how you put everything forward.' 

Head of Commercial and R&D, manufacturing, Coaching for Leaders

'I came out of the course and felt: I can do this. I've got some really good feedback. I can actually do this. It just felt really nice to actually feel that way.'

IT support, technology sector, Coaching Award  

About Conversations4Change

Conversations4Change is a fully funded programme designed and delivered by The Innate Coach, a specialist leadership training organisation with over 30 years of combined experience in coaching, mentoring, leadership development and psychology. 

The programme is built on a single, well-evidenced idea: that the quality of everyday workplace conversations is the most direct and meaningful way any leader can build a healthier, more inclusive organisation. Every element of the programme, from accredited coaching and mentoring training to micro-learning and community sessions, is designed to develop the mindset, skills and confidence leaders need to make those conversations consistently better. 

Conversations4Change is part of the wider Employer Support Programme, supporting employers across York and North Yorkshire to create inclusive, compassionate workplaces where a much wider range of people can join, stay in, return to, and progress in meaningful employment. 

'We will implement an organisational coaching programme and deliver the line manager training to embed it. This work has been exceptionally valuable in having external, expert input which will help us to develop our people and culture strategy.'

Senior leader, Charity organisation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

This programme is supported by York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority, using funding from the Department for Work and Pensions' Get Britain Working Economic Inactivity Trailblazer.