Learning Path

Contributing to the Future

January - September 2026

Bringing More Life to Robust Systems: How the Living World Can Take the Lead

As a per­son serv­ing as a direc­tor, man­ager, pol­i­cy­maker, pro­gram man­ager, or advi­sor, you are actively involved in the (tur­bu­lent) pub­lic sphere. Energy tran­si­tion, hous­ing, edu­ca­tional inequal­ity, men­tal health among young peo­ple, migra­tion pres­sures, poverty, dig­i­tal secu­rity, social polar­iza­tion, admin­is­tra­tive reform, health crises… to name just a few. The issues are well known, as are the stan­dard approaches. But many of the dif­fi­cul­ties per­sist or are even grow­ing. We see the root causes of all these prob­lems and chal­lenges as the exces­sive use of pro­ce­dures, laws, meth­ods, and sys­tems in sit­u­a­tions that call for a unique and human-cen­tered approach. In our view, this excess arises because we do not know how to do things dif­fer­ently. This lack of alter­na­tive ways to approach com­plex issues increases the com­plex­ity and confusion. 

“Anyone can learn from the past.
What we need today is to learn from the future.”

Her­man Kahn (1922–1983)

But what if we looked at com­plex­ity from a dif­fer­ent angle—not through the lens of even more poli­cies, plan­ning, and con­trol, but through the con­crete real­i­ties and expe­ri­ences of the peo­ple them­selves? And how do you trans­late this into an approach that is work­able for every­one involved? And how do you align it with an organization’s procedures? 

Plan­ning, mod­el­ing, mon­i­tor­ing, and ana­lyz­ing are very valu­able and pro­vide a frame­work, but they often fail to con­nect with human real­i­ties. Con­sider, for exam­ple, sit­u­a­tions in which cit­i­zens feel alien­ated from well-inten­tioned pol­icy goals or stu­dents who feel dis­con­nected from how edu­ca­tion is orga­nized. In this learn­ing pro­gram, we focus on how to strengthen the con­nec­tion between our lived world—the con­crete real­ity in which peo­ple work and live—and bring it more into bal­ance with the world of orga­niz­ing, plan­ning, and bud­get­ing. Although it builds on deep and far-reach­ing insights (see results and sources), the course is pri­mar­ily focused on the prac­ti­cal and direct appli­ca­tion of skills needed to achieve this. 

The fol­low­ing ques­tions are cen­tral to this:

  • How can you facil­i­tate long-term impact and devel­op­ment in a way that con­tributes to the future?
  • How do you work toward an approach and solu­tion that aligns with people’s lived experiences?
  • How can you effec­tively work with infor­ma­tion from—and influence—the entire system?
  • … and how do you apply this in your own work context?

The term “sys­tem world” refers to the set of rules, pro­ce­dures, struc­tures, and for­mal sys­tems that have been estab­lished to orga­nize and con­trol social processes.

The life­world is the every­day, indi­vid­ual, and social world in which peo­ple live, come together, com­mu­ni­cate, and give mean­ing to their lives.

In this course, we explore how we can bring these two pillars—which have drifted apart—back together to work in harmony.

Gouden hoofd in groene deur

Results and Sources

The cur­ricu­lum focuses on devel­op­ing skills in deal­ing with:

Work­ing accord­ing to the prin­ci­ples of the life­world in meet­ings, orga­ni­za­tions, sit­u­a­tions, and sys­tems: Rec­og­niz­ing the dynam­ics, the impact, and the con­se­quences for indi­vid­u­als and the whole. (Approaches of Leib­niz, Kolb, Kübler-Ross, Brook, Cleese, Cockmann).

Deal­ing with the Pres­sure from the Sys­tem World and Appro­pri­ate Inter­ven­tions: The sys­tem world con­tin­ues to exert influ­ence, even when you work from the lived world. It is impor­tant to rec­og­nize this pres­sure and cre­ate space for non­vi­o­lent and authen­tic action. (Insights from Arendt and Habermas).

Cre­at­ing change where things are stuck: by look­ing not only at behav­ior and con­se­quences, but also at causes and under­ly­ing pat­terns, prob­lems can be bet­ter under­stood and resolved. (Inspi­ra­tion comes from thinkers such as Senge, Argyris, and Schön.)

Mak­ing, cre­at­ing, and bring­ing into being: apply­ing the right approach to the problem—paying atten­tion to aspects such as con­ve­nience, form, beauty, and the whole. (Approach and inspi­ra­tion from Chekhov, Assmann)

Learn­ing from the Future: Work­ing (and Liv­ing) with the Unknown, the Uncer­tain, and the Unpre­dictable. (Based on Lev­inas, Mer­leau-Ponty, and Kahn)

Apply­ing dif­fer­ent types of per­cep­tion and infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing, and becom­ing aware of how one’s own pref­er­ences and beliefs influ­ence per­cep­tion. (Con­cepts by Hei­deg­ger, Gadamer, Jung)

Who is this for?

This train­ing pro­gram is intended for exec­u­tives, man­agers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, (pro­gram) man­agers, and consultants.

  • You work on or are involved in a com­plex issue that requires a deeper con­nec­tion to the real world.
  • You have daily expe­ri­ence with the fric­tion between the sys­tem and the real world.

Program

The pro­gram con­sists of two parts.

  • 3 two-day meetings
  • 4 work­shops

There is an intake ses­sion before the pro­gram begins.

Part 1

Days 1 & 2: Working with the Living Environment

Dur­ing the first mod­ule, we lay the foun­da­tion for work­ing with the child’s world.

  • Prac­tic­ing dif­fer­ent types of per­cep­tion and infor­ma­tion processing.
  • Learn­ing to dis­tin­guish between intel­li­gence and consciousness.
  • Exam­in­ing one’s own pref­er­ences, beliefs, and pat­terns that influ­ence perception.
  • Com­pil­ing prin­ci­ples that facil­i­tate or enable work­ing in accor­dance with the client’s life world.

Days 3 & 4: Working with the System World

Dur­ing the sec­ond mod­ule, we will exam­ine the impact of the sys­tem envi­ron­ment and prac­tice inter­ven­tions to influ­ence it.

  • Deepen under­stand­ing of the life­world and the sys­tem world.
  • To inves­ti­gate the prin­ci­ples gov­ern­ing how the sys­tem world func­tions and where the bound­aries of the sys­tem world become apparent.
  • Prac­tic­ing inter­ven­tions to incor­po­rate a “world of life” approach into the sys­temic world.

Days 5 & 6: Deepening Skills

Dur­ing the third mod­ule, we will build on the insights and skills gained in the first two mod­ules using real-world case studies.

  • A key fea­ture of the “liv­ing world” approach is con­tin­u­ous design.
  • The pro­gram for these two days will there­fore be based on the work and expe­ri­ences from the pre­vi­ous days.

Part 2

Workshops

In our expe­ri­ence, it is often dif­fi­cult to apply this knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence in one’s own work con­text. There­fore, as a fol­low-up to the six-day pro­gram, you can reg­is­ter for four fol­low-up work­shops in which we will deepen our knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence. Dur­ing these work­shops, we will focus on the expe­ri­ences and chal­lenges we encounter when apply­ing the insights and skills from the first six days to our work. 

We will deter­mine the struc­ture and con­tent of these work­shops in con­sul­ta­tion with you.

How We’ll Work

The learn­ing ses­sions are active and dynamic. Life-world com­pe­ten­cies are dynamic skills; we use them, we prac­tice them, and we act on them. Talk­ing about them is cer­tainly impor­tant, but it is only one part of the skill set. 

In our expe­ri­ence, the learn­ing process is most effec­tive when we draw on real-life sit­u­a­tions. The peo­ple and real­i­ties you encounter are the mate­r­ial we will engage with in a prac­ti­cal way. 

To do jus­tice to a “liv­ing world” learn­ing path­way, the pro­gram is, to a cer­tain extent, unique. We are increas­ingly ask­ing par­tic­i­pants to make an active con­tri­bu­tion to the learn­ing envi­ron­ment themselves. 

The idea is that you bring a real-world prob­lem from your work­place to the course so that you can make sub­stan­tial progress on it.

In our expe­ri­ence, reflect­ing on one’s own pref­er­ences, beliefs, and pat­terns is an indis­pens­able part of a suc­cess­ful learn­ing process.

Participants’ Experiences

“Con­nect­ing to the Future gives me the lan­guage, struc­ture, and space to con­tribute to tran­si­tions toward a future that does jus­tice to the sys­tem, the process, and the rela­tion­ship between ‘I’ and ‘we.’”

Leon Klink­ers (con­sul­tant and interim man­ager for the Dutch government)

“I’ve learned to let the right solu­tion emerge from a sense of ease in the present moment, and I’ve noticed that this has sig­nif­i­cantly increased my impact as a professional.”

Réka Vilikó (Scrum Mas­ter at Alliander)

Dates

Part 1

  • Block 1: Jan­u­ary 15 & 16, 2026
  • Block 2: Feb­ru­ary 12 & 13, 2026
  • Block 3: March 12 & 13, 2026

    Part 2

    • Work­shop 1: April 10, 2026
    • Work­shop 2: May 8, 2026
    • Work­shop 3: June 5, 2026
    • Work­shop 4: Sep­tem­ber 18, 2026

    Cost

    The cost of the 6-day train­ing pro­gram is €4,500, exclud­ing VAT.
    The cost for the fol­low-up pro­gram con­sist­ing of 4-day work­shops is €2,500, exclud­ing VAT. 

      Practical Information

      • Dura­tion: 6 days, with an optional 4-day extension
      • Lan­guage: Dutch
      • Group size: 10–15 participants
      • Loca­tion: Delft, Netherlands
      • Lunch included

      Want to sign up or get more information?

      Please con­tact us using the con­tact form on this website.

      About the mentors

      Facilitator Peter Paul

      Peter Paul Gerbrands

      —helps orga­ni­za­tions and part­ner­ships find a path for­ward. He has a back­ground as a direc­tor and orga­ni­za­tional con­sul­tant with expe­ri­ence work­ing with com­plex, inter­con­nected systems. 

      Facilitator Peter Paul

      Jan Peeters

      He is a designer and facil­i­ta­tor of dynamic learn­ing processes with a focus on future-ready skills. He has a back­ground as a designer and leader in higher edu­ca­tion and serves as a learn­ing coach in var­i­ous Sioo programs. 

      Facilitator Peter Paul

      Iwan Gerbrands

      He is an orga­ni­za­tional con­sul­tant with exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the pub­lic sec­tor, gained at firms such as Wage­naarHoes and Twyn­stra Gudde. He also has a back­ground in soci­ol­ogy, polit­i­cal sci­ence, and music. 

      Facilitator Peter Paul

      Marjoline Baars

      cre­ates the­ater and projects cen­tered on social themes. She con­ducts par­tic­i­pa­tory the­ater research and offers train­ing focused on com­mu­ni­ca­tion and co-cre­ation between peo­ple and nature. 

      Facilitator Peter Paul

      Frank Bosboom

      works with orga­ni­za­tions and net­works to address cur­rent and future soci­etal chal­lenges in the areas of hous­ing, well-being, edu­ca­tion, and health­care. Frank works as a learn­ing coach within orga­ni­za­tions that need to undergo transformation. 

      before metamorphosis artwork by Carla Frayman

      About Contributing to the Future

      CTTF has been offer­ing train­ing courses for over 20 years. Var­i­ous train­ers and pro­fes­sion­als have helped develop these pro­grams over the years. As a result, the cur­rent learn­ing pro­gram is a com­pi­la­tion of and builds upon all of these expe­ri­ences. Our goal is to famil­iar­ize a grow­ing group of pro­fes­sion­als with the basic prin­ci­ples and skills cov­ered in this pro­gram, so that, based on this foun­da­tion, they can work together and con­tribute to soci­ety and the future.