Training - Freestate

51°30’35”N 0°7’5”W

Our training courses offer our clients the opportunity to embed a methodology of experience masterplanning in their organisations.

An integrated approach partly based on Adam Scott and Dave Waddell’s The Experience Book, it is a methodology that provides a foundation for implementing immediate and lasting change, breaking down silos, systemising a process of continual improvement, and allowing individuals and teams to flourish.

Training includes a General course and sector-specific courses, all of which are currently provided as a facilitated learning experience. The General course includes both theoretical and practical elements on the masterplanned experience, while the Sector courses help individuals and teams apply that knowledge to their own organisations.

For more information on the courses, download the prospectus or get in touch directly with Adam or Dave, who will be facilitate the training.

COURSE PROSPECTUS

“Transformational thinking in 12 hours
– a sprint to difference.”

JAMES SCROGGS
NEW WORKING CLASS + EX CREATIVE DIRECTOR MTV

@the_experience_book

the_experience_book

Apr 21

My life changed the day I walked into an office in the Titanic Quarter. The man I was there to meet was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and didn’t look anything like a prophet. We sat with our coffees on a balcony overlooking the docks. The cranes looked different up this close, a pair of sleeping giants. I answered the man’s questions. I told him about our losses and how my father still finds it difficult to come into the city and why I left as soon as I could. The man nodded and smiled and asked whether I knew that John Dunlop had invented the modern tyre in a street not a million miles away from here or that one of the men who split the atom went to school on Malone Road or that modern emergency medicine owes everything to a cardiac consultant that worked out of the Royal Victoria. Which is not to say, he said, that the story you tell yourself isn’t true. It is, he said, and oughtn’t be forgotten. But it’s not the only one.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Another true story
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Titanic Quarter
City: Belfast

#belfast #titanicquarter #titanic #dunlop #atom #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Apr 14

It was 50 years ago to the day that I was given my first handkerchief . We had prayed and we had paid our respects to the dead and then taken a boat across the waters. I remember a perfectly hot day and a blue sky, a square overlooking the straits, and eating fish. I remember the dancing and the alcohol and coffee. And I remember my father pressing a white handkerchief into my hand, the taste of the sweets it held, and reading the words – ‘Let us love, let us be loved’ – embroidered in one of its corners. I still have the handkerchief. It smells of sweets and of love.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: My first handkerchief
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Seker Bayrami
City: Istanbul

#istanbul #bosphorus #eidalfitr #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Apr 7

The beautiful woman and the beautiful man are sat in the graffiti-covered recess overlooking the road. The wall behind them is covered in a painting of someone I recognise but can’t name. A mural of a disassembled nude stretches the length of the corner. The raised pavement that serves as their vantage point has been painted green and tagged and the paint has been allowed to spill over the edge and into the gutter. The woman crosses her legs and takes a sip of her drink. The man lights a cigarette. I can’t take my eyes off them.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Batman Alley
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Batman Alley, Vila Madalena
City: São Paulo

#sãopaulo #batmanalley #becodobatman #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Mar 30

I can’t say exactly when we came across the dolls. We had been on the water for an hour. The other boats had disappeared along with the music and food. The trees leant into the canal, their leaves levitating in the heat. We drifted towards an island. The first doll was nailed high up a trunk. Another hung upside down from a branch. Limbs and heads and torsos lined a fence. Dolls of all kinds and in all states gazed back at us. And for a time they were everywhere, and then they were gone, and the island was behind us – if not the feeling of having participated in something unspeakable.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Island of the Dolls
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Boating the Xochimilco
City: Mexico City

#mexicocity #xochimilco #islandofthedolls #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Mar 21

We have jumped the fires and knocked on the doors and saluted the moment night and day became the same. Spring is here and we are to visit the homes of our grandparents and uncles and aunts. For as long as I remember, we have always visited my great grandmother first. I know we’ll visit bigger houses with more beautiful Haft-Seens. I know we’ll be given more money by Uncle Babak. And I know that we’ll get to play with the cousins. But I love her face and the smell of her home and her stories of how we were saved from winter by an ancient king. And I love her cakes, which taste of the new year.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: My grandmother's cakes
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Nowruz - Iranian New Year
City: Tehran
Image: Niloofar Farkhojasteh

#tehran #nowruz #haftsin #haftseen #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Mar 14

We watched the flowers all day. I arrived at dawn, to save a spot. The petals were already falling. I cleared the grass and laid out the blanket and the food and drink and waited for the others. They came in dribs and drabs. The petals fell all day. We ate rice balls and fried chicken. We drank beer and saké. We were full and some of us were drunk. My grandmother told stories about watching the cherry blossom when she was a child. When we walked home, a gust of wind sent hundreds of petals funneling into the sky. We watched as they fell to earth, each one a small and perfectly beautiful death.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Watching flowers fall
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Cherry blossom
City: Tokyo

#tokyo #cherryblossom #hanami #sakura #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Mar 4

The day I saw god I was in the city without borders. The millions were already here, massing in the lanes and camps. They wore little or nothing. They sang and shouted and prayed as they walked into the river and a life bereft of sin. It was in this place of sacrifice and human streams that I saw him. He was naked and sat for most of the time on a platform before a fire, surrounded by his acolytes and devotees. His hair was long. His face was ageless. His eyes were bright with delight. One day he would die in a car crash. Today he sat in the luminous light, amidst the frenzy, speaking the utmost truth.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: The Day I Saw God
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Prayag Kumbh Mela
City: Prayagraj / Allahabad
Image: © Ben Christie

#prayagraj #allahabad #prayag #kumbhmela #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Mar 1

The smell of cigarettes has gone. The unspoken confinement to our hotel is over. Lei Yang has stopped asking us to sleep with him. I don’t have to make a speech or dance or politely drink myself to death. We are alone with our chainsaws and a block of ice the size of a small house. A city made of ideas borrowed from a half-imagined place stands over us. Castles and pagodas and benches and walkways gleam white in the sun. The block is cold and unforgiving and silent. I fire up the chainsaw and lean into the ice. It begins to speak.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Conversations with ice
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival
City: Harbin

#harbin #harbinicefestival #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Feb 23

The first most beautiful day has begun. The bells have rung. It is night and all the lights are out and we are in an almost perfect darkness. We say little and there is something faintly rebellious in the way we walk into the sound of the whistles and drums. The Morgesraich is here and only the lanterns are lit. The fasnächtler are already on the move, their masks glowering in the dark, their heads alive with all manner of lights. The pubs and the restaurants are beginning to fill up. The procession sways through the night. Satire and irony and mockery are in the ascendancy, lit for all the world to see by.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: The First Most Beautiful Day
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Basler Fasnacht
City: Basel
Image: © James Dudley

#basel #baslerfasnacht #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Feb 16

There is music and there is singing in a language I don’t understand. We have seen the men in white and blue dance past us and the road is beginning to clear. I lift my arms and spin around and jump. My mother says something about going. My sister says she is thirsty. Then one of the last of the men catches my eye. I notice that he has a can of drink in his hand and that his boots are white. He smiles and dances towards us. We bow for our necklaces and he holds and kisses the tops of our heads. His touch is light and brief and full of love. He smiles and I smile back and he leaves, dancing slowly away. I watch as he joins his friends and until I can no longer see him. I can’t remember what happens next, only that I am cared for.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Peace in Salvador
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Filhos de Gandhy bloco
City: Salvador
Image: © Fabio Marconi

#salvador #filhosdegandhy #carnival #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Feb 15

The day for drawing boundaries is here. No one is to clean, for fear of washing away a year’s worth of future luck. Firecrackers and the clash of symbols keep the spirits at bay. Lions and dragons have taken to the street – and to our doors and entrances. The gifts have been made. We are all well fed and partied out. Kindness is on everyone’s lips and in their every act. Hard work is something for tomorrow. Fortunate words abound. We are making luck for the year, together.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: A year's worth of luck making
Project: 52 Cities
Experience: Chinese New Year
City: Singapore
Image: © Jacnwill on Dreamstime

#singapore #chinesenewyear #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Jan 31

The birds have been released and we are at the gates of the city. Everything is silent. The flags are still. The soldiers have their rifles and the children their toys and we are all dressed for the past and the meaningful. The road is lined with the faces of the religious and the curious and the proud, all turned in our direction. Priests guard the shroud of the god that died so that we might live. They will bless our throats and we will dance and laugh and cry and make our way home – freed and prepared to free. .

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Day of the City
Project: 52 Cities
City: Dubrovnik
Experience: Festivity of Saint Blaise
Image: Anna Serrano

#dubrovnik #festivityofsaintblaise #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Jan 27

If chairs could talk.

#benin #abomey #vodun

the_experience_book

Jan 23

There is no single entrance to this labyrinth, no views by which to set a compass, no shared geometry for the easy mapping of immediate futures, no park or garden or building as final destination. Forget empty space, multiple scales, straight lines, the perception of distance. In this place where the street turns endlessly and buildings squeeze the light from the air and portals mascarade as doorways, we must abandon ourselves to a world of sound, to the heard – footsteps on stone, the shout of a bar, the movement of crowds, a guitar tuned – as the points on a map, to being lost and then found.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Story: Keys to the labyrinth
Project: 52 Cities
City: Dublin
Experience: Temple Bar Tradfest

#dublin #templebardublin # #templebartradfest #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Jan 17

The Experience Course's back with a bang, in February, with four sessions spread across two weeks. Bang, bang, and bang again. For more, see @wearefreestate's Training page http://tinyurl.com/3vatr479.

#experience #experiencedesign #theexperiencecourse #wearefreestate #theexperiencebook

the_experience_book

Jan 15

The swell of a crowd. Shirts shimmer in the bright glare of the day. A Mexican wave rises, falls. Pimms, ice, strawberries, cream. The crack of a tinny. Banter ebbs and flows across the court. Silence powers the serve and a pair of gods perform under blue skies in a divine and orchestrated flurry of activity, the metaphysics of their movement and timing betrayed by the sound of a grunt or shout. Heads turn in perfect unison, tracing the arc of the narrative of the point. Mouths open to shout their approval at its denouement. Screens highlight small miracles in slow motion. Summer’s here – bright, loud, astonishing.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Image: Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
City: Melbourne
Experience: Australian Open

#melbourne #australianopen #grandslam #tennis #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Jan 8

The drumming has stopped. The dust kicked up by the ancestors has settled. Their human overlookers have retired with their sticks and the priest is in his corner with his words and shells and cloths. The ancestors sit on a bench facing me. I kneel. One asks me in the broken voice of the dead what I am here for. I tell them. They lean forward. The priest hands me the shells. I throw them. All four land face open. A shout goes up. The compound is suddenly alive with the unseen. An ancestor removes his breast plate and places it on the ground in front of me. I drop money onto it and the priest picks it up with a pair of tongs. I am overcome by the meaning of something I don’t understand. I leave, blessed.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Image: courtesy Waddell & Rayner
City: Ouidah
Experience: Fête du Vodoun

#ouidah #benin #the52citiesproject #experience #experiencedesign #experiencecity

the_experience_book

Jan 3

Son of Scott @oran_scott chances upon the big fat pink book at @designmuseum. Looking damn fine, the pair of you!

#theexperiencebook #thedesignmuseum #experience #experiencedesign #bookshop #skateboardexhibition

the_experience_book

Jan 1

The piper greets them as they rumble along towards the slip road. Towel robes, speedos, smocks, onesies, superheros, fairies – a slice of Dundee dressed in all manner of getups. Relatives and friends and anyone mad enough to brave the afternoon cold of a new year’s day line the wharf, cheering them on. A man on a tannoy barks and the ‘dookers’ halt at the bottom of the slip road. The sea is grey, opaque. Seaweed rolls in the shallows. Rescue boats bob in the chop of the water. The order comes and they pour forward, splashing into the sea. The air is full of the sound of delighted suffering.

Words: Scott & Waddell
Image: © Fintastique on Dreamstime
City: Dundee

#newyearsday #dook #dundee #the52citiesproject #experiencecity #experience #experiencedesign

the_experience_book

Dec 21

We're kicking next year off with a bang: The 52 Cities Project, which aims each week in 2024 to shine a light - perhaps via a piece of writing or an interview or a little film or a podcast - on a city-based experience that in some way or other describes or embodies where it's from. For more, see http://tinyurl.com/yekjt7f9. In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

This experience: Mexico City’s Xochimilco, courtesy a nod from the mighty @jeremyhutchison

Image: Roberto Carlos Roman Don on Unsplash

#experience #experiencedesign #city