Detailed service page
Leadership development
Programmes and workshops that help managers lead conversations, performance, change and people with greater confidence.
Explore leadership development → Try an interactive simulation →Practical OD and learning that works in the real world
Making sense of organisational development and learning.
I help organisations strengthen systems, build capability and turn learning into better performance, not just another event in the diary.
15+years in L&D and OD
3public, private and third sectors
23years of Army leadership experience
Leadership development
Learning strategy
Organisational development
Facilitation and speaking
About me
Clarity, capability and change people can actually use.
I’m an organisational development and learning professional, facilitator, speaker and author. My work sits where people, systems and performance meet.
I’ve led learning and OD across local government and global organisations, designed leadership programmes, improved mandatory learning, supported apprenticeships and helped teams make complex change feel more manageable.
My approach is practical and honest. I ask what needs to change, what people need to do differently and how we’ll know it worked.
See my experience →How I can help
Practical support, built around the real problem.
From a focused workshop to a wider learning or OD programme, the work starts with the outcome, not the format.
Detailed service page
Learning strategy and design
Learning pathways, needs analysis, blended programmes, facilitator materials and evaluation that connect learning to performance.
Explore learning strategy and design →Detailed service page
Organisational development
Support with culture, capability, workforce priorities, engagement, recognition and the systems that shape how work gets done.
Explore organisational development →Detailed service page
Speaking and facilitation
Engaging talks and workshops that turn complicated ideas into clear, useful action without losing the human story.
Explore speaking and facilitation →Interactive Learning Lab
Don’t just read about my work. Experience it.
The Martin Furminger Learning Lab brings together realistic leadership simulations and OD & Learning investigations. It demonstrates how I design learning that makes people review evidence, exercise judgement and explain what they would do next.
Leadership Simulation Centre
Step into the manager’s chair, examine evolving evidence and balance trust, performance, wellbeing and risk.
- Difficult Conversations
- Absence Management
- Conflict and Grievance
OD & Learning Investigation Centre
Become the consultant, challenge the presenting request, revise a working hypothesis and build an evidence-based recommendation.
- Case File 001: The Training That Didn’t Work
- Step-by-step OD & Learning manager notes
- Professional investigation report
Every available simulation supports individual, facilitator-led and large online group delivery. Sector editions provide authentic local government and education settings.
Featured method
Systems Approach to Training (SAT)
A practical, disciplined way to move from performance need to learning design, delivery, assurance and continuous improvement.
SAT helps challenge course-first thinking. It considers the work, the learner, the wider system and the evidence needed to show that capability or performance has actually improved.
Featured expertise
Leading an award-finalist apprenticeship programme.
I led the team behind an apprenticeship programme that became a finalist in the LPI Learning Awards for Apprenticeship Programme of the Year.
The work brought together levy planning, provider relationships, learner and manager support, internal communications, workforce pathways and evidence of impact. The finalist recognition belonged to the whole team and the employees who committed to developing through the programme.
Speaking and workshops
Useful ideas. Human stories. No corporate fog.
I speak about leadership, learning, organisational development and what it really takes to make change stick.
- Making learning matter after the session ends
- Clarity beats charisma in leadership
- Turning OD theory into useful everyday practice
- Building capability without creating dependency
Toastmasters International
Practising the craft, not just talking about it.
I’m a member of Worthing Speakers Club, part of Toastmasters International. It gives me a regular place to sharpen prepared speaking, impromptu communication, feedback and meeting leadership.
Level 4
Presentational Mastery achieved
Level 5
Currently working towards completion
Active roles
Prepared speaker, Toastmaster of the Day and warm-up topics host
Toastmasters supports my professional facilitation and speaking by keeping me focused on structure, audience connection, useful feedback and continuous improvement.
Personal achievement graphic. Toastmasters International and its programme names are acknowledged as the organisation’s marks.
My book
Making Sense of Organisational Development and Learning
Tools to Improve Systems, Build Capability, and Prove Impact.
A practical guide for people who want organisational development and learning to be clearer, more useful and easier to apply. It brings together systems thinking, learning practice and real-world experience without hiding behind jargon.
01
Practical tools and models you can use straight away
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Clear links between people, systems and performance
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Written for L&D and OD professionals by a practitioner
Experience
Senior experience, grounded delivery.
Local government
Organisational Development & Learning Manager
People and culture strategy, leadership and mandatory learning, skills, recognition and workforce development, including leadership of an LPI Learning Awards finalist apprenticeship programme.
Global business
Global Training Manager
Learning strategy, operational capability, quality, performance and scalable learning across international teams.
Leadership foundation
23 years in the British Army
Leadership, training, coaching and operational experience developed in demanding, people-focused environments.
What I bring
StrategyPlans that connect people priorities to organisational outcomes.
DeliveryCredible facilitation and materials people can genuinely use.
EvidenceEvaluation, data and feedback used to improve, not decorate.
PartnershipDirect, collaborative work with leaders, managers and teams.
Let’s talk
Got a people, learning or OD challenge?
Tell me what you’re trying to improve. I’ll help you work out whether a workshop, programme, talk or different solution makes most sense.
Professional email
Based in West Sussex and available for in-person and virtual work.