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Skills training with actors · analysis & consultancy
Strengthen social safety. Stop inappropriate behaviour.
We train employees to step in, help managers build safer teams, and advise organisations facing more complex situations.
Sound familiar?
Challenges we help with
- Your colleague is on the receiving end of comments that aren't OK. You want to say something, but don't know what.
- As a manager, you want to create a safe working environment for your people. Where do you start?
- Something's going on in your team, but you can't quite name it. How do you address it?
- The employee survey shows people don't feel safe. What now?
Our approach
Less talk, more practice
In our trainings, employees and managers develop the skills to stop inappropriate behaviour and strengthen social safety. We keep the theory short and give participants the room to experience and practise. That's why we almost always work with actors.
Our advice is grounded in scientific insight and in your specific organisational context. We gather that context through working sessions, confidential interviews, observation and document analysis. The goal is always the same: more social safety and inclusion.
Services
Training for staff and managers, or consultancy
Training for employees
Active bystander
Learn to respond constructively to inappropriate behaviour at work and to support your colleagues. With actors, realistic scenarios and space to practise.
Training for managers
Active leader
Learn how to create a safe working environment for your people. What is your role as a manager, and how do you pick up on signals early?
Consulting for teams and organisations
Analysis & consultancy
Assess the situation and get advice on the right next steps. Together we restore trust and collaboration in the team.
Why a separate track for managers?
Whoever holds power sets the tone. Behaviour from someone in authority lands harder, and research shows a substantial share of inappropriate behaviour comes from managers themselves. That calls for self-reflection, and a different practice-setting than for employees.
Evaluations
What participants say
Our Active Bystander training averages 8.5 out of 10.
“Rutger excels in careful, attentive contact with his participants. He is passionate about the content of his training and brings it across beautifully. Although this was only a short workshop, I went home with new knowledge and insights, and I had practised a skill I found challenging. Especially inspiring and skilfully done.”
"I learned concrete intervention options and got to practise them. I learned that I'm never a neutral bystander."
Participant"That it's okay not to get it right the first time; that you can still approach people afterwards; that as a bystander you really can make a difference."
Participant"Working with Rutger and the actors was incredibly pleasant. They put you at ease right away. In the past, actors sometimes felt awkward to work with, but this time it felt natural."
Participant"I've learned useful strategies on how to become an active bystander, and to reflect on what being one means."
Participant"I think this training should be mandatory for all employees of the university."
ParticipantRead more
Want to dig deeper?
Active bystander hand-out
Practical guidance to intervene, in the moment and afterwards. With an overview of helplines. Bilingual NL/EN.
Download → PDFReport: social safety in universities
Context, references and practical guidance for universities and other knowledge organisations.
Download → ArticleOur expertise: social safety in the workplace
How do you build a socially safe environment and tackle inappropriate behaviour? Our view and approach.
Read more →Who'll guide you
Our experts
Caroline Pickard
Independent trainer & consultant. Certified confidential adviser. Works with Human Centric, Catalyst and Talent naar de Top.
View the team →
Rutger Legeland
NOBTRA-accredited trainer · LVV-registered confidential adviser · co-founder of Human Centric.
View the team →
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What if our team isn't open to this?
Trainings on social safety work best when you do them together as a team, department or organisation. This builds a shared frame of reference and strengthens the social norm around inappropriate behaviour and intervening.
Of course we encounter resistance in our trainings. Our trainers know how to handle that: we acknowledge it without letting it hijack the session. There are also sessions where we adjust the programme on the spot because that's what the group needs at that moment.
How is your training rated by participants?
We evaluate with participants and debrief with clients afterwards.
Our Active Bystander training is rated very positively: an average of 8.5 out of 10.
What participants consistently value: working with trained actors, the safe atmosphere in which to practise, and the insight that doing something, even if small or only afterwards, is always better than doing nothing.
What we've changed based on critical feedback: the most common improvement point is “not enough time to practise with actors”. We've adjusted the programme accordingly: the standard workshop now has a more substantial practice block and less theory. For organisations that want more, we offer a multi-day programme or a follow-up session a few months later.
We stay critical of ourselves too: not every training lands with everyone. 4% of participants rated us 6 or lower. We take all feedback seriously and continuously develop our trainings.
Active Leader is always tailored. There we evaluate qualitatively in a debrief with the client rather than with numbers.
How do you safeguard quality and ensure impact?
Our trainers keep developing themselves, reflected in NOBTRA accreditation, LVV registration and regular peer supervision.
Our approach is evidence-based: we draw on international bystander research, social-safety literature and practice. Our perspective and sources are set out on our in-depth page on social safety.
Tailored to your context: every training starts with an intake. Cases, examples and language are tuned to your organisation. An academic environment requires something different from a manufacturing site or a healthcare institution.
What sets us apart from other bystander trainers: the combination of training actors and realistic expectations. We don't promise culture change in three hours. What we do promise: participants go home with concrete tools and practised skills.
Practical: participants, duration and language
Group size: 8 to 16 participants per session. Larger numbers are split into multiple groups, which keeps the practice space intact.
Duration: from a 3-hour workshop to a multi-day programme. The Active leader track for managers is always tailored.
Language: all trainings are available in Dutch and English. The hand-out is bilingual.
Get started
Half an hour, and you'll know if we can help with your situation.
In a no-obligation 30-minute call you’ll get answers to three questions: can we help you, what approach we’d suggest, and roughly what that would cost.
Rutger Legeland
Co-founder of Human Centric
“With inappropriate behaviour, timing matters. Call me even when you’re still weighing the right intervention, usually we know within ten minutes whether we can help.”
Prefer direct contact? Ask a question →
Not ready for a call yet? Download the Active bystander hand-out (PDF), dive into our approach or browse the resources.