FEP is an interactive training course in which participants apply tools in problem structuring, project management, stakeholder engagement, data analysis, options appraisal and strategic narrative to the full lifecycle of a public service project case study. Interactive elements of the course include: 

• A mix of group discussions, smaller group exercises, and individual tasks  
• Role-play presentations and interviews  
• Guest speakers who role-play senior stakeholders and then reflect with the group about their own experiences  
• High-energy collaborative tasks involving props, such as a card-based game to simulate Plan-Do-Act-Study cycles  

Feedback from FCDO participants has been consistently positive, with 95% of survey respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that they would recommend the course to a colleague. Some of our favourite feedback comments include: 

• “Great range of approach and insightful information presented clearly and in a friendly encouraging way.” 
• “Really informative, lots of templates to take away and activities to practise in our own time.” 
• “Superb trainers - encouraging, expert and unflappable!” 
• “Felt that I learned a lot and have lots of ideas how I can use some of the tools in my day-to-day work.” 
• “Trainers challenged us to think deeply on topics we may not have been exposed to.” 

During our time delivering FEP to the FCDO, we’ve learned some interesting things: 

1. The FEP tools and approaches take on a life of their own when they reach a critical mass within an organisation 

Our FEP track record in the FCDO first started with the Projects Task Force Team. This team effectively acts as in-house consultants, deployed to a wide variety of projects within the Department. Given their role, colleagues valued the FEP consulting toolkit because it equipped them with the confidence and skills to land quickly in new environments, make strategic sense of their situation, and implement projects quickly and effectively. 

“Our staff really enjoy FEP and gain[ed] a lot of valuable skills, tools and experience during the week. We aim to mirror the interactive elements of this training in our own learning and development in the team.” (Heather Watson-Humphreys, Deputy Head of Operations, Projects Task Force) 

And then in 2025, as word had gradually spread about FEP, we saw a snowballing of interest from a wide variety of teams. We’ve run courses for the Corporate Delivery Unit, the FCDO 2030 Transformation team and the Foreign Secretary’s Delivery Unit.  A common theme from those commissioning the courses has been about wanting to upskill staff, who traditionally come from policy backgrounds, in project delivery and project management.  

“We commissioned this training to support high-quality reporting to our senior leadership teams, and to ensure that our delivery leads were well-equipped to deliver on a range of efficiency initiatives across the Department.” (Deputy Head of Unit) 

The reach of our FEP course within the FCDO has therefore gone far and wide. Course participants enthused by the tools have introduced them to their colleagues, who have become intrigued and wanted to come on the course themselves. As this cycle repeats, the tools and frameworks have become part of the department’s vocabulary (“ah yes, I saw a hypothesis tree doing the rounds last week”) which has over time built greater coherence in project management and delivery across the department. 

2. Being attentive to participant feedback remains the key way for us to improve our courses 

During one FEP course, our facilitators found that several participants were struggling with the analytical modelling content. These participants were not confident with using Microsoft Excel, and some were reluctant to engage as they felt it was not relevant to their job.   

We responded live in the moment in two ways: 

• Reframing the content: We took a step back from the specific exercise and reframed the value of conducting analysis and being data literate in the context of policy and project roles. We explained how and why this session was relevant to the broader aims of the course and relevant to their team, focusing on how understanding data and analysis was crucial even if they themselves were unlikely to conduct the analysis.  
• Tweaking the exercise: We listened openly to the concerns or worries of the participants, and adjusted the exercise live to focus on understanding the fundamentals of Excel, and to prompt participants to think about how they might interrogate data as commissioners of analysis. This balanced improving their Excel and analysis literacy, while making the content of the training session more relevant to their role.  

Following the course, we reflected as a group of facilitators that we had in fact received snippets of similar feedback previously. Whilst the analytical modelling content remained relevant and engaging for many, we needed to find a more long-term solution which also catered for those who worked less directly with data in their roles. We settled on designing two simultaneous “tracks” for this module which gave participants a choice. One track retained the more intense analytical modelling, whilst the other focused on interpreting modelled outputs and the importance of data visualisation to tell clear, evidence-based stories. 

3. FEP can be readily tailored to different organisational contexts 

As of June 2026, our most recent FCDO commission has come from the Centre for Delivery, which plays a key role in quality assuring project delivery across the FCDO’s global portfolio.    

Our commissioning client asked us to curate a 2-day course which prioritised those parts of FEP which a sample of previous participants and senior leaders judged to be the most critical to their roles. And – most interestingly for us – to design an FCDO-specific case study around which to organise the material. Traditionally, the FEP case study has always remained the same, based on a healthcare example. Our pedagogical rationale has been that participants don’t need lots of prior knowledge of the subject area, and that it can be beneficial to practise the application of problem-solving tools to an unfamiliar subject. However, our client felt that this bespoke course needed to feel closer to the day jobs of course participants – and we were happy to give it a go.  

So, in place of the reconfiguration of accident & emergency departments, we designed a new scenario based on reducing irregular migration to the UK via a fictional country called Litorra. Participants are tasked with developing recommendations in time for forthcoming bilateral talks. Whilst the tools and approaches remain the same, we’ve updated all the practise exercises to fit with this scenario. And for the module on continuous improvement methodology, we’ve developed an innovative online game which simulates successive rounds of the bilateral talks. Participants can adjust a selection of negotiation strategy variables per round of talks, understand their subsequent impact, and act accordingly for the next round – as would be the case with any Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle.   

This course has so far been delivered virtually to members of FCDO staff based in over ten countries including the UK, Philippines, Zambia and Iraq. 

Feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive, for example:  

• "The material was very relevant to my policy work and I will be using the tools and knowledge learnt regularly." 
• "Loved the chronological approach - each stage felt relevant and built the process to a clear conclusion." 
• "Having a single policy issue run as a thread through all of the modules was also really helpful." 

Give the positive reception, we’re looking forward to running an extended series of these courses into the next financial year and beyond.  

And it’s made us realise that the core tools and approaches in FEP can be easily incorporated into a new case study bespoke to a specific policy or organisational context. Do get in touch with Harris Lorie or Joe Norbury if you’d like to find out more about this for your organisation.