Building inclusive, high-performing STEM cultures
Helping organisations unlock talent, strengthen leadership and create environments where people thrive.
The Katalytik Manifesto
Inclusion is an act. Diversity is an outcome.
For more than 20 years, we’ve combined strengths psychology, systems thinking, inclusive leadership and evidence-based practice to help organisations create lasting change. We don’t believe inclusion is achieved through one-off training or tick-box initiatives. We work with organisations to understand the systems, behaviours, and culture that shape everyday experiences.
Excellence is the starting point.
When people feel safe to contribute, experience belonging, develop confidence and bring diverse perspectives to problem-solving, organisations create the conditions for innovation.
The Katalytik Manifesto places excellence as the foundation that leads through safety, belonging and self-belief towards innovation.
We collaborate
No one person can do everything. We co-create with teams to empower each person to be their best.
We maximise
We maximise on results and impact. And did we say fun? We bring energy and engagement.
We innovate
We know that to achieve different outcomes we must think and operate differently. We’re your thought partner.
We ideate
Creativity is at our core. We help our clients to shift the conversation and lift everyone up.
Our Team
Dr Jan Peters MBE
Founder and Lead Consultant
Jan Peters MBE is an award-winning consultant, facilitator and CliftonStrengths coach with more than 20 years’ experience helping STEM organisations build inclusive, high-performing cultures. A former President of the Women’s Engineering Society, Jan combines strengths psychology, systems thinking and evidence-based practice to help organisations unlock talent, strengthen leadership and create environments where people can belong, contribute and thrive. She was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to women in engineering and science.
Favourite part of her job: Crafting innovative solutions and getting started
Commonly used phrase: “There’s no such word as no”
Top 5 CliftonStrengths: Strategic, Ideation, Self-Assurance, Activator, Command
Helen Shipton
Helen joined Katalytik in 2016 and has been the friendly face behind our workshops, events, and community activities. With extensive experience supporting young people and families, she facilitates coaching sessions for engineering students and helps create welcoming, engaging learning environments.
Helen has a people-centred approach, combined with her understanding of strengths and talent development, helps her connect with clients.
Favourite part of her job: Workshop day
Commonly used phrase: “Shine your light”
Top 5 CliftonStrengths: Harmony, Positivity, Adaptability, Developer, Maximizer
Dr Sean McWhinnie
Sean is our data and Athena SWAN specialist, he has played a key role in developing Katalytik’s inclusive engineering tool. With 12 years at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Sean’sdeep expertise in science policy, diversity and higher education, and leading learned societies and more than 30 universities across the UK enriches support for our clients.
Favourite part of his job: Finding information from pivot tables
Commonly used phrase: “I think we need a pivot table”
Top 5 CliftonStrengths: Ideation, Deliberative, Analytical, Intellection, Input
The RISE Framework
Moving from scepticism to action
Many inclusion initiatives fail because they start with policies, targets or compliance.
Engineers often tell us that inclusion feels disconnected from their technical work, or that it is someone else’s responsibility.
The RISE Framework was developed from years of working with engineers, academics and technical professionals to overcome exactly this challenge.
Rather than telling people what to think, RISE helps them understand why inclusion matters to them, their colleagues and the quality of the work they produce.
How we create change
People are the catalyst.
Processes don’t innovate.
Policies don’t collaborate.
Technology doesn’t build trust.
People do.
When individuals understand themselves, value difference, and communicate more effectively, teams become stronger and organisations perform better.
That’s where Katalytik comes in. We saw what was worng and set about fixing it.
Over time we have created and collated tools to tackle each of these four pillars.
1. Rationalise
People need to understand why inclusion is relevant to their role. By connecting inclusion to engineering excellence, collaboration, innovation and client relationships, individuals begin to see its practical value rather than viewing it as a separate agenda.
People need to understand why inclusion is relevant to their role.
By connecting inclusion to engineering excellence, collaboration, innovation and client relationships, individuals begin to see its practical value rather than viewing it as a separate agenda.
What we do
We facitltiate discussion workshops with our work built fro supporting several thougth leading universities emebd inclusion into their work.
2. Internalise
Once people recognise its relevance, they can start to explore their own behaviours and choices.
What is one thing they could do differently?
What conversations could they have?
What actions could they take to create a more inclusive environment?
Real change begins when responsibility becomes personal.
What we do
We established the Engineering Inclusion Forum in 2020 – a year long programme of learning and development. And we run Momentum Group Coaching and other trainings to have inclsuvie meetings through CliftonStrengths.
3. Strategise
There are countless ways to improve inclusion, engagement, and performance.
The challenge is knowing where to start.
Using the Engineering Inclusion HealthCheck and ISO 30415-informed approaches, we help organisations identify priorities, focus effort and create practical actions that deliver meaningful progress.
What we do
We faciltiate workshops to enable teams, departments, and in universities, faculties, to prioritise and gain ideas using our Healthcheck Tool and ISO30415.
4. Energise
Lasting change happens when people influence others.
Individuals become advocates, leaders become role models and teams begin creating environments where more people can contribute at their best.
Inclusion becomes part of how work gets done, not an initiative running alongside it.
What we do
We can provide train the trainer and internal netowrk support to build stronger teams.
Engineering excellence. Human potential. Inclusive innovation.
Why Organisations Choose Katalytik
Engineering expertise meets human performance
For more than 20 years, Katalytik has helped engineering, STEM and higher education organisations tackle the human challenges behind performance, innovation and culture. Our work combines positive psychology, CliftonStrengths®, coaching, wellbeing, neuroinclusion and inclusive engineering to create practical, evidence-based solutions that deliver measurable impact.
We don’t deliver off-the-shelf training.
We help people think differently, communicate more effectively and create environments where everyone can contribute at their best.
✅ Research-informed
✅ STEM-focused
✅ Practical and engaging
✅ Evidence-based
✅ Designed for lasting change
Who we work with
Trusted by organisations committed to excellence
We’ve worked with universities, professional bodies, engineering organisations and global businesses to strengthen performance, develop people and create more inclusive cultures.
Ready to explore what's possible?
Whether you’re looking to strengthen communication, develop leaders, improve wellbeing, support neuroinclusion or create a more inclusive engineering culture, the conversation starts with understanding where you are today.
Let’s explore your challenge and identify the next step.
