Turn Conflict into Your Competitive Advantage

Start here — with the FREE Book

Rising Above the Clouds is a living book that teaches the Perry Approach to the Evaporating Cloud Method — a systematic process for dissolving the conflicts that keep you stuck between where you are and where you want to be.

It's complete, open, and yours to read at your own pace.

Read it free. When you're ready to turn reading into practice, upgrade to The Practice — your Rapid Improvement Coach (RIC), and the Conflict Club.

Start with the FREE Book
Rising Above the Clouds

"Karl is astonishingly clever about how people work."

Foreword to Rising Above the Clouds - by Clarke Ching

  • I don't know if Karl was born this way or somehow learned it, but he is — in my opinion — astonishingly clever about how people work.

    This is mildly humbling for me, because I've spent years writing about people applying the Theory of Constraints. I march characters into impossible binds: the manager who can't say no, the expert nobody listens to, the team quietly drowning while insisting everything's fine. I do it on purpose — it's called a plot. But I'll let you in on a secret: most of them are stuck for exactly the reasons Karl spends his life helping real people get unstuck. Where I need three hundred pages to talk someone out of a corner, he tends to need about twenty minutes and the right question. That is speed.

    Because that's the thing Karl does. He takes Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes — tools most people reserve for factories and gantt charts — and turns them on the messiest system of all: the human system. The bottlenecks we carry around inside our own heads. The conflicts that quietly run teams into the ground. The stuck patterns we can't find our way out of.

  • And here's the clever bit. Faced with a conflict, most of us reach for compromise — split the difference, everyone loses a little, we label it maturity. Karl refuses.

    He helps people dissolve the conflict instead: find what is holding you where you are, what you are actually protecting, prod the assumption holding it all together, and watch the whole impossible dilemma quietly evaporate. The first time you see it, it looks like a magic card trick. It isn't. It's method — and this book is that method, finally written down.

    He's been doing this for individuals and organisations all over the world for years, through his High Performance through Engagement approach — helping them work out what to change, what to change to, and how to make it stick. And now he's put the whole thing in a book and given an online version away for free. I've spent my own career trying to make the Theory of Constraints accessible to ordinary people getting on with their work — and this book does exactly that. It's the method I've been pointing at all along, finally written down and handed to anyone who wants it. An extension of the very thing I've been trying to do, done beautifully. I couldn't be more pleased to see it.

  • So: if you're reading this book because something in your work or your life feels stuck and you can't quite see why — congratulations.

    You're in far better hands than most of my characters ever were. Karl is, literally, an astonishingly good thinking coach.

    I'd tell you more, but I've got a novel to fix. One of my characters has got himself into a terrible mess, and I suspect I know exactly who he should call.

— Clarke Ching

Author of The Bottleneck Rules, Rolling Rocks Downhill, CorkScrew Solutions and Shaped for Speed.

Who This is For

This Book and Practice is for you if...

  • You're a leader who keeps hitting the same conflict.

    You've tried willpower, time management, coaching, positive thinking — and the pattern keeps returning. You're ready to understand why it persists and dissolve the assumptions holding it in place.

  • You're a coach or facilitator who wants a structural method.

    Your clients bring tensions that don't respond to reframing or goal-setting alone. You want a method that maps the conflict precisely, surfaces the hidden logic, and creates genuine breakthrough — not just insight.

  • You're stuck in the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

    Both sides of your conflict are legitimate. You're done choosing between them. You want to transcend from where you are and move forward.

With practice you'll be able to:

  • Build an Evaporating Cloud for any conflict you're stuck in

  • Surface the hidden assumption holding it in place — and dissolve it

  • Do it again, on your own, every time the next one comes

The book is free. The Practice is where you do it.

Reading is where you start — the whole book, open and free. The Practice is where the method becomes yours.

  • Discussion Tab

    Use the Discussion Tab to ask a question or make a comment. Have your questions answered by the author, Karl Perry, or one of the other Practitioners in the Conflict Club Community (Read — Free).

  • RIC - Your Rapid Improvement Coach

    RIC is an AI Agent trained on the Perry Approach. He can guide you through the Approach and offer deeper insights into the method. You can practice and learn any day, any time (The Practice — Paid).

  • The Conflict Club

    You become a member of The Conflict Club as soon as you enrol. Get help from real people.

    Join our weekly live sessions where we practice together (The Practice — Paid).

Rising Above the Clouds - The Book

    1. A Welcome message from Karl

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. Using the Discussion Tab

    1. About this Book

      FREE PREVIEW

    1. About Karl Perry - the Author

      FREE PREVIEW

    1. About the Perry Approach

      FREE PREVIEW

    1. Video Introduction to Chapter 1

    2. Why Conflict is Your Secret Weapon

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Chapter 1 - Quiz

    1. Video Introduction to Chapter 2

    2. Development of the Perry Approach to Evaporating Clouds

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Chapter 2 - Quiz

The FREE Book + The Practice

  • Read — Free: the full book + the Discussion Tab
  • The Practice: Rapid Improvement Coach (Paid)
  • The Practice: The Conflict Club (Paid)

Reading teaches understanding. Practice builds capability.

Most people who read Rising Above the Clouds have the same experience. They recognise themselves in the stories. They see the method. They feel the pull to try it.

Then they sit down with a blank page and their own conflict — and they get stuck.

Not because the method is hard. But because your own assumptions are invisible to you — they always are to the person holding them. You need something that holds the structure while you do the thinking. Something that asks the questions you can't ask yourself.

That's what The Practice provides.

Read — Free
 The Practise — Paid
The full book, all 15 Chapters Everything in free, plus...
Discussion Tab, ask Karl & Practitioners RIC, your Rapid Improvement Coach, 24/7
Read at your own pace The Conflict Club — weekly live practice

No lock-in. Cancel anytime.

How It Works:

You don't need prior experience with the Evaporating Cloud. The course starts from the beginning and builds systematically.

  • Enrol in the course through the Free Preview

  • Read each chapter at your own pace — there's no rush. The learning deepens through repetition and practice, not speed.

  • Ask a question in the Discussion Tab

  • Activate RIC - Your Rapid Improvement Coach (Paid) and start practicing

  • Join a live session of The Conflict Club (Paid). We meet every week.

What you'll be able to do:

Once you're practising the method, you'll be able to ...

  • Map any conflict you're stuck in — the gap between where you are and where you want to be — as an Evaporating Cloud

  • Work the full Perry Approach, all ten steps, from naming what's really happening through to a unified solution

  • Surface the hidden assumption holding your conflict in place, and dissolve it — instead of splitting the difference and going slow

  • Do this on your own conflicts, reliably — and, if you coach or facilitate, hold the same process for other people

What you'll understand:

  • Why a conflict keeps coming back

    — the structure underneath it, and why willpower, time management and positive thinking never shift it

  • The difference between compromising and dissolving

    — and why the breakthrough lives in the injection, not the trade-off

  • How the Perry Approach draws on the Theory of Constraints

    — thinking process, in plain language — no prior TOC needed

What will change for you:

  • Stop dreading Conflict

    You stop dreading the conflict you've been carrying and start treating it as workable — something with a way through

  • Meet your Needs

    You no longer have to choose between two things that are both legitimate and both yours

  • Repeat the Process

    You leave with a method you can return to, not a one-off insight that fades by Friday

RIC — Your Rapid Improvement Coach

RIC is a purpose-built AI coach, trained specifically in the Perry Approach. Not a general chatbot — a practitioner guide that knows the methodology inside out.

RIC walks beside you through every step:

  • Helps you clarify your current state when you're circling the problem without landing on what's actually happening
  • Asks the questions that surface your hidden benefits — the ones you can't see because they're too close
  • Holds the structure of your cloud while you do the thinking — so you never lose the thread
  • Challenges your assumptions the way Karl does in the book — with warmth, precision, and respect for both sides of your conflict


The difference between a general AI and RIC is the difference between reading a map and having someone who knows the territory walk beside you. RIC doesn't tell you the answer. 

Your conflict contains your answer. RIC helps you find it.

Membership of the Conflict Club

Your Practice subscription includes membership of the Conflict Club — the weekly live session where the method comes alive. You bring real conflicts. You build real Evaporating Clouds. Together with Karl and fellow practitioners.

This is where something remarkable happens: you learn as much from watching other people's clouds being built as you do from working your own.

You see real conflicts dissolve in real time. You watch assumptions surface that the person holding them couldn't see. You experience the moment of recognition — that's what I've been doing — not just in your own cloud, but in someone else's. And each time, the method deepens.

The Conflict Club isn't a webinar. It's a practice community. The people in the room are working the same method you are, with their own conflicts, at their own pace. Some are on their first cloud. Some have built dozens. All of them are practitioners.

Watch the Video Overview

The Practice

Where the method truly becomes yours ...

  • $20.00 / week

    One subscription. No lock-in. Cancel anytime.

    Displayed in local currency. Charged in NZD.

    Start your Practice

Reviews

5 star rating

Rising About the Clouds - A better way to deal with conflict

Graham Scott

I found Rising Above the Clouds when I was already very familiar with Theory of Constraints. I’ve used the principles in my own and clients’ businesses and ...

Read More

I found Rising Above the Clouds when I was already very familiar with Theory of Constraints. I’ve used the principles in my own and clients’ businesses and had taught the Thinking Tools at more than 25 different 6-day workshops. I had also seen our course graduates struggle to apply the Evaporating Cloud in real circumstances. Especially when dealing with people and the emotions that often gets in the way of agreeing on the real problem and adopting a solution. The Perry approach digs deep into the assumptions, thinking, and psychology holding conflict and disagreement in place, which is a huge step up. Each part of the book develops proficiency and understanding, so you can build your ability to apply the Evaporating Cloud in real life. The real gamebreaker though, has been RIC, the Rapid Improvement Coach that acts as a thinking partner. A patient coach, mentor, and expert all rolled into one, that guides you through the process so you can focus on the content. By itself, the Evaporating Cloud is a fantastic tool to take a problem (conflict) and turn it from “you against me” to “us against the problem”. When you add the psychological aspect of human behaviour, plus the AI power of RIC, you get a turbo-charged conflict resolution tool: • Insight into the real problem you are dealing with • A set of immediate steps to ease the pressure and • The mind-shift needed to dissolve the conflict completely If you want to dissolve conflict rather than compromise your way through it, and you're willing to put the practice in, this is the place to start.

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5 star rating

The tool I wish I'd had ten years ago

Johnny Priestley

I'm a chartered engineer and programme director. My work sits at the complex end: organisational and infrastructure programmes where moving from current stat...

Read More

I'm a chartered engineer and programme director. My work sits at the complex end: organisational and infrastructure programmes where moving from current state to future state is rarely clean. Conflict isn't an edge case in that environment. It's structural. I'm not easily impressed by frameworks that claim to handle it. Rising Above the Clouds earned my respect. The Evaporating Cloud isn't soft. It's a diagnostic tool, one that forces you to name the assumptions holding a conflict in place and find the move that dissolves it at the root. That's systems thinking applied to human problems. It works the same way good engineering does: understand the constraint, not just the symptom. What I took away wasn't just a course. It was a repeatable method I now use. On real situations. That's the measure. I pay to maintain my chartership every year because the standard is worth it. This sits in that same category: an investment in how you think. If you work with people, lead change, or carry conflict that isn't shifting, this is where I'd send you.

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Your conflict contains your breakthrough.

The Practice helps you find it.

You've read the book. You've seen what the method can do. You understand that the conflict between where you are and where you want to be has structure — and that structure can be dissolved.

The question isn't whether the method works. The question is how fast can you become proficient?

The Practice gives you everything you need: a 24/7 Rapid Improvement Coach who knows the process better than most experts, and the Conflict Club Community, real people working real conflicts every week.

Subscribe for as long as you need. Cancel when it has become your Practice.

Rising Above the Clouds + Rapid Improvement Coach + Conflict Club

About the Author

Creator of High Performance through Engagement (HPtE), The 3Cs Model and the Perry Approach to the Evaporating Cloud Method

Karl Perry

Karl is a thinking coach who helps people and organisations get unstuck. Where most of us meet a conflict and reach for compromise — split the difference, everyone loses a little, call it maturity — Karl works the conflict until it dissolves: finding what holds you where you are, what you're quietly protecting, and the assumption keeping the whole dilemma in place.

He built HPtE on the Theory of Constraints Thinking Processes — tools most people reserve for factories and supply chains — and turned them on the messiest system of all: the human one. The bottlenecks we carry around in our own heads. The tensions that quietly run teams into the ground. His work doesn't treat conflict as something to smooth over or minimise. It treats conflict as a source of innovation and performance — something to keep, work, and let show you the way through.

Karl works across the globe and across sectors, with individuals and teams at the operational level and with whole organisations at the strategic level — helping them harness their own thinking and the collective intelligence of their people.

People who Practice

The Perry Approach to Evaporating Method

It feels like I'm taking my foot off the brake.

Lisa McCarthy

The process combined with Karl's focused, personable and expert coaching allowed me to identify and understand both how I think, and how the conflicts created by my thinking process were holding me back.

The best way I can describe the impact of this is that it feels like I'm taking my foot off the brake.

Integration of the Evaporating Clouds from Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the LSI Circumplex is fascinating.

Søren Skjold Andersen

His integration of the Evaporating Clouds from Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the LSI Circumplex is fascinating.

Karl has a well-balanced approach of the right technological tools and live coaching session.

Achieve sustainable high performance.

Clarke Ching

I don’t know if he was born this way, or he somehow learned it, but Karl is IMHO astonishingly clever about how people work.

He uses this skill, combined with Eli Goldratt’s ToC Thinking Processes, to help individuals and groups gain unique insights into what they need to change, what they need to change to and, how to implement change in order to achieve sustainable high performance.

Identifying security based beliefs holding me back.

Greg Burgoyne

I've already gotten massive results from just a few sessions - impacting me, my family and my business.

I found myself gaining insights I hadn't had before - particularly with identifying security based beliefs holding me back and how they were in direct conflict with satisfaction based beliefs.

Create your next breakthrough solution.

Thomas Parrish

Karl has a set of logical tools to problem solve all systems. If you have a problem Karl will help you find a way to turn it into an opportunity for improvement.

Karl’s application of Theory of Constraints systems thinking along with his deep knowledge of the Human system are a strong combination to create your next breakthrough solution.

FAQ

Common questions

  • I've already read the book for free. Why would I upgrade to The Practice?

    The book teaches the method. The Practice is where you do it. Reading about someone else's cloud and building your own are fundamentally different experiences. RIC, the discussion tab with the author, and the Conflict Club bridge the gap between understanding the Perry Approach and being able to use it — on your own conflicts, reliably, when it matters.

  • What if I've only read part of the book?

    That's fine. The book follows the same chapter sequence. You can read and work the method at the same time. Many subscribers find that RIC and the Conflict Club actually deepen their reading — they understand the chapters differently when they're working their own conflict in parallel.

  • How does RIC work?

    RIC is an AI coach purpose-built for the Perry Approach. You can work with RIC anytime — between sessions, while doing assignments, or whenever you want to think through your cloud. RIC asks the questions the method requires and holds the structure while you do the thinking. You can access RIC directly through The Practice enrolment.

  • What happens in a Conflict Club session?

    Each week, a Host facilitates a live session where subscribers bring real conflicts and build Evaporating Clouds together. Sometimes Karl works a cloud with a volunteer. Sometimes the group works together. You always learn — whether you're building your own cloud or watching someone else's assumptions surface in real time.

  • Can I cancel anytime?

    Yes. There's no minimum commitment. Subscribe for as long as the practice is serving you.

  • Is this therapy or coaching?

    Neither. This is a structured methodology for working with conflict. The Perry Approach is a thinking process — it teaches you to see the structure of your conflicts and dissolve them by surfacing assumptions. Some people use it for personal conflicts, some for professional ones, some for both. It's a practice you learn, not a service you receive.

  • I'm a coach/facilitator — will this help me work with clients?

    Yes. The Practice builds your own capability with the method first. Once you can build and evaporate your own clouds, you can facilitate the process for others. Many Conflict Club members are coaches and facilitators who use the Perry Approach in their practice.

  • Can I ask Karl questions directly?

    Yes. The Practice includes a discussion tab where you can post questions and Karl will often respond personally. If you're stuck on a step, unsure about your cloud, or want to check your thinking before the next Conflict Club session — just ask.

Going further

Rising Above the Clouds is complete in itself. Many members stay here, practising and growing their capability within the Community. For those who want to go deeper this course is Level 1 of your path to becoming a ThinkingCoach and Host.