Proven multi-stakeholder processes—brain-based, practice-powered, and deliberately developmental—to join up and accelerate systemic interventions and create the ideal conditions for co-creating breakthrough ecological/social/sustainable innovations that can transform and regenerate systems.
Unlock collective intelligence, effective sense-making, and collaborative genius while avoiding the clear and present dangers of all collective processes: domination, dissipation, and disintegration.
“Uniquely combine deep systemic thinking, expert knowledge of human behavior, and a strong creative flair. And lots of fun to work with!”
Director of Change, WWF
Next Level Systemic Change Processes To Transform Social & Ecological Problems Consciously & Collaboratively
We are facing challenges of almost unthinkable magnitude and complexity. In this increasingly interdependent yet crisis-hit world, issues of poverty, precarity, political instability, climate degradation, ill-health, and economic struggle are colliding to deliver a series of ‘perfect storms’ or ‘wicked problems’ that persist in the face of considerable intervention, innovation, and investment.
As both expert practitioners and lifelong students of systemic change, we work passionately, wisely, and diligently with foundations, non-profits, government agencies, ecosystem convenors, impact entrepreneurs, and philanthropists to cultivate the ideal “soil” for systemic change (e.g., shared purpose, high-trust relationships, collective and collaborative intelligence, social capital) and do all we can to unleash the “seeds” of systemic change (synergized initiatives, orchestrated campaigns, policies, and lobbying, and prosocial and regenerative innovations).
Over 20+ years of research, experiment, and practice—working with systemic change agents like WWF, Oxfam, Green Building Council, NESTA, NHS, Arthur Guinness Foundation, Genentech, the British Council, Rockefeller, NHS, various UK government agencies, Californian non-profits, Chinese social enterprises, and many more—we have evolved a brain, behavioral, and consciousness science-based approach for engaging diverse stakeholders to come together around a common purpose: to land systemic transformation that opens up a regenerative future for all life on the planet.
“Use their unique voice and powerful insights to inspire wonder. Their ideas are as relevant to the newest startup as they are to the oldest public institution.”
Special Advisor & Head Of White House Office of Social Innovation
Harness Our “LOOPPs” Approach To Deliver Both Societal & Relational Returns On Investment
Most multi-stakeholder and large group processes fail due to human and social capital factors, wasting scarce time, money, reputational currency, social capital, and convening power.
They descend into talking shops, unconscious emotional venting, unresolvable debates, coopting by vested interests, hijacking by strong personalities, dissipation from lack of leadership, interpersonal conflicts, and implosion/explosion/chaos.
Our “LOOPP” processes work with human biology and culture—and predictable group dynamics—to derisk financial and social capital investments to unlock effective and efficient co-creation.
Lightly-Engineered
Blending practices from innovation, design thinking, and regenerative design, we design experiences at the macro level (the systemic change journey) and at the micro level (each engagement, from workshops and circles to meetings and emails) to deliver value to the system and to each stakeholder. We chart a finely balanced “middle path” between designing a powerful and stable process so participants feel psychologically safe, that their time is valued, and that their views make a difference—and designing for emergence so participants feel free, imaginative, and enlivened to unlock their systemic insight and creativity.
Outcome-Oriented
We provide proven strategy, innovation, and transformation tools—variously used individually, in pairs, and in groups—to ensure value-creating outcomes are achieved from every engagement, whether in-person or virtual, whether a workshop or an email. Aligning to the logic of living systems, we ensure that the outputs from each engagement are designed to be inputs for the next stage of progress, evolution, and emergence, balancing linear efficiency with cyclical regenerativity.
Practice-Powered
We teach and use mindfulness, creativity, and somatic practices drawn from our Bio-Transformation methodology—fusing psychological, contemplative, and complexity sciences—to support participants to drop their defenses, show up fully, listen actively, contribute responsibly, share deeply, and see and support what is seeking to emerge from the whole—while avoiding descending into chaos/disorder or being swayed by strong personalities, hidden agendas, and personality differences.
Purpose-Led
We work at all times with two equally important intentions. We ensure the hearts within the group come together around a shared and enlivening purpose and that the minds within the group align around a shared model of change—allowing for participants to come in and out of the network and process over the course of the experience. We also design with the intention that stakeholders will leave the experience “better” than how they started, creating the ideal conditions for each to grow, evolve, and develop themselves as change-makers and leaders through their involvement in the journey and with each other.
“At the forefront of thinking and practice about social entrepreneurship and systemic creativity.”
European Union Social Innovation & Enterprise Directorate
Key Features & Benefits Of Our Systemic Change Projects
Unlock world-changing ideas, interventions, innovations, alliances, and collaborations that have the potential to transform systems by leveraging our proven processes, practices, and tools—while avoiding costly wastage of energy, resources, and social capital and rising to the significant challenges, nuances, and complexities of genuine systemic change.
Deliver concrete outcomes for a predictable ROI whilst allowing for emergence at the "edge of chaos" using our LOOPP approach, which is designed for concrete action (collaborative initiatives, systemic interventions, transformative innovations) by affording participants time, space, and permission for genuine reflection, trust-building, collective sensemaking, somatic intuition, and breakthrough creativity
Hold a safe yet brave space, in-person and online, for collective exploration, learning, co-creation, experimentation, and orchestration away from Get Stuff Done cultures and pressures, allowing participants to make sense of complexity, dwell at the "edge of chaos," and listen to what is seeking to emerge without falling into conventional binary thinking and outdated best-practices.
Intentionally accelerate existing evidence-based interventions that are delivering positive impact while ensuring the group opens up possibility spaces to invent transformative innovations that could be unprecedented in impact and more future-fitting and future-forging—by harnessing our breakthrough innovation tools and processes, originally developed for our high-profile consulting to corporations like Unilever, Diageo, Microsoft & Nike but that have adapted over two decades to deliver planet-ready, prosocial, and regenerative solutions.
Harness the world-class facilitation skills of veteran facilitators who have decades worth of experience balancing strength and sensitivity and rigor and receptivity to help powerful leaders (politicians, executives, investors, etc.) to be vulnerable and open, surface outdated assumptions and challenge cherished notions, reflect on their emotional intensities, limiting beliefs and maladapted habits, rethink their worldviews, and enter into genuine, open-minded, and open-hearted collaborations with other entities and with those at the margins—and avoid being deviated by strong personalities, extroverted participants, power plays, hidden cultural dynamics, and mind-warps.
Lead systemic change in a dynamic and adaptive balance to:
Make progress towards goals while also being present to what arises in the moment.
Expect personal accountability while having compassion for grief, loss, and pain.
Unleash breakthrough creativity while also holding necessary debates on value.
Serve the needs of funders/power players and those on the edges and frontlines.
Listen to marginalized voices without descent into righteousness.
Find coherence without forcing consensus.
Allow for accessibility without collapse into dissipation.
Be scientific and rigorous without getting stuck in minutiae or ignoring intuitions.
Upgrade and update the states, mindsets, and behaviors of participants so they do not block innovation, breakthroughs, and systemic transformation through uncontained emotions, maladaptive behaviors, and limiting beliefs and can contribute effectively to systemic change by including content, tools, and practices from our Self-to-System leadership curriculum.
Increase interpersonal effectiveness, trust, and collective sense-making and decision-making skills—while also bonding the group together as a collective, unlocking co-evolution, and generating a shared grammar of change—by including our low-cost peer-powered coaching toolkits and transformative circles approach.
Deliver value to the system and each stakeholder well beyond the program boundaries by providing every participant with take away leadership, innovation, and transformation tools, toolkits, and practices that can be used in future to unlock change and transformation from self to system.
“Enthusiasm, creativity, and knowledge of breakthrough proved invaluable in ensuring powerful outcomes.”
CEO, Green Building Council
Examples Of Our Experience In Systemic Change
We have had the great honor and privilege of supporting many bold and beautiful organizations to expand and deepen their positive impact on the world.
Green Building Council
Industry Sustainability Non-Profit
Design and co-facilitate a cross-sector and collaborative systemic innovation lab process to ideate breakthrough, systemic, and sustainable innovations, whilst cultivating and driving collaborative activities between major member companies (e.g. Canary Wharf Group and Marks & Spencers)—leveraging our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
Oxfam
Major Global Non-Profit
Design, prototype, and implement a social innovation lab for new forms of campaigning, activism, and influencing in the inequality and social justice space across the globe, engaging multiple internal and external stakeholders—leveraging elements of our unique transformational innovation process and toolkit.
Tech Nation
Government Technology Agency
Engage innovative start-ups and scale-ups from across the region to form a unique narrative to compete on a global scale for inward investment and high-value customers—leveraging our transformational innovation process and multi-stakeholder systemic change approach.
Innovate UK
Government Innovation Agency
Engage innovative start-ups and corporate innovation teams from across an entire system to input their insights and knowledge into a long-term sustainable innovation strategy for the industry—leveraging our transformational innovation process and multi-stakeholder systemic change approach.
Genentech
Global Biotech Company
Working with C-Suite leaders to develop systemic and breakthrough innovations in healthcare delivery in the complex US sector beyond R&D—leveraging our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
Nesta
National Innovation Fund
Design and prototype a digital social and systemic innovation platform that can engage high-impact changemakers in collaborative action—leveraging our unique transformational innovation process and toolkit.
ECIS
Global Education Non-Profit
Design and deliver a process to support the Senior Leadership Team to engage diverse stakeholders to co-develop a purpose-driven business, brand, and communications strategy to adapt to the fast-changing international education system—harnessing our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
EDF Energy
Global Energy Business
Design and deliver a systemic and disruptive innovation process to develop electricity-driven products and services for consumers— leveraging our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
Green Building Council
Industry Sustainability Non-Profit
Long-term partnership to co-create an “Emerging Leaders” program blending leadership development, peer-to-peer coaching, and sustainable innovation project fieldwork for future leaders and high-performing talent across the built environment system—leveraging key elements from our transformational leadership programs, transformational innovation process, and Leadership Coaching Kit
Oxfam
Global Non-Profit (Africa)
Design and deliver a leadership program for Oxfam's corporate and program leaders across Africa to accelerate innovation and impact—harnessing our changemaker capacity-building curriculum and our transformational leadership approach.
Rockefeller Foundation
Global Non-Profit
Facilitate a multi-stakeholder Innovation Forum and Summit around tech-driven solutions to scale impact—harnessing our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
World Wildlife Foundation
International Environmental Non-Profit
Design and deliver a systemic innovation process to ideate, conceptualize, and communicate to stakeholders and influencers low- and zero-carbon public transport ideas— leveraging our transformational innovation process and systemic change approach.
“Engaged investors, start-ups, scale-ups, policy experts, citizens, and politicians in developing a coherent and compelling strategy and story for our region to play its full potential in the global technology space.”
CEO, Tech North (UK Government EcoSystem Accelerator)
Our Comprehensive, Brain-Based Change & Transformation Interventions
Human beings do not change as easily as production lines and lines of code do. We use the latest brain and behavioral sciences to nudge, shift, empower, and enable your people to step up and be the change—one new belief and one new behavior at a time.
We have a huge range of powerful interventions that we use to shift dynamics across three core areas of change and transformation: behaviors, mindsets, and emotions/culture.
Habit & Behavioral Interventions
Team Signature Behaviors
Iconic Leadership Acts
Team Culture Challenges
Behavior Modelling
Habit Building Checklists
Incentive Redesign
Self-Organization
Circles
Process Friction Reduction
Individual Micro-Habits
Collaborative Innovation/Purpose Projects
Positive Deviant Support
Disruptive Innovation Fund
Reciprocity Loops
Empowered Delegation Practices
Nudge Architecture
Informa Network Mapping & Activation
Mindset & Cognitive Interventions
Reverse Mentoring
Story Editing
Story Sharing
Double Loop & Triple Loop Learning
Mindset Reprogramming
Self-Mastery & Self-Coaching Tools
Reflection Practices (E.g. Journalling)
Conscious Leadership Toolkit
ResponseAbility Practices
Accountability Practices
Empowerment Practices
Boundary Management Practices
Heuristic & Principles Design
Founder's Mindset
Systems Mapping
Appreciate Inquiry
Emotional & Cultural Interventions
Fail-Forward Repatterning
Failure Celebration
Belonging Design
Sharing Impact Stories
Anchoring
Visioning
Mindfulness
Somatic Practices
Psychological Safety Practices
Dialoguing
Mirroring
Team Common Purpose
Individual > Business Purpose
Task Meaning-Making
Culture Champions
Empathy Mapping
Our Unique Processes, Tools & Toolkits That Work Across All Three Facets Of Change & Business Transformation
The Peer-To-Peer Leadership Coaching Toolkit
Transformative Leadership & Learning Circles
The Transforming Communication Toolkit™
Transformational Leadership Starter Kit™
The Resilience Mastery Toolkit™
The Smart Experimentation™ Toolkit
The Conscious Leadership Process™
“Engaged with a diverse and large audience of civil servants using a range of multi-media techniques. The stakeholders were enthused and went away with a strong commitment to delivering new collaborative and innovative approaches.”
Director of Strategy, UK Government
Connect With Us
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