Systems entrepreneur.
I have never pursued a clearly-defined career path, largely because I have never experienced a burning ambition to ‘be a [insert profession here]’. Well, apart from my (short-lived) primary-school-era ambition to play cricket for England. So I have followed my own path, figuring it out as I go. It can be difficult to identify your gift to the world, hard to answer the question ‘so what do you do?’ when you’re at a party.
With the benefit of time (aka age) and hindsight, however, it’s clearer to see the patterns that emerge. And for me, one thread that that has flowed through all my work is tacking entrenched social problems: changing the situations that many people, communities and organisations find themselves confronting. My current best explanation is that I help teams transform their world.
Changing systems.
Integral to this is the idea of systems change. It can sound like jargon, but for me it is not enough to tackle and resolve the presenting conditions. To be transformational we must get upstream to address the underlying factors that are leading to the problems manifesting in the first place.
As an example, food banks are an amazing, altruistic response of many in society to help those less fortunate and who are struggling to feed their families; my desire is to find ways to tackle the structural and systemic conditions that lead to people going hungry in 21st century Britain.
It’s the desire to change the underlying conditions and thus create change at scale that gets me out of bed in the morning.
How did I get here?
I have over 25 years of experience creating change in local authorities, the NHS, central government, think tanks and charities in the public, third and humanitarian sectors.
I developed strategy, lead multi-agency partnerships, engaged communities and delivered change programmes in my 15 years in Local Government. I also led the charge against reorganisation in Norfolk 2007-09.
During my six years in a think tank and social change organisation I developed their model of change, embedded it within core processes and applied it in practice through consultancy commissions.
I’m currently leading work on innovation and systems change in a Humanitarian INGO seeking to change the wider system for the better. It is interesting to contrast the challenges of international aid and development – I’ve been lucky enough to work on local projects in Guatemala and South Sudan – with those I experienced working in local communities in the UK.
I have a Masters in Behavioural science from the London School of Economics and a first degree in human and physical geography, which explains my curiosity around people, places, processes and patterns. What it takes, in short, to create change.
Getting off the linear path.
I’ve not followed a linear career path; it seems to me that interesting things happen when you leave a well-worn path and venture into new landscapes. This is not a comfortable route through a working life: I, for sure, like a degree of certainty. But it has led to lots of insight and learning. Some of these have helped me clarify the principles that guide my work. It has also helped me clarify my value offer, which I visualise in the form of a compass:
Nomadic thinker.
I’ve captured many of my ideas and insights around change in the articles on this site, categorised around the same areas of expertise that are visualised on my compass:
- Autobiographical + Spiritual
- Behaviour + Incentives
- Change + Innovation
- Collaboration + Teams
- Geography+Community
- Governance + Decisions
- Outcomes + Evaluation
- Performance + Productivity
- Strategy + Foresight
- Systems + Complexity
I consider this approach to be that of a curious generalist: guided by exploring answers to great, important questions rather than the narrow confines of a specific discipline.
Of course, we need experts in lots of domains – we would not live in the world we do without them, and we all rely on them every day. But there is great value in bringing different, contrasting perspectives even to those disciplines inhabited by such experts: it can help prevent groupthink, generate new ideas, challenge convention and so on. There’s room – and a need – for both if we are to successfully tackle today’s most pressing challenges.
A call to action.
Today’s problems and challenges can’t be solved by heroic individuals. Together we can help shift the world in a more positive direction for human-kind and the more-than-human world.
Do find me on LinkedIn and please reach out if anything here resonates with you – I’m always excited to chat to fellow travellers.
Ian B.
Support me 😀
If you have found any value in my work or feel moved to support me by simply buying me a coffee, just click on the button. Thanks 🙏
Ian Burbidge. 