Ian Burbidge.

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Thinking out loud…

  • On being a systems entrepreneur

    How do we move forward in an uncertain world? A systems entrepreneur recognises that whatever their interests and various areas of expertise, they are moving forward into an unknown world.… Read more

  • On the need for mainstream investment in our communities

    Supporting our communities: time to move from false-competition to needs-based investment The winners of the new Community Renewal Fund, the precursor to the post-Brexit Shared Prosperity Fund, were recently announced.… Read more

  • On understanding performance

    How can the framework that I developed in order to help track and respond to the changes precipitated by crisis offer a new way to think about how we track… Read more

  • On the wisdom of Mavericks

    As we turn our minds to the work that will be needed following the global pandemic of Covid-19, the challenges that confront society remain significant: from preventing the climate crisis… Read more

  • On comfort zones and expectations

    The Arizona Cardinals, the Americal Football team I support, are the best team in the National Football League at the mid-point of the season, having only lost one game by… Read more

  • On convening across systems

    One of the stranger performance measures that local government used to have to report to Whitehall in the early 2000s was on rough sleeping. Periodically officers would be required to… Read more

  • On hybrid working and human nature (part 2)

    At first thought, where you work appears to be as obvious – and closely related to – your answer to that perennial question ‘what do you do?’ Perhaps this is… Read more

  • On hybrid working and human nature (part 1)

    Some reflections are emerging from the work I have been doing with a range of organisations over recent months. There are differences between how the leadership of an organisation and… Read more

  • On when collaboration makes for the best competition

    Back in the early 1990s I designed a new approach to archery. Tournaments at the time were based on a long line of archers shooting 144 arrows across four distances… Read more

  • On crises and change (a guide to the terrain)

    In early 2021 I worked with a team at the RSA to listen to community stories of the impact of Covid-19. Our aim was to tease out some learning about… Read more

  • On reinventing the wheel

    “If you wait around long enough, the old ideas come around again presented as new ones, largely because the current civil servants weren’t around when this was tried last time”,… Read more

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