When this is useful

I work with organisations developing learning experiences and with individuals and teams navigating complex challenges where different perspectives need to come together.

This might involve:

What people learn to do

Every project is different, but the aim is always the same: helping people develop the ability to understand situations more fully, work across perspectives and make better decisions when there is no simple answer.

Together we practise:

How we begin

Most engagements begin with a real situation - a project, decision, conversation or learning challenge that needs a wider perspective.

Together we explore the context, challenge assumptions, connect ideas across disciplines and consider different perspectives before deciding how to move forward.My role isn't to tell people what to think; it's to help people see more of the landscape before making important decisions.

• How I work

"When you can't see the angles no more, you in trouble, baby."
— Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way (1993)

I have always been interested in how people make sense of situations they cannot understand from one perspective alone.Over the past fifteen years, I have worked across sectors and disciplines, helping people navigate complex challenges by bringing wider context, different perspectives and real-world insight into view.Across work with the World Health Organization, Design Council, universities, local authorities, mission-driven businesses and community initiatives, I have helped people connect research, practice and different ways of seeing before making important decisions. Before this, I spent over a decade founding and leading an innovation and design practice, creating products, spaces and public installations exploring how design can encourage more sustainable ways of living.This combination of design, sustainability, research and education shapes how I work today. I am interested in helping people develop the judgement, curiosity and perspective-taking needed to work with complexity - particularly when different people, disciplines or ways of seeing need to come together.Questions I find myself exploring include:

Most people remember Carlito's Way as a 90s crime drama. I remember it as a study in navigating complexity: a character constantly reading the landscape, noticing relationships, risks and possibilities before deciding how to move forward.That is the space I aim to hold: helping people understand more of the landscape before deciding what to do next.

"Rigorously creative, in that she combines systems thinking and critical thinking with the spontaneity needed for new ideas. Not many people can do this."
— Darren Evans, Strategic Designer and Design Council Expert

Relevant qualifications

My background sits at the intersection of science and the arts. I hold an MSc (Distinction) in Sustainable Development in Practice from the University of the West of England and a BA (Hons) in Fashion Promotion & Illustration from the Surrey Institute of Art and Design (now University for the Creative Arts).I am also a Cambridge CELTA-qualified ESOL teacher, experienced in communicating complex ideas clearly and accessibly to people working in English as an additional language.

Selected publications

Understanding the situation before deciding what to do next.

Whether I am helping an organisation develop a learning experience or supporting a team through a complex challenge, I begin by exploring the context before moving towards solutions.Complex challenges rarely sit within one discipline, organisation or perspective. They require people to connect ideas, understand different viewpoints and notice what may otherwise be overlooked.Drawing on systems thinking, design research, strategic thinking and fifteen years of cross-sector practice, I help people bring wider context, different perspectives and real-world insight into view.My engagements range from global institutions to SMEs and everything in between. The common need is always the same: creating space to understand what is really happening before deciding how to move forward.This is often useful when:

Together we:

The aim is not simply to find an answer quickly. It is to develop a fuller understanding of the situation, so decisions are made with greater awareness and confidence.

"She approaches complex challenges with care and intellectual rigor, always seeking to understand the deeper dynamics at play."
— Dr Hebe Gouda, World Health Organization

This shows up in two main ways:

If you're not sure which fits, email me and I'll help you work out where to start.

Learning experiences

Helping organisations evolve learning experiences for a world of complex challenges.

I work with programme leaders, education teams and organisations developing learning experiences that help people connect knowledge with practice, understand different perspectives and develop the judgement needed to navigate complex real-world situations.Rather than treating systems thinking, creativity, collaboration or sustainability as separate topics, I help integrate them into learning experiences where people can apply ideas to situations where there is no single right answer.This may include:

Engagements have ranged from individual workshop sessions to multi-month programme design and co-facilitation, across environmental, social, economic and professional learning contexts.

Selected examples

Design Council / Integrating systems thinking into design thinking. I helped strengthen a six month design thinking programme by contributing systems thinking, sustainability, behavioural insight and enterprise innovation, so participants could develop more effective responses to complex place-based challenges.Design Council / Essex County Council - Engaging young people in Essex's climate future. Within a six-month Design Council programme, I introduced futures thinking and participatory research skills to Essex County Council and the Climate Ambassador Network, culminating in a workshop where a sample of fifteen- to eighteen-year-olds contributed directly to the council's climate strategy, and the tools for teachers to replicate it and gather youth insights from across the region.University of Bath / Connecting research, policy and community perspectives. I designed and facilitated a 2 year cross-city learning programme, contributing the facilitation and framing needed to identify how universities, local government and civil society could effectively engage, so Doughnut Economics could genuinely inform local economic thinking.Atlantic Technological University Sligo / Building sustainability capability across disciplines. I designed and delivered a four-part interdisciplinary CPD series over four weeks, giving business, finance and technology academics a structured grounding to bring sustainable development principles into their own future teaching.The Interior Design School / Translating sustainability into design education. In a month-long engagment, researched and presented how sustainability could be meaningfully integrated into a luxury interiors curriculum, giving leadership concrete directions for course formats, teaching approaches and future development.

"It was fantastic to be shown that we can start the conversation and provide leadership through our courses."
— Amanda Culpin, Interior Designer & Course Leader

This is one of two ways I work:

If you’re developing a learning programme that could benefit from this kind of input, email me and we’ll arrange a conversation.

Thinking partnerships

Helping individuals and teams navigate complex challenges where different perspectives need to come together.

I work with individuals and teams who need space to understand a complex situation before deciding what to do next.Together we explore context, question assumptions, uncover overlooked factors and connect different perspectives - helping people identify what needs attention before committing to action.This can take several forms:

Engagements have ranged from individual thinking sessions to longer-term thinking partnerships and project support with individuals and teams across public, private and third-sector organisations.

Selected examples

World Health Organization / Building foresight capability. Within a six-month project, I supported the editorial lead for the 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic to identify opportunities for enhanced engagement - one example being a graphic timeline tracing historical tobacco industry interference, helping WHO's policymakers and practitioners better anticipate future industry behaviour in support of WHO FCTC Article 5.3. Published in the 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic.London Borough of Hounslow / Reframing climate action around local context. Within a six-month Design Council programme, I supported a council team to apply design and systems thinking to test their own assumptions around a proposed climate solution, helping them uncover evidenced local needs, course-correct, and connect climate action, equity and social-environmental benefit.Career transitioner / Building a coherent sustainability perspective. I supported a mid-career professional moving from the corporate sector into sustainability with thinking sessions to connect previous experience, develop a stronger understanding of sustainability in practice, and identify meaningful entry points for the next stage of their career.World Health Organization / Exploring new approaches to health communication. I supported a WHO project with focused research into which communication themes were missing from its own health warnings, surfacing new opportunities for stronger cultural and behavioural relevance and local policy implementation in support of WHO FCTC Articles 11 and 12. Published in the 10th WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic.Lumsden Design / Developing sustainability strategy and practice. Working one-to-one with leadership of an award-winning international interior design practice revealed a need for team learning sessions, where I helped build a shared understanding of sustainability and reframe it from a perceived constraint into a source of creative and commercial opportunity.

"I wish we'd done it sooner. It blew away some myths and helped me realise there is so much more to sustainability than the use or non-use of materials. I highly recommend!"
— Simon Clark, Co-Founder, Lumsden Design

This is one of two ways I work:

If you are working through something that needs this kind of space, email me and we’ll arrange a conversation.

Pre-
Collaborative
City

The work we need to do before we bring everyone into the room.

Place-based collaborations often begin by bringing people together, only to find that people arrive with different understandings of the situation they are trying to change.When those differences remain unexplored, conversations can become debates about positions rather than opportunities to build shared understanding.

What if the most important work happens before collaboration begins?

Pre-Collaborative City is for people designing, leading and supporting collaborative responses to complex place-based social and environmental challenges.

It is a growing collection of field guides and learning resources exploring what happens when different perspectives need to come together.

This project brings together fifteen years of observation, research and practice across design, sustainability, innovation, learning and systems change - exploring what helps people build shared understanding.

From developing shared language and definitions to finding better entry points into conversations, the field guides explore what needs to be understood before people can move forward together: the local context, different perspectives and what matters to people.The aim is to create the conditions for people to collaborate in ways that respond to the realities of a particular place.Whether you work in local government, urban development, public health, climate action, design, research or community development, these resources are designed to help you slow down, make sense of complexity and move forward with greater confidence.

Which field guides would be most useful first?

I'm currently speaking with people involved in place-based collaboration to understand their experiences of where collaboration becomes difficult and what support would be most useful beforehand.

If you'd like to share your experiences in a 30 minute knowledge-sharing conversation, I'd be delighted to hear from you. I'll share any relevant tools and insights that may be useful to your own work in turn.Email me or use the form below, and I'll get back to you shortly.