Anna Birney

Background

As Head of System Innovation Lab, we at Forum want to find ways to work with others to draw in ideas, learn from practice and develop capacity so we create the necessary change towards a sustainable future using system innovation. I am passionate about developing and facilitating programmes for individuals, organizations and systems to learn and find innovative approaches to change.

I started my career in the sphere of the UN, bringing multi-stakeholders together around sustainable development issues and lobbying for change. It is no surprise that I find myself today working on practical projects that have real impact! For a large chunk of my career I have been actively seeking systemic change within the education sector (at WWF-UK and Forum). Working with policy makers through to children taught me a lot about how we can create profound change through values and learning. As part of this I led and delivered a programme with the National College for School Leadership where over the course of four years we set up and supported over 56 Communities of Practice to find ways to knit practice across the education system together, making the Sustainable Schools National Framework a reality.

Since joining Forum in 2008 I have worked with public sector bodies and businesses such as Welsh Assembly and BT, trying to find ways to place sustainability at the heart of their organisations. This includes creating business strategies and establishing pathways to embed new behaviour through scaling up solutions, activating people and engaging leadership.

I have worked across WWF-UK and Forum supporting them to think strategically about developing systems programmes, which includes the creation of Forum’s 6 Steps to significant change. This has now transferred into other programmes such as scaling up success with Shell Foundation.

After completing my postgraduate diploma at Bath University in action research, I am currently trying to find time to pull together this thinking for my PhD at Lancaster on ‘How might people and organisations, who seek a sustainable future, cultivate systemic change? ‘

My dream project? It would have to involve good food and wine, exploring and visiting a myriad of contexts and be with great people where we really got to address the fundamentals of life. Basically I am interested in meeting interesting people who are up for finding ways to create transformative change for sustainability.

@AnnasQuestions
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/anna-birney/30/713/65