Ian Burbidge

Helping design systems for change. Ian is a strategy and systems change practitioner with over 20 years experience supporting organisations, communities and individuals to respond effectively to the challenges they face. He combines ideas from different disciplines and perspectives and develops original concepts that surface insights on long-standing and emerging issues, and he works collaboratively to test them out in practice. Ian believes that today's problems and challenges can’t be solved by the systems, processes and ways of organising that helped create them. Society (particularly in the West) has prioritised the individual over the collective, humankind over nature, efficiency over effectiveness and richer places over poorer ones. This has compounded structural and geographical inequality locally, nationally and globally. New ways of thinking about and acting in the world are required if we are to leave it fit for future generations. There is no choice but to do things differently and Ian’s work is in this experimental and system-challenging intersection of the outdated and the possible.Most recently Head of Innovation and Change at the RSA, Ian’s research explored the art of change, including the adoption and spread of ideas and practice, new forms of organisational structure and practice, approaches to working in complexity and across systems, and the psychology of change. His research has been published in reports and journals and shared via workshops and masterclasses. Ian led the design and application of the RSA's approach to social change, its integration into RSA systems and processes, and the development of a knowledge commons to share learning. He designed and tested elements of the approach in the delivery of grant-funded and consultancy projects that helped clients address critical challenges. Ian’s previous work in Local Government was at the intersection of policy, partnership and community. He ran the council’s innovation lab, convening multi-agency work to develop and test interventions across health, education, housing, criminal justice and social services. He led on strategy, third sector investment, governance and performance management. During the 2000s Local Government Review he led work to develop a proposal the Boundary Committee ultimately recommended to the Secretary of State.Ian holds a Masters in Behavioural Science from the London School of Economics, a BSc in Human and Physical Geography and an Executive Diploma in Management. He writes on the curiosities of the generalist at www.ianburbidge.com