Introducing ShiftFlow: Innovation for a better future
From bureaucratic indifference to life-affirming solutions
Today, I am excited to launch ShiftFlow, a cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary innovation and design agency. This organization seeks to tackle the persistent and interconnected issues facing our world, institutions, and communities by promoting collaboration, inclusivity, and human-centred design.
If you are reading this, I am sure you have recognized the persistence of significant issues in our world. Like me, I am sure you have felt called to do something about it; to leave the world better than you found it. If this is true, I am confident that once you started pulling on the thread of these issues, you quickly realized how tangled and interconnected everything is.
This experience introduced me to this concept of wicked problems. I wanted to learn more about this interconnection about the challenges and issues that are facing our world and our organizations and see how I might be able to contribute to solving them and just making life better for everyone. This has always been a dream of mine (thank you, punk rock and hip-hop!).
With a background in social movements and organizational studies, I have spent my career studying how individuals and organizations can shape societies and communities and vice versa. I am infinitely curious about these dynamics.
During my time in executive roles in the social and cultural sectors, I became acutely aware of bureaucratic indifference in the face of these intractable problems. In 2012, I was given the opportunity to design and lead the NB Social Policy Research Network, which aimed to advance citizen engagement and evidence-based policymaking through networked governance. This experience taught me a lot about collaboration and innovation in government, leading to my next role as the first Executive Director of Open Government and Innovation.
“We don’t want you to conform to our culture. We want you to help change it”. That was the advice I received from a Deputy in my first few months at the Government of New Brunswick (GNB), with one staff and a shoestring budget. While this was encouraging, materially, you could say I was a pet Sisyphus. With the help of some incredible leaders and civil servants, I managed to bootstrap something pretty special. I learned a lot in my effort to introduce innovation and human centred-design in government. I want ShiftFlow to be the resource I needed to get even more accomplished in my mission.
One thing is clear: how we work in most organizations will not truly address our toughest challenges. This is especially true for government but across all sectors. Anybody who has worked in or accessed services from a bank, an insurance company, or a telecom would have experienced bureaucratic indifference. At best, it’s inconvenient to deal with, but at worst, it’s harmful. Wicked problems will persist until we learn to organize more collaboratively, inclusively, and human-centred.
Our consultancy will help organizations become more human-centred, adaptive, and sustainable, ultimately shifting from bureaucratic indifference to life-affirming. We understand that every organization is grappling with huge systems shifts and responding with various transformation initiatives. However, most are struggling to achieve novel outcomes through traditional means. ShiftFlow will strengthen our clients’ abilities to adapt and evolve long after we’ve moved on, offering consulting services and training programs tailored to each client’s needs.
If you are a shift disturber who wants to make a positive impact, I invite you to reach out to us. We are always looking to grow our network and help organizations shift towards a better future.
