Designing Interventions
The act of designing systems interventions requires constant attention. It is a process of evolution not one of control.
Author: Heart of the Art
Heart of the Art was launched by John Atkinson and Emma Loftus in 2014, We've grown into more than we ever could imagine. A place to explore what it means to really make meaningful change, in a world that is messy, complex, and beautifully human.
A Living Systems Mindset
An organisation consists of people, interacting with each other and the environment in which they operate. This is a living system, people are alive and so is much of the world in which they live.
Dialoguing at scale – reflecting on experience
John Atkinson, David Nabarro, Florence Lasbennes, Charlotte Dufour 07 May 2025 More than 1,600 multi-stakeholder dialogues were convened in preparation for the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021. These dialogues helped facilitate inclusive explorations
Navigating difference
By John Atkinson and David Nabarro Leadership requires the capacity to navigate difference. Good leaders help groups of people achieve greater impact through enabling them to make sense of their different perspectives. This is vital if
Curiouser and curiouser? Alice in Wonderland
By John Atkinson Consultants do love their models. They’re seductive. LinkedIn is an endless stream of people showcasing some framework that offers the world an answer. The egotistical even put their names to them. I
Your call really matters
integrity matters, in all senses of the word. Look at things in the whole and spot the patterns. Are these helping or hindering your operation? What gives rise to them? Integrity requires saying what you
Connection or Connector
Healthy systems are beautifully connected.Some are conscious like running or jumping, some are autonomic like breathing or heartbeats.
Stepping Across A Threshold
When business environments change, businesses must change or become irrelevant. There’s plenty of good case examples of those that have done this successfully and those that have not.
Fail fast or zero defects?
The North Atlantic Gannet is a seabird that mates for life. Each season they have one egg, one chick. The chick takes 4-5 years to reach maturity. It’s a zero defect policy. The energy involved
Learning from Covid-19 – leadership for the 21st Century
The perspective someone uses when viewing the pandemic has a major influence on what they are prepared to act on, and how they will act.
Accompanying the waves of change
The real work is not in describing either the current world or a new one. It is in accompanying those who are trying to change in this current one. This is the second horizon or
Encouraging Systems Change
It isn’t that reports, policies, pilots and outcomes are bad things. It is that systems change doesn’t occur by focusing on these things in isolation.
Go with the flow
Do you go with the flow or stand in its face? When the currents of opinion and action are too strong, to stand alone in their face is to be swept away. If you build
Living Systems Leadership
For this reason I rejected the notion of a competence model of leadership. When head of a national leadership centre my refusal to adopt such a model or necessarily comply with others’ models drew sharp