learningforsustainability.net |
My work is designed to help people collaborate and innovate. As an independent consultant and action researcher I work to design and facilitate processes that support collaboration and decision making in three major areas:
- Designing and managing multi-stakeholder processes
- Strategy assessment, planning and evaluation
- Leadership in the theory and practice of collaboration
- Mentoring managers and practitioners in the above areas
In addition to my involvement in convening and facilitating collaborative processes, I also work to promote the use of collaborative decision-making. I lecture and have published numerous articles on the management of collective processes as refereed journal articles, book chapters and policy reports. References to my recent publications, with links to on-line copies in many cases, can be found here.
Another related initiative is my management of this Learning for Sustainability website as a portal that deals with the intersection of social learning and sustainable development. In particular this site attempts to link people and information that spans the health, environmental and development sectors. More recently I have initiated the sparksforchange blog which has been created as a way to educate myself, and hopefully others, about the many ideas and people out there that are making a positive difference for social change.
This site was originally developed as part of my PhD study undertaken through the Institute of Development Studies at Massey University. This certainly provided the opportunity to bring together information from the range of community-based processes required for effective information sharing and collaborative management and planning. The site began as NRM-changelinks (1998-2006) and is being maintained as Learning for Sustainability. The resulting site structure (see the index on the left) has come out of my own paid and unpaid work experiences in different community sectors (including local, national and international NGOs, commercial farming, government agencies, the United Nations, and research organisations). This experience includes regional experience with participatory approaches in Australasia, East Africa and the Pacific.
An on-line copy of my dissertation can be found at: Allen, W.J. (2001) Working together for environmental management: the role of information sharing and collaborative learning. PhD (Development Studies), Massey University.
I can be contacted directly through this site by using the site feedback form, or through
New blog post on designing more resilient systems 
