Transform, Don’t Optimise: How Can A History Based Theory Of Change Power Radical Reinvention Of Investment Philosophy & Practice?

Transform, Don’t Optimise: How Can A History Based Theory Of Change Power Radical Reinvention Of Investment Philosophy & Practice?
Webinar

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In 2021 the Deep Transitions project set up the Deep Transitions Futures project and convened a global panel of influential investors. The panel and research team sought to formulate a new investment philosophy, informed by the Deep Transitions’ Theory of Change, that challenged investors to commit to worldbuilding through transformative investment, not system optimisation. A new approach to investment that accelerated the disruptive, fundamental and systemic changes required to avoid ecological, societal and planetary disaster.

The resulting Transformative Investment philosophy and action-oriented principles are designed to catalyse fresh thinking, dialogue and decision making that aids investors in achieving systems change. While the principles focus primarily on the role of investors, they are also relevant to other public actors, who can benefit from embedding these 12 principles in their research, analytical and decision-making processes.

Dr Wendy Schultz & Victoria Ward from Jigsaw Foresight were asked to design and facilitate the year long global Investor Panel process, contribute to the generation of the philosophy, and now continue as partners in the Deep Transitions Lab, the next phase of the project. In this webinar they will share extracts from the Transformative Investment Philosophy, provide insights into the huge importance, relevance and future of this project, and observations about the challenges and opportunities in such a ground-breaking collaborative process.

Speakers:

Victoria Ward has worked at the forward edge of organisational change, narrative at work, and knowledge management for over 25 years. With a background in finance, she has held roles such as head of research, chief operating officer, chief knowledge officer, and has done terms on the FTSE 100 Index Steering Committee, the Board of LIFFE and the Financial Services Tribunal. Her role in directing and contributing to projects is to bring strategic storytelling, transformation, knowledge management and collaboration, design and facilitation of participatory processes. Her work aims to empower individuals, groups and organisations, to build momentum, meaning and coalitions for change.

Since 2019 two particular themes are her focus: reconfiguring the collaborative workplace - what is the next normal of work, the future of knowledge working, evolving human/machine, human/nature relationships within and beyond the workplace; and, the conditions which are needed for effective decision-making, in terms of leadership qualities, and in response to accelerating digital change.

Victoria has a degree from Cambridge University in Modern and Mediaeval Languages, a post-graduate certificate from the Tavistock Institute in Working Groups, and is an accredited coach.

Dr Wendy Schultz is an internationally renowned futurist with over 40 years of global foresight practice. She has designed futures research projects for NGOs, government agencies, and businesses, recently completed four global scenarios and multiple regional scenarios on the futures of research and innovation in a post-COVID world, and a report into the ethics of the emerging bio age.

Wendy specialises in participatory futures workshops – most recently for the Deep Transitions Futures project, Chatham House, the Law Society UK, and the ILO. Other examples include face-to-face workshops offering foresight training in Kuala Lumpur; at A Temporary Futures Institute at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp; for Africa Knows in Arusha, Tanzania; with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Bangkok, New York, and Geneva; and in Budapest for Vodafone.

She holds a Masters and PHD in Futures Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, having worked as a researcher at the Hawai’i Research Center for Futures Studies. She is on the faculty of the Masters program in Strategic Foresight at the University of Houston, is a Senior Fellow of the Center for Postnormal Policy and Futures Studies, a Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation, a Fellow of the Geneva Center for Security Policy, and a member and former Board member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Date
Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Time
11:00 - 11:45 BST

Cost
Free