Supporting shared purpose, reflection and adaptive practice in complex multi-actor settings
I work with individuals, teams and multi-actor groups on complex sustainability and change initiatives, helping them clarify direction, strengthen learning, and communicate their work clearly.
My work is strongly participatory. I bring a facilitative and coaching approach into research, evaluation, advisory and writing roles, helping people develop their own thinking, judgement and confidence as the work progresses.
I am an independent systems scientist, evaluator, facilitator and writer with more than 30 years’ experience across sustainable development, natural resource management, climate adaptation, biodiversity, freshwater and collaborative governance. I support people working where research, policy, communities, practice, and Indigenous and Western knowledge need to meet.
I am most useful in focused roles where an experienced external perspective can help a team or partnership frame the work, review its thinking, strengthen a strategy, shape a learning process, or make complex work easier to follow.
I also develop and curate the Learning for Sustainability website, now in its twentieth year. It began as the outline for my PhD and has become a working manual and public bookmarks bar, connecting people with tools, frameworks and annotated links on systems thinking, evaluation, collaboration, co-design and adaptation.
How I work
My approach is grounded in participatory practice, systems thinking and reflective learning. I work alongside people to help make assumptions and context visible, support shared sense-making, use evidence well, and design learning processes that inform action over time.
I often work behind the scenes with project teams, researchers, evaluators, facilitators, governance groups and programme leads. The role might be to ask better questions, help structure a process, or turn complex ideas into clearer writing.
I now focus mainly on short advisory, design, review, writing or reflection phases, especially where initiatives are getting started, reframing their direction, or navigating challenging terrain. This includes place-based collaborations, cross-agency partnerships, research teams, and programmes working at the intersections of climate adaptation, biodiversity, freshwater, food systems and community change.
For me, what matters is less the name of a methodology and more what it enables people to do together: clarify direction, reflect honestly, make defensible judgements, and adapt constructively.
Selected ways I can help
I am open to small, well-aligned pieces of work, including:
- advisory input or critical friend roles
- mentoring and reflective coaching
- contributing to evaluation, learning or review teams
- Theory of Change, MEL design and indicator development
- facilitation design and participatory process support
- review and synthesis of evidence, reports or programme thinking
- writing support for papers, reports, proposals and practice resources
- support for research collaborations, learning agendas and adaptive governance
I work independently under the name Will Allen & Associates, and also in partnership with others. Where helpful, I am happy to introduce colleagues, share connections or point to people doing aligned work.
Background
Before launching my consultancy in 2010, I led the Collaborative Learning for Environmental Management group at Landcare Research, where I helped embed participatory evaluation, systems thinking and collaborative learning into national programmes. Earlier roles in agricultural extension, journalism and public affairs gave me a grounding in communication, public engagement and work at the science-policy-practice interface.
Over the years I have worked with NGOs, government agencies, research organisations and UN bodies across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally, including in East Africa and the Pacific. My experience spans co-governance models, strategic planning initiatives and multi-agency partnerships in areas ranging from freshwater and biodiversity to climate adaptation, food systems and One Health.
This experience means I am comfortable supporting projects locally and internationally, in person or online.
Explore more
- Services and support – Selected ways I can support organisations and teams through short advisory, facilitation, evaluation, writing and reflective practice roles.
- Skills portfolio – Selected contributions from my work in facilitation, evaluation, co‑design and systems practice, showing how I support collaboration and learning in complex settings.
- Publications: journals and book chapters – Selected peer‑reviewed papers and book chapters that share insights from my work.
- Publications: reviewed reports – Major reports and grey literature produced in collaboration with clients and partners.
- Colleagues and collaborators – People I often work with, drawn from a wide network of thoughtful peers and collaborators.
Get in touch
I am open to focused pieces of work where my experience in systems thinking, facilitation, evaluation, writing and collaborative learning can be useful.
Contact me to start the conversation.