Agents of Change has Launched!

Agents of Change Cohort 2023 are welcomed by the team at Animate

What Are ‘Agents of Change’?

Young professionals often tell us they want to use their energy and passion to innovate and change their world for the better – whether that be a community, a workplace, a policy, or a way of doing things. They also tell us of their struggles to translate their passion and energy into meaningful change. Sometimes they don’t have the skills they need. It can be difficult to get older colleagues or community leaders to hear their ideas. They may lack the confidence or the necessary networks.

Launched in celebration of Animate’s 10th Anniversary, this programme exists to support young professionals (aged 25-35 years old) to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to more effectively influence positive change where they live and work.

We have co-produced this programme with a small group of young professionals and we look forward to reviewing and shaping the programme design and content with participants throughout the programme.

The Story of Agents of Change

This programme is the culmination of several years of imagining and talking both within Animate and with young professionals we have met through our work during this time. Our thinking has been shaped and influenced by them, resulting in the programme that is being offered. 

Our early conversations in Animate were about wanting to offer a learning programme for those interested in system-psychodynamic approaches to organisational change, integrating other key theoretical underpinnings to Animate’s work, such as Action Science, positive psychology, and Appreciative Inquiry. We initially talked about this in terms of Animate’s ‘legacy’, of wanting to pass something on that we know is useful, to provide a learning opportunity that isn’t easily available in Scotland. 

This immediately brought into view how much there is for us to learn from younger people, the next generation, about how they want to shape organisational life. To learn what the application of these tried and tested tools and models might offer to the future – used to develop communities and organisations in new ways.  

We worked with a small group of younger professionals to get our design this far and look forward to using the model of co-production with the participants who join us for the programme. To bring what Animate knows from the ‘past’ into a dynamic relationship with the ideas and aspirations that young professionals have for the future. 

We have engaged our long-time collaborator, Cathy Sharp at Research for Real, as a learning partner to the programme. She will support Animate, and the participants, to explore and learn from the experience, as much as the content. 

Finally, in support of our intention to assemble a diverse group of participants from across sectors, and in celebration of our 10th anniversary, Animate is sponsoring a £10k bursary fund for the programme.