DAVID IRELAND
Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland Business School (UQBS) and the Chief Innovation Officer at ThinkPlace
Awarded a Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership, 2018
What sort of work does your organisation do?
At UQ and at ThinkPlace, we work on addressing the challenges underpinning the sustainable development goals. These complex challenges pose serious threats to not only our quality of life, but to our continued existence. Developing new approaches to addressing these challenges, that bring together diverse stakeholders and a focus on the people at the centre of the challenge, is critical to designing and implementing solutions that are high impact and build intergenerational wealth and prosperity.
Describe a typical day's work.
My day includes working as a consultant to various clients anywhere around the world. Clients include research partners, governments, private sector, and the not-for-profit sector. My work takes me into the field where I help people build the capabilities and insights needed to address their challenges, in a way that works for them.
Please describe the project / research you undertook in the US as part of your Fulbright scholarship.
Every challenge facing humanity and our planet has a significant human component to its cause and solution. In my Fulbright program, I designed a series of methodologies that help us to better understand the nature of human behaviour. These insights dramatically improve our ability to not only discern why people behave like they do, but what we can do to incentivise them to behave differently. To do this, I spent time speaking and working with experts in the public, academic, and private sectors, and in fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, ecology, virology, complex systems, design, innovation, and venture capital.
What were you able achieve as a result / how did (or will) your organisation or community benefit?
We developed new methods that have already been applied in several projects. I’m also continuing to work up the methods into a ‘toolkit’ that I can share with practitioners globally. I also built a strong network of practitioners and academics that I am continuing to collaborate with to continue to develop the methods and apply to the project.
How did you come to be working in the not-for-profit sector?
I’ve been working in and with the NFP sector for over a decade. The organisations in the NFP sector I work with have clear purpose and directions and that align with my own values and priorities. The sector plays an important role in advocacy and action, and over time is improving how it engages with the private sector to build sustainable business models that can provide longevity to programs beyond NFP funding.
What do you feel is most needed to sustain and build the impact of the not-for-profit sector?
A continuing development in the business models the sector uses to deliver the impact that it wants and is expected of it. The sector can not continue to rely on donations alone to fund its important work, but must find a way to engage the private sector to not only support the work of the NFP sector, but to change their own practices to embody some of the purpose that the NFP sector does. The partnership can be powerful when designed well, but all too often they are seen as offering competing agendas. This does not have to be the case, and indeed our ability to address the sustainable development goals relies on our ability to build a bridge between the worlds of the NFP and private sectors.
What is something interesting / unique / unusual about you?
I don’t necessarily think I’m all that unusual, but people find it unusual that I don’t ‘work’ for anyone, but rather have several roles. I spend my time between several businesses (some are NFP) that I have either founded, sit on the board of, or work for. The variety gives me exposure to lots of new people and challenges and keeps me interested and engaged. It also lets me connect dots and people that, if I were working in a single domain, wouldn’t be able to happen.
Click here to read about other ASF scholars. Click here to read more about the Fulbright Professional Scholarship in Non-Profit Leadership.
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