Partnerships & Change Initiatives

What if we knew the root causes of all environmental problems? What if we knew their positive opposites?

Then we could use this knowledge to stop causing these problems in the first place.

RoundView is a toolkit for sustainability thinking and learning.
It gives a shared compass to navigate towards a positive future.
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It has enabled us to bring systems thinking into practical use across UK UNESCO sites.

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A powerful unifying theme that has broadened our horizons and our audience, and enabled us to join individual sites together.

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Very powerful solution narratives about the sources of environmental problems.

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From fragmentation to positive vision

- sustainability across boundaries

Local voices matter in any change initiative, yet project officers can feel daunted by the challenges of effectively engaging with communities, or worried that discussing climate and sustainability might increase eco-anxiety.

Funders ask for demonstration of how sustainability will be embedded in projects and programmes, this involves multiple organisations, communities, and stakeholder groups working across complex boundaries. Each partner has a strong interest in their patch; it can be hard to forge meaningful connections across silos.

RoundView gives a positive way to navigate this complexity.

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I found the RoundView process genuinely inspiring; it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless against the planet’s problems but I left feeling optimistic that change is possible for a positive future, and I really loved hearing people’s passion and ideas.

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- Wigan Youth Cabinet Member

A shared frame for the work ahead

With RoundView, we can design our systems so that nature and people thrive together. It has been proven to build hope, countering a message of doom about the future.

RoundView adds value to existing programmes, supporting partners to get out of silos. The result is better strategic decision-making and increased buy-in. Its simplicity means it can be applied and shared across boundaries.

The Carbon Landscape Programme in Greater Manchester used the framework as a sustained strategic tool and it contributed to securing a £3.2 million Heritage Lottery Funded project.

Carbon Landscape: Shared Vision Across a Post-Industrial Region

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Making it easy to run effective engagement

RoundView’s toolkit make it easy to integrate sustainability into projects and programmes, without requiring specialist expertise. Colourful puzzles reveal key principles through play and dialogue.

Someone with deep local knowledge can engage alongside a technical specialist, without either being talked down to or talked past. People can see that their actions add up to more than the sum of the parts.

Crucially, partners and communities start to see how their actions and work on their patch contribute to a larger systemic picture.

River Nith: A Participatory Model for Catchment Visioning

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Grounded in research and practice

RoundView is grounded in decades of research and development, from river basin planning with the Mersey Basin Campaign to a British Academy Innovation Fellowship with the UK National Commission for UNESCO. In this fellowship, RoundView was applied in multiple UNESCO-designated sites, including workshops with hundreds of participants along the River Nith in the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere.

What this can look like in practice

Strategy and visioning processes

RoundView is proven to prompting people to take a step back and ask meaningful questions.
It can be used in:

  • Initial planning, exploring long-term sustainability options and direction
  • Interpretation and analysis to support fund-writing
  • Supporting evaluation and reflection on proposals, plans, or initiatives already in motion

Each engagement with the RoundView builds skill and a habit of thinking of the bigger picture.

Multi-stakeholder engagement and community co-production

Engagement can include a range of options and levels:

  • Bringing a short engagement with RoundView into project meetings and planning workshops, as an icebreaker or quick reflection
  • Ensuring that all participants, project leaders and officers learn the framework and apply it within a partnership or change process

RoundView helps establish shared reference points, and supports partners and communities in feeling like genuine co-owners of the process.

Education and engagement

RoundView provides a great way to engage with local community groups and schools.
Options include:

  • Workshops in local schools
  • Pop-up events
  • Stand-alone stalls in community spaces such as libraries and cafes
  • Stalls at festivals and events

This provides a way to engage with diverse audiences, gathering ideas and feedback, whilst sharing the message about your project and how it fits in with sustainability.

Building RoundView into funding bids

Including RoundView in your programme or project funding bid demonstrates an innovative approach to embedding sustainability in your programme, as in the Carbon Landscape Programme. This can be through Heritage Lottery, research council, or other funding streams.

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