Wasan Session: Transforming hierarchical orgs through communities - lessons from the UN

How can communities create new possibilities in hierarchical organizations? In this Wasan session, Ruth Blackshaw from the UN Innovation Network, shares lessons learned from a decade of creating networks and other community-based approaches to systems change in the UN system. Ruth shares with us her emerging thinking on what’s needed to shift complex systems at scale. More about Ruth below.
Ruth Blackshaw
Ruth Blackshaw has been experimenting with community-based approaches to systems change in the UN for the last decade. She is currently leading the UN Innovation Network’s work on innovation culture, anchored in the Beyond Lab. Her experience initiating and then co-creating Young UN and other communities in this space has been formative, as have her multiple policy roles at UNAIDS and the European Commission. Ruth has a Masters in Sustainability Leadership, spotlighting bottom-up innovation in the public sector and employee-led movements on climate action. She is passionate about participatory ways of working, systems change and mountain sports, among other things.