👋 We’re a not-for-profit worker co-op of strategists, innovators, and facilitators. We design and deliver strategies and tactics to untangle your organisational spaghetti by working hand-in-hand with you and your team, helping everyone learn where to intervene in complex systems.
We’ve partnered with plenty of companies, charities, and non-profits that you (and perhaps more importantly, your boss) have heard of. Here’s a few of them:
We don’t just think outside the box; we shred it (and then recycle it, obviously). Our services include consultancy, workshops and training, project and product management, research and development, community building, and everything in between.
We thrive on working with purpose-driven organisations that value environmental sustainability, social responsibility, equality, and human rights. Based in the UK and Germany, we believe in making things better, together.
We do lots of different things. We serve as critical friends, fractional leaders, innovators, storytellers and community builders. Other words you might use for what we do: Digital Strategy development, Thought Leadership, Collaboration, Co-creation, Empowerment, Strategy, Concept Architecture, Programme design, Convening systems.
We believe in community and collaboration and work to cultivate a culture of care. We believe in open principles and use our expertise in community building and storytelling to help people find agency and empowerment. If we're going to build a better world, we have to do it together.
Yes, our members have been involved in Open Badges since the very beginning. We are experts in education, digital credentialing and recognition. We believe that badges aren't just a way to recognise growth and development, they play an important role in the future of identity.
Sail the high seas of synergy with us. We’re a collective of open, independent thinkers and makers who have been around the block. We make sense of complex problems while spreading the benefits of open. This is us:
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Doug Belshaw is a specialist in digital literacies and new forms of accreditation such as Open Badges. He likes to help people become more productive in their use of technology. He’s a doctor, but not the type that can help you with an emergency tracheotomy!
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Laura Hilliger is a creative champion for communities. Her mind baffles us. She builds, writes, sees big pictures. She thinks she’s funny (she is), dislikes juggling and knows that collective action is a powerful tool for a better world.
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John Bevan connects people for the common good. He’s devised and run open innovation programmes for a host of household names, helping them to break silos both within and between organisations. He describes himself as ‘the human embodiment of a Chinese military shovel’
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Anne Hilliger is a cooperator at WAO. She likes to rethink how we teach and learn and is eagerly creating new learning paths and educational materials. Anne has a certification in media design, a degree in cultural and media education and is passionate about feminist research and gender studies.
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Bryan Mathers creates pictures to explore and engage others in ideas, concepts and messages. He draws everything from avocados to zany figures. His mind can turn words into pictures that inspire more words.
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Hannah Belshaw was WAO’s Company Secretary for the first five-and-a-bit years of our existence. She also collaborates with us on various projects after a career change from experienced teacher to UX researcher.
We work openly and write about projects, principles and ideas to help spread the benefits and culture of openness.
Our Learn with WAO site has openly licensed tools, templates, resources, how-tos, courses and more.
Our wiki has a wealth of information about how we work, our clients, how our co-op rolls, how we run projects, our FAQs.
We are organised around International Cooperative Alliance principles and are, thusly, a co-op member of co-ops.
A podcast about the intersection of technology, society, and internet culture – with a dash of philosophy and art for good measure.
We have ebooks and random longer-form guides, stickers and more that we need to put in a cool new shop!
Think we might be able to help you and your organisation? Get in touch to schedule a free 30-min chat about where you’re at.
