Transforming changemaking with Heather Lynch

I joined the Associate Programme in November 2019 after five years working in sustainability and international development at PwC. I wanted to move on from the corporate world and feel I was creating a more tangible impact. I loved both my placements - supporting Oddbox with its early impact work, and developing a Covid grant fund for charities with NatWest’s Social and Community Capital team.

After On Purpose, I spent three years at Oddbox leading on impact and sustainability as the company grew sixfold during Covid. Half of my role focused on embedding sustainability into the business, and the other half on furthering the mission to tackle food waste. This work led me into systems thinking and exploring how we could tackle food waste with a systems change approach. During a course with The School of Systems Change, one model shifted my whole outlook on change - the iceberg model, which showed that our mindsets, beliefs, values, and assumptions underpin all systemic problems and must shift for real and lasting change. It stuck with me that real systemic change starts from within.

At the same time, I was personally struggling - navigating the organisation through an existential crisis while grappling with my own climate anxiety, overwhelm, and grief. I felt this heavy weight of responsibility, the feeling I was never doing enough and the disillusionment and moral injury that can come with sustainability work. This led me to work with a therapist and coach and to deep dive into personal growth, mindfulness, and teachings on consciousness and inner transformation which helped me find ways to navigate the uncertainty and complexity of change work and to find more calm, compassion and confidence within myself.

This journey inspired me to retrain as a transformative coach and to study NLP, climate change coaching, and mindfulness and I’ve since been supporting changemakers to stay well and aligned in their work and create change in a way that feels both fulfilling and sustainable.

Becoming the Change

These experiences came together to form Becoming the Change - a movement for people who want to create meaningful and systemic change in a way that feels energising, fulfilling and easeful. It's a movement to empower people to create change in a different way - to show up with clarity, calm and courage and to have a better relationship with themselves, others and the times we're in.

If you'd like to hear more about Becoming the Change and workshops, programmes and resources coming up - you can join the mailing list. I also have a podcast and share content about this on LinkedIn.

I am doing talks and workshops with organisations and I'm very open to collaborations, so please reach out if you'd like to connect or hear more.