Navigating Complex Sustainability Challenges Through Systems Thinking and Collective Action
Independent advisory for organisations seeking to resolve multi-stakeholder barriers to climate & sustainability, and build leadership for lasting change
Our approach
Systems thinking without the reports
We map complex stakeholder ecosystems and identify where invisible barriers exist. But we don't stop there. We facilitate the collective decision-making needed to actually resolve those barriers, working across organisations that may even be competitors.
Practical wisdom for difficult trade-offs
Drawing from philosophical concepts like phronesis (practical wisdom), we help stakeholders navigate genuine tensions and trade-offs in sustainability decisions. Not by forcing false compromises, but by creating space for thoughtful collective judgment.
Independence as a strategic asset
Our independence allows us to hold space for difficult conversations across stakeholders with competing interests. We maintain neutrality not through distance, but through clear process commitments, transparent funding arrangements, and no commercial stake in outcomes.
Implementation through action learning
We don't deliver recommendations and leave. We stay through implementation, facilitating action learning cycles where stakeholders plan, act, observe, and reflect together - adapting as they encounter real-world challenges.
Our Services
Systems Change & Decision Brokering
For multi-stakeholder sustainability challenges where traditional consulting falls short.
We help organisations map complex systems, identify invisible barriers, and facilitate the collective decisions needed to create real change. From discovery workshops to sustained implementation.
Leadership & Governance Advisory
For executives, boards, and teams building sustainability leadership capability.
Executive coaching, ethics advisory, governance integration, and group learning programs that develop the strategic thinking and influence needed to drive organisational transformation.
Systems Change & Decision Brokering
For multi-stakeholder sustainability challenges
Many sustainability barriers exist because actors upstream don't realise they're creating problems downstream. Individual organisations see the barrier but can't solve it alone.
We help map these invisible barriers, articulate the opportunities if they were resolved, and facilitate the collective decision-making needed to create change.
What this looks like:
Discovery & Mapping
Workshops to map systems and identify barriers
Stakeholder interviews and analysis
Opportunity articulation
Decision Facilitation
Multi-stakeholder decision-making sessions
Ethical frameworks for navigating trade-offs
Governance structure design
Implementation with Action Learning
Sustained facilitation through implementation
Plan → Act → Observe → Reflect cycles
Adaptive adjustment based on real-world feedback
Engagement options
Single discovery workshop
Systems mapping projects (6-10 weeks)
Full transformation engagements (12-18 months)
Funding Models
Co-funded by stakeholders
Single convenor with invited participants
Third-party funding (impact investors, government, philanthropy)
Examples applications
Financial institutions + technology providers resolving barriers to sustainable technology adoption
Retailers + banks + insurers creating integrated climate solutions
Industry associations orchestrating collective action across members
Leadership, Strategy & Embedment
For executives, boards, and organisations building sustainability capability
Individual and group programs that develop the strategic thinking, ethical frameworks, and influence needed to drive sustainability transformation.
Services include:
Strategy
Drawing upon traditional and systems approaches to strategies, including theory of change, to drive targeted and measurable outcomes
Embedment
Purpose & values, governance, and culture framework design. Culture change programs ensure embedment across your organisation or system.
Ethics Advisory
Board-level ethics advisory, ethical decision-making frameworks, and embedment
Executive Coaching
One-to-one strategic coaching for senior leaders navigating complex sustainability challenges
Leadership
Peer learning circles, implementation cohorts, and masterclasses for leaders
Monitoring & Evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and assessing impacts and outcomes of strategies and program
Our Executive Director
Victoria Whitaker is the Executive Director of Eleven Degrees. She helps organisations navigate sustainability challenges that can't be solved by any single actor.
After over 20 years in sustainability, governance, and ethics, including as a Big Four partner, she recognises that most consultants map problems and leave. Nobody facilitates the collective decisions needed to actually change systems.
That's our focus: identifying invisible barriers, then facilitating the multi-stakeholder decision-making to resolve them. We bring systems thinking, ethical frameworks, and action learning to help stakeholders navigate genuine tensions and adapt through implementation.
Our independence allows us to broker decisions across organisations with competing interests. We don't benefit from any particular outcome, just from the integrity of the process.
Get in touch
What to expect: In our initial conversation, we'll explore your challenge, discuss whether my approach might be valuable, and determine potential next steps. There's no charge for this exploratory discussion.