Rob Cousins on Navigating Complexity in life and cofounding Open Change

Feb 12, 2024

Change is a certainty in life, but how will you cope with it?  I enjoyed talking with Rob Cousins about the venture he cofounded called Open Change.  As usual we start with his childhood and then hear about his life journey and what led him to Aotearoa New Zealand what he does today. The podcast aims to get at the underlying stories of what has shaped people into who they are becoming and is a deeper glimpse into a life than we normally get.  

We then talk about the complex and entangled challenges that are all around us - how do you approach them?  The website of Open Change described the issue like this: "Change used to be done to people. This was convenient for change-makers, but it was rarely successful, or sustainable, and tended to be rolled out to more or less unwilling consumers.  Nowadays, knowledge and power is dispersed among many actors and institutions. No-one controls anything anymore, but everyone influences everything." 

Open Change website: The Team — Open Change

New Power book review that was mentioned https://seeds.libsyn.com/new-power-book-review 

A shout out to the connector of people, Freda Wells, who joined the dots for this conversation to happen.  Check out her project The Kiwi Diary which is a great resource https://www.thekiwidiary.co.nz 

Also to DK who hosted a conversation with Rob Cousins and Michelle Kitney for the great series, Creative Welly Episode #32, which the image is taken from - that is over here https://www.creativewelly.com/creative-welly-episode-32-michelle-kitney-rob-cousins/   

For more interviews visit www.theseeds.nz