The Impact Assembly
PwC’s The Impact Assembly is a social venture designed to enable collaboration for social change.
To solve the most complex problems in Australian society, we believe collaboration is fundamental.
By bringing together people with different life experiences, diverse skills, knowledge and perspectives we can combine insights to unlock intractable social issues.
This isn’t something that happens naturally or easily. It takes commitment, skill and resource for diverse groups of people to work together effectively towards shared social outcomes. Our customised design and facilitation process enables people to learn and work differently together, creating opportunities that may never have been realised without this facilitation.
PwC’s The Impact Assembly (TIA) works with not for profits, philanthropists, communities, and collectives of organisations across sectors to drive systemic change on big challenges and opportunities in our society. We do this by designing and facilitating collective leadership on social issues, including face-to-face events with groups and longer term collaborative efforts with large networks.
The Impact Assembly draws on the latest methods in design thinking, systems change, social labs, human-centred design and collective impact.
At the core of TIA’s approach is the MG Taylor method for collaborative problem solving, which has been tried and tested for over 40 years.
How we work
Solving complex social issues requires a unique way of working. The Impact Assembly operates under a few core principles:
We assemble the right people, with the right skills, at the right time
We take time to understand the context before we act, scoping a clear strategic frame
We respect the wisdom and insights of people with lived experience of any issue in focus
We learn together, navigating ambiguous problem spaces and respond to new information
We are neutral facilitators, supporting diverse groups to align on what they are trying to achieve and develop a shared strategy
We drive action, helping diverse groups sustain momentum towards outcomes and stay connected over time
Take a look at our work.
MS Research Australia
MS Research Australia asked The Impact Assembly to help solve this question: How do we work collectively to stop and reverse MS in the next 10 years?
The Impact Assembly aimed to bring together over 60 people across a fragmented ecosystem, including people affected by MS, researchers, clinicians, MS Research Australia, federated state service organisations, philanthropy and government, to align on a common purpose: to stop the diagnosis and progression of MS, and reverse its impact for people living with MS in Australia.
The Obesity Collective
The Obesity Collective is a strong and growing network of over 100 people from organisations across sectors convened by Obesity Australia. The Impact Assembly took the group beyond traditional organisational boundaries and helped them to imagine a new way of operating across sectors. Getting the group to this point took 2-3 years of hard work. Incubating this collective approach involved supporting the group to define their shared purpose and strategy, work together effectively, and rise above business as usual to align efforts and resources.
The Constellation Project
All Australians deserve access to a safe, affordable and secure place to call home. This is why The Constellation Project is collaborating across sectors with a vision to end homelessness in a generation. The Constellation Project is a network of organisations and individuals, founded by the Australian Red Cross, the Centre for Social Impact, Mission Australia, and PwC Australia. The Impact Assembly is at the core, helping to support and drive the efforts of the network, enable effective collaboration and cultivate a new way of working.
