Overview

WIGS is short for Worldwide International Global Solutions, Our name is a parody of the overweening confidence we sometimes see in superficial or disconnected ‘solutions’ that do nothing to alter the fundamental problems we face. We have worked in transforming public services for the past 15 years, supporting some of the most radical programmes of system redesign and change, but presented with the complexity of the challenges we face today as a global society, our confidence in the ability of existing processes of change has waned. We have seen how the forces that shape our world so often overpower or limit the best intentions of even the most committed campaigners, organisers and institutions. The result is a widespread belief, that beyond narrow boundaries, there is no alternative. In our collective public imagination, there is now a reluctance to propose genuine alternatives, and in its place a cautious ‘realism’ that maintains a disappointing status quo. We face a situation where a lack of imagination and alternatives is critically limiting the ability of all of us to act for positive change. We formed WIGS to create a platform for people, within communities, from across sectors and different areas of interest and expertise, to explore how we might forge a different process of change, one that starts with people, places and the imagination they collectively hold for bigger, better, different lives.