The
Intervention
Bureau
Founder of
The Intervention Bureau
Hey there,
I'm Lily Higgins.
☕️
You can always interest me in a conversation about:
Designing for belonging, systemic wellbeing & burnout prevention, intrinsic motivation, self-organising teams, stewardship orgs, communal housing, urban games & city-making, walking as a creative act, immersive (theatre) experiences, practical philosophy, your latest crazy idea...
As heard on... 🎙
Ranked #1 episode
of all time 2022-2023
Better together.
I work with a network of amazing collaborators to bring larger projects to life. Depending on the brief, I pull together the perfect team to tackle your challenge. Here are some super cool facilitators I work with more frequently:
Current & past partners 🤝
I work closely with many agencies & consultancies all over the world as a strategic facilitation & learning/innovation partner:
THE SIX • strategy & innovation consultancy (USA)
THE FUTURE KIND • org culture consultancy (UK)
WONDER • employee experience design (SE)
REALUTOPIA • systemic innovation & degrowth strategy (DE)
PLAYSPACE • gamification & game design studio (NL)
ALICE DARBYSHIRE • leadership & gender equity consultant (UK)
BUREAU TW!ST • culture & conflict facilitation (NL)
CHANGEIST • strategic foresight consultancy (ES)
ABRACADEMY • team culture & training bureau (UK)
ZEEWAARDIG • social service design agency (NL)
I'm also a Change Agent with Disrupt Development, the world's first post-growth change agency in global development. I work with the international Disrupt network on larger-scale change projects in the social development sector.
The path that lead me here.
The most common question I get asked is how I ended up doing what I do now.
Part of the answer is that I've always been "facilitating" ;)
Lily, age 10:
This is a plan for a weekend-long party I would throw every year for my friends.
Complete with Gathering Rules, co-creating our activities, and voting on the 'good ideas'.
When I was 16, I started creating immersive experiences:
This was my graduation project at my visual arts high school, called Delicate Cycle.
It was a self-portrait of my tumultuous inner world (I felt like I was in a washing machine) as I faced the uncertainty of moving to The Netherlands for university.
In an empty office room at school, I transformed my own feelings of anxiety into a cozy and meditative space for others to take refuge in.
Other life experiences that have shaped me:
"We are a landscape of all we have seen."
- ISAMU NOGUCHI, SCULPTOR
TIMELINE OF SOME NOTABLE LIFE EVENTS 1995 - Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA. Grew up with a landline, playing with friends outside in my neighborhood, limited cable TV. AGE 6: Attended a Spanish-immersion elementary school. Became fluent by age 7. AGE 9: Attended a Quaker elementary & middle school. Was shaped by experience-based learning and a tight-knit community. AGE 16: Attended a fine arts conservatory boarding school (UNCSA) for last two years of high school. Honed my creative skills. AGE 18: Moved to Rotterdam, The Netherlands to study Lifestyle Design at the Willem de Kooning Academy. AGE 20: Moved to Curitiba, Brazil to intern at a social impact NGO and participated in a life-changing youth leadership development program. Discovered the magic of facilitation. AGE 21: Discovered the study of applied play and gamification and decided to minor in it. AGE 22: Graduated from Willem de Kooning Academy with the thesis: "FUTURE FLEX- A PLAY BASED APPROACH TO ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE IN THE AGE OF UNCERTAINTY" based on Theory U. Age 23: Registered myself as a company in order to get an entrepreneurship visa to stay in The Netherlands. Had no idea what I was doing. Somehow got my first major Design Thinking project for a big Dutch corporate. Age 25: COVID hit. Learned how to facilitate online and the world opened up to me. AGE 26: Officially named and launched The Intervention Bureau. Also, got married :) AGE 27: Broke my ankle in a serious climbing accident. Had to learn how to walk again over the period of 7 months. Started learning improv theatre (on crutches) AGE 28: Quarter-life crisis year about how to make a positive impact in the world with my work. AGE 29 (now): Climbed mountains in the alps 2 years after my accident. The mission of my company is slowly crystallising. Will keep you updated!
Let's shape your next project together.