The
Intervention
Bureau
Founder of
The Intervention Bureau
Hey there,
I'm Lily Higgins
My modus operandi
From North Carolina, USA to Rotterdam, NL; from art school, straight into entrepreneurship in the world of organisational change - I have been known to take the unconventional path in life.
Now, I invite brave organisations to do the same. I see life & work as play and am constantly re-imagining how to bend the rules. I'm at the forefront of new ways of working, that center collaboration, transparency, and agency instead of the command and control culture of work that is making us sick. We made up this game, and therefore we can change it.
I started The Intervention Bureau because I was tired of seeing the potential of workshops and gatherings squandered by poor facilitation and non-existent experience design. There had to be better ways to gather and work together - and there are are!
In my practice, facilitation is an act of care for the collective. A force-field around a group of people that invites new ways of being, thinking, relating, organising, and creating to emerge. I love designing experiences that gently and playfully shake people free of the status quo and invoke wonder, clarity, and expansiveness.
I facilitate workshops and experiences that creative a container for collective change & transformation. Change requires engagement, motivation, and coming together to become greater than the sum of our parts. That's the magic of facilitation.
I help groups connect to their intrinsic motivation and purpose at work. To see the big picture and the 'why'. To 'find the fun', to work with intention, to do the things that matter, and leave the rest.
Our time on Earth is nothing more than a collection of experiences. So, what will you do with (and how will you design) your one wild and precious life?
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Lily's more "serious" bio:
← CV & recent updates
Lily Higgins is a team-development facilitator, learning experience designer, and social innovation strategist. She runs The Intervention Bureau- a facilitation consultancy that helps mission-driven organisations navigate change by fostering more human(e), engaging, and innovative cultures.
Born in North Carolina, USA, she moved to Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 2013 to obtain a degree in Social Design & Gamification from Willem de Kooning Art Academy. Since then, she has worked in Brazil, the US, the UAE, the UK, and all over Europe with clients such as Spotify, Warner Brothers Discovery, and the Dubai Future Academy - as well as Dutch clients like Rituals, DSM, and the Architectuur Intstituut Rotterdam.
Lily is passionate about facilitating groups to become greater than the sum of their parts, so that they can more effectively solve our generation's most important challenges - and have fun doing it.
She lives in Rotterdam with her husband and her cat, Lentil, and is happiest while hiking in the alps, doing improv theatre, and hosting playful gatherings for her community.
☕️
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)
FUTURE WILLOWS • training bureau for policy makers (NL)
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:
Delicate Cycle was my graduation project at my visual arts conservatory high school, UNCSA.
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.