Andrew Harrison is an international consultant, adviser and facilitator with 30+ years' experience of work at the edge in most organisational sectors. Expert in partnership working, systems' design and development, economic development, urban regeneration, organisational design and governance, innovation, social movements. Experienced as facilitator, evaluator, strategic adviser, executive coach; uses collaborative working practices (such as co-design), public narrative, service personalisation and integration, customer experience mapping. Andrew studied literature at university for his first degree, and has always written about the work he does; but this interest crystalised into more sustained pieces of writing around 2008/9 when several papers were accepted for international conferences on organisations and their dynamics. A longtime admirer of essayists like Adam Phillips, Andrew decided to develop a form of book which was an inquiry into a topic - closer in its guiding principles to an exhibition than an argument. The style of these books is conjectural and aphoristic, reaching for the feel of a conversation in that it provokes thought, rather than a polemic that seeks to persuade. The first of these was Intimate Innovation, which explores the contention that the ways that we relate are the dna of innovation. This led directly to an interest in governance, prompted by the question, 'what would a governance system be like if its purpose was to foster the conditions for innovation?' Inquiry into this, has prompted further research and conjecture about platform enterprises and the role of governance systems in helping groups of people arrive at a shared view of what is good. He has other books on the 'drawing board', with similar formal characteristics, but concerned with leadership, entrepreneurship and design. He makes sculpture, sails when he can, and would like to be able play the saxophone in ways which held an audience. He is married to Sarah Sutton, psychotherapist and author of Being taken in: the framing relationship (Karnac, 2014). They co-direct the learning studio from Birmingham, UK.
