Alan K Fowler helps people and organisations make change happen.
His work brings together more than 50 years of experience across government, business, IT, management consulting and organisational change.
Alan is the author and developer of D4: a philosophy, system and method for designing and delivering futures. D4 works from the future backwards, helping people and organisations define the outcome they want, recognise what success would look like in real life, and continuously find the most effective route to that future.
Designing and building futures with people and organisations
Alan’s career has been shaped by a long-standing interest in how people and organisations make things happen and the role played by concurrent and unforeseen events.
He has worked in central government and the Scottish Office, and as a management consulting in Ernst & Young and Isochron Ltd, across public services, corporations and companies and the third sector.
Across these roles, Alan has focused on purposeful change: not change for its own sake, but change that creates a recognisable future, the outcomes people want and qualitative and quantitative value.
The origins of D4
D4 grew out of Alan’s research and practical experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
While studying business processes and organisational systems, Alan became interested in how people manage concurrent events: the overlapping, interacting situations that happen in real organisations and real life.
This led to research into time, episodes, cause and effect, and the way future outcomes can be designed and delivered. From that work and from practical applications in industry over many years, Alan developed D4.
D4 is now used to help people and organisations achieve what they want through working from the future backwards, defining evidential outcomes, connecting those outcomes to enabling financial value, and responding timeously and intelligently when circumstances change.
What Alan brings
Alan’s work is distinctive because it combines depth, breadth and practical judgement.
He brings:
- more than 50 years of varied experience
- deep knowledge of business and IT change
- experience across public, private, academic and voluntary sectors
- a research-informed approach to change
- practical experience of major programmes and organisational transformation
- a strong interest in people, meaning, value and future outcomes
- techniques which help others think clearly about complex situations
Alan’s approach is not simply technical. It is human, interpretive and practical.
He is interested in what people are trying to make happen, why it matters, what would show that it had happened, and how the route towards that future can be constantly adapted to unexpected circumstances.
Current roles and affiliations
Alan is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
He is also an Associate of the Edinburgh Futures Institute at the University of Edinburgh, where he contributes industry experience to the design and delivery of futures.
These roles reflect Alan’s continuing interest in ideas, learning, public value, future thinking and practical change.
Writing and publications
Alan is co-author, with Dennis Lock, of Accelerating Business and IT Change, published by Gower in 2006.
He has also written and presented on business change, project acceleration, dynamic information systems, concurrency, episodes, benefits realisation and the management of change.
His work sits behind the development of D4 and reflects his long-standing interest in helping people and organisations connect intended outcomes with practical delivery.
Mentoring and D4
Alan now offers mentoring, presentations and training connected to D4 and making change happen.
His mentoring is for people and organisations who want an experienced thinking partner: someone who can listen, question, reflect, make connections to books, papers and people, and guide them towards the future they want to create.
This may involve personal development, career and organisational issues, project challenges, leadership decisions – or just satisfying curiosity about D4 and the sciences it involves.
Alan currently works pro bono because he is retired and wants to spread the D4 philosophy.
What others have said
Alan has been described by colleagues and clients as:
“an inspiration to work with”
“one of the most astute and deep thinking people I have met”
“one of those rare individuals with a truly innovative and insightful mind”
These descriptions reflect the combination that runs through Alan’s work: deep thought, practical usefulness, generosity of insight and a commitment to helping people and organisations move towards better futures.
Making Change Happen
Alan’s work is centred on a simple but demanding question:
What future are we trying to make happen?
That question sits at the heart of D4.
It is also the thread running through Alan’s career: helping people and organisations understand where they are, define where they want to be, and work backwards from the future to make change happen.