Profile

David Robinson is co-chair of our board and founded We Are What We Do, the social movement inspiring people to use their everyday actions to affect social change, from which Shift evolved as an independent organisation.

David was an early advocate of using behavioural insights as a tool for tackling social issues and was a social innovator before the term became widely used. Whilst Shift has gradually adapted its approach to become a very different kind of organisation to We Are What We Do, David’s ambition to drive mass behaviour change and create solutions that appeal to their users remains, like David himself, at the heart of our work.

David is a community worker. He has founded and led several other organizations including Community Links, where he still leads the Early Action Task Force, the Children’s Discovery Centre and Changing London. He led the Prime Minister’s Council on Social Action for Gordon Brown and the original London Advisory Board for what is now the Big Lottery Fund. His policy work has been recognized with an honorary doctorate from the Open University and he is currently Practitioner in Residence at the LSE’s Marshall Institute. David was once described by the Guardian as “the godfather of the community sector, equally admired on the left and right”.

david.robinson@shiftdesign.org.uk

Comment

Connecting Well

David Robinson is Shift’s founder and a community worker in east London. He is currently exploring new work on social isolation at the Marshall Institute. This is the first in a series of blogs.

@Shift_org

Research

The Relationship-Centred City: Building a better London by building better relationships

March 13, 2020

A report from the Relationships Project unearths learning for cities the world over.

Case studies: relationship-centred practice

February 2, 2020

A collection of inspiring examples of relationship-centred practice from across the UK.

VIDEO: The You and Me Principle

October 9, 2018

How relationships change the world and where to go with what we know. Film of lecture by David Robinson

Reconnecting

October 1, 2002

Paper exploring new methods in behaviour change.

David Robinson

Coverage

Changing London will help to change lives
The Guardian, November 2013