Patrick Hoverstadt

Patrick has a long track record of dealing with complex and intractable problems for organisations, using a range of approaches drawn from systems thinking. His work spans a wide range of sectors, from defence to campaigning charities, and from national government to start-ups — across organisations of all sizes and at all stages of the life cycle.

Over the past 30 years, he has worked on almost 300 client projects in 24 countries, mostly focused on issues of organisation, strategy, and transformation. All projects are generated through referrals – which only come if what you do actually works. Practicality and results really matter to him. Organisations typically approach Patrick because they know they need a different perspective and approach, and systems thinking reliably provides that. It offers a fundamentally different way of understanding how the world works. Where conventional approaches fail — as they consistently do in areas such as strategy and transformation — it’s because they attempt to solve systemic problems using non-systemic methods.

Alongside his commercial work, Patrick has written three books on systems thinking and practice, and co-written a further nine. He is also Chair of the professional body for systems practitioners and Co-Chair of the UK government’s systems thinking working group.

Outside of work, Patrick climbs mountains and is a keen tall-ship sailor and rigger, with 20 years’ experience working aloft on several English and Dutch ships. He has sailed most of the world’s oceans, including the notorious Cape Horn route — the sailor’s equivalent of Everest. By way of contrast, he is also a modest collector of a small number of 20th-century artists.

‍