Who we are

---

The idea for raised perspectives came from seeing challenges in how different stakeholder groups viewed the work of family violence reform. In this context the views of the government designers, family violence experts, women's advocates and child advocates were all slightly different. While everyone agreed that the vision was the same, the preferred pathway to get there was different.

The difference in perspectives was creating friction and distrust between partners with closely aligned goals. The solution lay in building relationships and trust based on a mutual appreciation of the expertise and the valid viewpoints everyone held. 

Trust and relationships create the foundations for understanding and compromise - and ultimately, greater impact. Raised perspectives helps amplify the power for change by building off each other's strengths and filling-in for each other's weaknesses. 

Paul Flowerdew is the founder of Raised Perspectives. He is a passionate thinker and problem solver with a clear preference for dealing with systems change problems. 

Paul trained and worked as a medical doctor before shifting fields to look at more systems-focused challenges. This led to a transition to work in public policy and strategy roles in the Victorian Government. He has worked across multiple fields and now specialises in the interface of factors which determine how reforms do or don’t work – organisation, policy, leadership and culture. 

Paul has worked at executive level in five different departments across the Victorian Government. 

Paul’s background includes:

• Climate Change policy – high level government wide policy settings, carbon pricing policy 
• Energy sector – government-wide strategy, energy market competition 
• Education section – vocational training market management (subsidy models and settings) and market reform 
• Public administration – public sector reform, governance, budget and financial management reform 
• Social service reform – family violence system reform narrative, common client reform frameworks 
• Organisational design and strategy– machinery of government changes, department and division level organisational design  
• Place-based policy – place-based policy fundamentals and framework for place-based approaches 
• Mental health – system level reform oversight, transformation strategy and human centred design 

Common across all these roles is the need to understand how incentives drive behaviours. Incentives can be economic or social, organisational or individual. Once laid bare, they explain why things are the way they are.