As impact assessment evolves, technical capability is not enough. This keynote explores the human skills—judgement, curiosity, communication and trust that remain essential for better decisions.
Impact assessment has accumulated decades of technical knowledge, frameworks and processes. But as the profession looks toward 2037, an equally important question is what we carry forward about the human side of the work: judgement, curiosity, communication, trust and our ability to remain open to perspectives that challenge our assumptions.
In this keynote-style contribution, award-winning author, speaker and former health and wellbeing journalist Danielle Colley explores the human behaviours that shape how people make decisions in complex and uncertain environments.
Drawing on her work in human behaviour, communication and sustainable performance, Danielle will examine why better processes do not automatically produce better outcomes when the humans within those processes are operating from certainty, defensiveness, fatigue or deeply embedded assumptions.
The presentation will explore three questions: What human capabilities remain essential as impact assessment becomes more sophisticated? What have we learned about the role of curiosity and listening in navigating competing perspectives? And what might the next generation of practitioners need to protect, rather than automate or optimise away?
Rather than proposing another technical framework, Danielle offers a human-centred reflection on the future of impact assessment. The session will invite participants to consider how professional judgement, courageous communication, curiosity and genuine engagement can strengthen the quality of decisions and relationships at the heart of IA.
Danielle Colley is an award-winning author, speaker and former health and wellbeing journalist who explores human behaviour, sustainable success, curiosity, communication and what makes better decisio