Our Practice
Small and Scale is adaptive in its approach to working across social and public-interest initiatives, continually evolving our practice and toolkit to meet the emergent and complex needs of our world.
We work in service to the public with the objective of more people being able to feel at home in the world. To us, this means that the policies, services, and infrastructure for public good create the enabling conditions for people feel a sense of belonging, safety, agency, and freedom — outcomes we all collectively enjoy.
Practice areas
Social Innovation
Strategic Design
Community Development
Facilitation & Training
Who we work with
We partner with public-interest organisations, social innovation stewards, and knowledge builders who are committed to creating the conditions that enable human freedom.
Public-interest organisations
Government bodies, international consortia, philanthropy, NGOs, community based organisations, and think tanks.
Stewards of social innovation
Design and innovation consulting agencies of all sizes across Asia-Pacific seeking additional support at any project stage.
Knowledge builders
Education providers and learning initiatives building leadership, practice, and community action capabilities across the system.
We provide the above as a guide. We offer sliding-scale pricing and always welcome new opportunities to work together with all types of organisations and community groups anywhere in the world.
What makes Small and Scale different
Our practice is self-reflective and reflexive. We consciously centre our own personal power, culture, and identity — inherited, learned, and earned — as a demonstration of the justice we envision for all.
We are culturally competent
The challenges of our time cross cultural, sectoral, and power territories. We bring a rare competence and sensitivity in embracing and navigating these dynamics.
We see big picture, take small bites
We draw upon our visual art, design thinking, international development practice, and entrepreneurial experience to offer an adaptable competency in systemic problem solving. With rigour and simplicity, we make the tangle feel less tangled to uncover new possibilities of impactful routes forward.
We hold space
As facilitators, we create environments where people feel safe, valued, and brave to lead, contribute, and participate. Our team brings a kind, disarming, and culturally sensitive approach that makes people feel welcome and heard.
Principles behind how we work
If you are interested in working with us, we would appreciate if you could take the time to read this
We are connected to and are part of the problem
No matter what background we come from, we all subconsciously or consciously bring with us our own biases, lived experiences, privileges and/or disadvantages, and forms of power. Through our work, we make active efforts to be aware of these, embedding reflexive practices with those we work with across our project stages. Continual reflection on where we sit in the big picture helps us become more sensitive to when to step into our strengths and when we should listen, learn, and be led by others.
We are interested in working with people who are equally willing to put effort into investigating their mindsets, roles, and power in relation to the work and those they work with as well.
We are committed to decolonialising design
We make up the practice and hold the power to transform it. However, most of us operating within the Western mainstream (myself included) easily get stuck in exclusive ways.
So, I’m stealing the good stuff, ditching the jargon, using plain language as much as I can, and holding a commitment to doing design through different forms of knowing, connecting, and creating, with an emphasis on being led by people who will be most impacted by the work.
Our practice extends from personal vocation
I bring years of experience designing, consulting, and working with teams and communities across projects and initiatives in not-for-profit, startups, government, international development, higher education, and the arts.
For my work, I rest and maintain a connection with experience in my body. In my work, I show up with generosity and presence, to deliver at an exceptional quality. And really good work, to me, is not just an output, but how we got there together.