About Dave Godden

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I have 20+ years’ experience working in a wide range of public and community sector organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom as a manager, leader, partnership facilitator, strategist and policy adviser. 

After starting my career in health care management, my experience has encompassed public health strategy, health promotion, community development, public participation and engagement, social policy, infrastructure planning, workforce planning and many other areas. 

The thread that has run through my work has been a focus on collaboration and capability building to enable organisations and communities to make progress on complex social challenges. 

Through this experience I have learned how to bring stakeholders together, facilitate powerful conversations, help organisations sense and respond to change, and enable productive engagement in complex and ambiguous situations.

In 2017 I completed a Masters of Strategic Foresight at Swinburne University of Technology. This rigorous training in futures thinking and foresight has helped me build a powerful and diverse conceptual, methodological and practical toolkit to help organisations and communities think and act differently when they are facing complex challenges so that they can move with intention and purpose towards better futures. I have also completed a Masters of Public Health, a Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management and a Bachelor of Arts in History and Politics.

Along with Meredith Bowden of Talking Futures, I am co-host of the Complex Mess Community, an international network of  people who are practising new and different ways to engage with complex challenges. 

I am a Director of Communities That Care Ltd, a not-for-profit training and consulting company which works to build the capacity of communities across Australia to promote the health of children and young people. 

I am a member of the Association of Professional Futurists and the Institute of Community Directors Australia.