Being Minnie B
Minnie Baragwanath is an independent author, coach, consultant and social innovator.
She is also currently the Chief Possibility Officer and Founder of the newly established Global Centre of Possibility @ AUT www.gcop.co.nz .
Twelve years ago, she, along with her incredible team and Board established Be. Accessible, a social change agency committed to the creation of a 100% accessible Aotearoa particularly for the 25% of people living with an access need. In 2019 Minnie led the transformation of Be. Accessible into the Be. Lab www.belab.co.nz and established what was to become the Global Centre of Possibility @ AUT.
The Global Centre of Possibility, with its unique emphasis on “Possibility leadership, design and innovation” as the key to future social transformation, is the next chapter in that pioneering story!
‘Possibility Leadership is the capacity to imagine and create a future of possibility, beyond current limiting paradigms, and beyond current concepts of disability and accessibility.’
The concept of “designing with” is absolutely fundamental to this approach. It is distinct from designing to or designing for which are the common defaults when approaching any type of design with the access community.
The Possibility lens is unique to Aotearoa
Minnie’s work and study as an access innovator and as a social entrepreneur, extends over 25- years and has included many diverse roles.
Over the last few years Minnie has been awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit, the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award, the Westpac Women of Influence Diversity award, the Zonta women’s award and was placed as a top 10 finalist for the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.
“The status quo is not benign. It is deeply inaccessible. If we are not actively designing access in, we are actually designing people, talent and opportunity out.”
Minnie Baragwanath