Burnout as a Signal: Rethinking How We Work in Systems Change
About the session
Burnout is pervasive across the social and environmental sectors. Yet it is still largely framed as an individual resilience issue, rather than a signal of how our systems are designed.
This session explores a different lens: burnout as climate change in the body. A reflection of the same extractive patterns shaping our organisations, our pace of work, and our models of impact.
Rather than a traditional talk, this will be an interactive and participatory session. Participants will be invited to notice how stress and pressure show up in real time, in their bodies, relationships, and ways of working, and to connect these experiences to wider systemic dynamics.
Together, the group will explore questions such as:
What is burnout trying to tell us about how we work?
What becomes possible if we treat it as a design signal rather than a personal failure?
How can we begin to shift toward more regenerative ways of working within real-world constraints?
The session creates space for honest reflection, shared experience, and practical exploration of how change might begin at both individual and system levels.
Who this is for
This session is for changemakers, funders, and organisational leaders navigating intensity, complexity, and growing demands, and who are interested in sustaining impact without sacrificing people.
What you will get out of it
A new lens for understanding burnout as a systemic signal rather than an individual issue
Space to reflect on how stress shows up in your own work and context
Practical, embodied approaches to working in more sustainable and regenerative ways
Connection with others exploring the intersection of wellbeing, organisational culture, and systems change
This session is designed to surface a shared but often unspoken experience.