Workshops and webinars

We offer workshops and webinars on AI impact for individuals, companies, organisations and schools. Get in touch.

Dr Duignan’s Recent Media pieces

Individual, organisational, Community and Society-level Focus

I'm both a clinical and strategy psychologist. I live and work in NZ. Being from NZ is helpful in several ways. One is that our population is so small that we have no choice but to become generalists. The breadth of our experience across many domains means we are in a good position to develop pragmatic, holistic, systems-wide approaches. In larger countries, people often just stay within one area of specialisation. This makes it harder to see overarching themes and to develop broad approaches.

Much of my career has focused on the interface between individuals, organisations and communities. I seek innovative ways of using psychological insights to develop practical tools across a wide range of interlinked areas, as shown below.

I focus on several areas that I think are particularly important. I have just written a book on AI, which will be published soon. The topics I am interested in are: promoting individual and community well-being; managing systemic risks such as the impact of AI if not managed well; and, optimising private and public sector strategy-making to ensure much faster, more agile decision-making.

Strategy Psychology

My strategy and evaluation work assists sectors, governments, nonprofits, companies and indigenous groups to ensure they are outcomes-aligned and evidence-informed. My performance management and evaluation work helps identify indicators, implement outcomes-focused contracting and internal delegation and evaluate impact to prove organisations are making a difference. My startup developed an award-winning tool for faster strategic planning and alignment using visual strategy diagrams. Currently talking about strategy in an AI world. See details of my My Visual Planning approach.

Societal Psychology

My current media comment focuses mainly on psychological and social impacts and social strategy options in what I see as two pivotal areas for the future: the current rapidly evolving AI revolution and climate change risk and the social response. I give presentations and workshops on the psychological and social impacts of AI. In addition, I publish some opinion pieces explaining concepts from my theoretical work in outcomes theory. I have an ongoing gig doing popular psychology tips on commercial radio. See my media page and my AI impact workshops page.

Clinical Psychology

I also allocate time to my clinical psychology practice, using a number of evidence-based approaches, including CBT, ACT, DBT and MBT. No one can deny we live in a stressful age. I develop and teach people tools for facing our dynamically changing world with increased equanimity. Having had experience in large organisations and with entrepreneurship, I often work at the cross-over between therapy and coaching for directors, CEOs, consultants, senior managers, entrepreneurs and others wanting to thrive in this psychologically demanding age. My clinical psychology resources.

Background

I have held a number of research, research management and university positions. These include managing research units and national research strategies and working as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. I have consulted for organisations in almost all public and nonprofit sectors and for international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund. My software startup developed award-winning software. I am also a registered clinical psychologist.