Stories from the Field: Co-Creating Emergent Futures Using the Canvas

Flourishing Business Community
Speakers Series: Stories from the Field #10

Co-Creating Emergent Futures – Imagination Guided by the Canvas with Lesley Robb & Rob Sinclair

Date: Tuesday February 13

Time: 16h00 UTC – 08h00 PST, 11h00 EST, 16h00 GMT, 17h00 CET, 01h00 JST (+1 day).  To convert UTC to your timezone click here

Duration: 1 hour

Registration: Required via Eventbrite at

For our tenth monthly flourishing business community speaker series: stories from the field, the community is delighted to welcome Lesley Robb from Swell Impact and Rob Sinclair from Conscious Brands.

Rob Sinclair uses his experience from the organic food industry to advise purpose-driven businesses in strategic direction, brand alignment and governance. In this work he brings together the client’s voice and culture with regenerative business principles and targets to create their impact business model.  He believes that there can’t be lasting change without collaboration, and there can’t be culture without community. (See below for more about Rob and his organization Conscious Brands)

Lesley Robb uses her experience from the travel and tourism sector to help businesses and organizations create sustainability strategies.  In this work, she reshapes brands to be a force for good, centring people and places and a regenerative vision for the future.  She focuses on helping businesses define their purpose to build compelling and impactful brands, and the business models to realize them.  (See below for more about Lesley and her organization, Swell Impact)

Join Lesley and Rob for a conversation that encapsulates the essence of building a community-driven, playful, and emergent approach to business and professional development – underscoring the significance of collaboration and the joy of the process in creating impactful work for a flourishing future.

Rob and Lesley discuss their unconventional and profound journey of co-creating emergent futures for business guided by their work with the Flourishing Business Canvas. Together, they combine their expertise in the Canvas and B Corp frameworks to build the paths for the future of business. Lighting the way for you, they invite you on a journey as your trusted guides to imagine a course that is right for you. 

Growing from a serendipitous connection, Lesley and Rob highlight the value of trusting the process and creating a community of practice that crosses sector boundaries to foster personal growth, testing impact business models and imagining new economies. 

Through commitment and consistency, Rob and Lesley use the Canvas as a launching point for an experimental and emergent process–driven by playfulness and joy as key elements, countering the traditional hustle culture often associated with startups and business development. 

This approach has led to valuable learnings and insights, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the journey and not just the outcomes (though they love Objectives and Key Results!). Together, they will explore:

• A process of learning that facilitates cross-sector and interdisciplinary understanding
• How they employ deep listening and reciprocity to improve their process continually
• Meaningful examples of business models explored using the Canvas as seen on Medium:
  • Whole Chocolate Company (CPG) 
  • Good Consulting (Professional Service)
  • Baja Hotel (Tourism) 
• How to see connection points for the intersection of innovative frameworks (B Corp)
• Developing your Impact Business Model (IBM) using the Canvas
• Discussion to help you imagine new business models and identify the tools required to get there
• How the community has helped them on their journey and their plans to deepen their engagement

At the end of their talk Rob and Lesley will take questions from members of the community.

After the event a video of the talk plus slides will be shared in the “Speaker Series” space of the Flourishing Business Community. Please join other flourishing business leaders and become a full member to access.

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About the Speakers

Lesley Robb has 18 years of experience in branding for the travel and tourism sectors. After working for many well-known brands, Lesley recently founded Swell Impact. The Halifax-based agency specializes in brand development and sustainability strategy for local and global businesses and organizations in travel and tourism. Lesley’s interdisciplinary expertise enables her to reshape brands as a force for good, centring people, places, and a regenerative vision for the future. She shares her knowledge through workshops, speaking engagements, and writing, helping businesses define their purpose to build compelling and impactful brands.

Rob Sinclair has worked in the organic food industry for 20 years. Highlights include owning and operating an organic food manufacturing business with distribution to over 200 stores across Canada. For the past 15 years, through his consultancy Conscious Brands, Rob has used his knowledge to advise purpose-driven businesses in strategic direction, brand alignment and governance. Rob brings a toolbox of best practices, contacts and operational experience with all his clients. He acknowledges that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in this work. Ensuring the integration of the client’s voice and culture into the programs we co-create is crucial for the success of all these endeavours. This integration is especially important as we deeply incorporate regenerative business principles and set targets for the client’s Impact Business Model. He believes that there can’t be lasting change without collaboration, and there can’t be culture without community.

About Their Organizations

Swell Impact simplifies sustainability to help leaders transform tourism. They design sustainability strategies that foster regeneration—and help clients communicate their impact in a way that connects with their people. Swell Impact guides businesses in travel and tourism through a transformative journey, helping them become industry leaders with a refined brand purpose, clear vision, and tangible sustainability actions, making it second nature for teams to incorporate sustainability into every aspect of their organization.

Conscious Brands, a leader in regenerative business models and a certified Canadian B Corp since 2010, employs business as a positive change catalyst driven by its Higher Purpose of ‘Harmony.’ With services ranging from strategic planning to B Corp certification, the company is dedicated to building internal capabilities in organizations transitioning to stakeholder-governed entities. Their goal is to inspire and activate 100k Internal Brand Believers by 2030, prioritizing businesses with 15-20% year-over-year growth, connecting strategies to a higher purpose, and providing expert guidance for purpose-driven organizations across various budget ranges.