Paul Atkins is a researcher, speaker, and facilitator trainer. He is a Visiting Associate Professor with the Crawford School of Public Policy (Australian National University). His research has focused on interventions to reduce stress while enhancing relationships, wellbeing, perspective-taking, and cooperation in groups and organizations. Paul is a registered organizational psychologist with a Ph.D. in Psychology from Cambridge University. He is the lead author of the recently published book Prosocial: Using Evolutionary Science to Build Productive, Equitable, and Collaborative Groups and co-founder and Vice President of Prosocial World, a not for profit organization focused on enhancing cooperation and trust in purpose-driven groups globally. The Prosocial process has been used to help improve group effectiveness in contexts as diverse as slowing the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, enhancing performance in Australian government agencies, and improving cooperation in public schools.
Words such as “science” and “experiment” mean different things to different people. Here is what we mean by these two words and how our organization, ProSocial World, puts them into action.