Q: What inspired you to create Backloop Institute?

Anastasia Lintner (AL): I've known and respected Chris and his work for a long time. We've talked every few years about doing something together. One day, during a conversation with Chris on the phone, in the midst of a global pandemic, we committed to making Backloop Institute a real entity.

Chris McLaughlin (CM): A phone call out of the blue from Ana in 2020 started a long conversation about the attitudes and approaches to complex environmental problems that we’ve seen succeed and fail over many years. We realized that we both wanted to have a voice in challenging and changing those attitudes and approaches, and that we would be so much more impactful to take that on together.

AL: Backloop Institute allows us to offer a range of services beyond the limitations of any one academic or professional institution. What I love about being a researcher and professor at post-secondary institutions are the inspiring questions, dialogues, and co-learning opportunities. What has been limiting are the internal hierarchical structures, constrained access, and prescribed evaluation metrics and mechanisms. What I love about being involved in policy analysis and governance processes are the conversations that lead to solutions for a better future. What limits a practicing lawyer from engaging fully in such dialogues are the adversarial nature of the Canadian legal system and the strict silos of silence needed to preserve solicitor-client privilege.

Q&A with the founders of Backloop Institute, Anastasia Lintner (AL) and Chris McLaughlin (CM).

Q: Why did you choose the name “Backloop Institute”?

AL: That’s all Chris. He's studied systems deeply. I'm still learning.

CM: The name “Backloop Institute” marries the circumstances of change with strategies for change.

The backloop is a phase of renewal. So the word “Backloop” reminds us of the critical importance of relationships during a time of renewal.

An institute is a place where careful thought and planning can overcome weak assumptions, unmet expectations and a lack of options.

Originally, it was ecologists who recognized that environmental policy and management require an appreciation for socio–ecological systems. We need to recognize the feedback loop created as ecosystems interact with the very people who are using, managing and even restoring them.

Those interactions are adaptive, cycling through a dynamic pathway. Ultimately, it’s our attitudes and approaches to policy and management that determine whether human interventions in ecosystems generate surprise and despair or learning and resilience.

AL: In other words … the magic happens in the backloop!

Q: What types of projects do you love to work on?

CM: Inventive. Imaginative. Strategic. Collaborative. Useful.

To be more specific, my dream project would be to develop a collaborative strategy that shapes a new era of human interventions in the systems we depend on.

AL: I love any project that requires an answer that is not easily found. I love it when a client asks a question that sparks curiosity, inquiry, and leads to an unexpected answer.

For example, a client might ask what seems to be a straightforward question: how do I develop a strategic plan? If the client is open to first being asked, what does success look like? It may be that developing a strategic plan is not at all what would help get the client to the success they are looking for.

Or a client might ask us how to create a policy or plan to address the more intense, frequent storms we are experiencing in the age of climate change. When they are open to a solution they haven’t yet thought of, exciting things can happen.

Those are the kinds of project I dream of working on.

Oh, and of course, projects that the align with Backloop Institute’s expertise in policy frameworks, community engagement, environmental/ecological challenges.

Q: Who are Backloop Institute’s clients?

CM: Clients share certain qualities with Backloop, like open mindedness. They are open to learning and testing. They’re transparent and trusting … I feel like Ana will have a better answer.

AL: A client might be a non-profit organization, an Indigenous organization or government, a municipal council or advisory committee, a provincial or federal institution. So long as there are no conflicts of interest, the list is endless.

We do like to work with people and organizations who have diverse backgrounds and experiences. They may have lots or little experience with Canadian policy making.

The relationship works well when people aren't exactly sure what they need, but are willing to do some work to embody a solution.

Q: What experience do you bring to the Institute and its work?

AL: Everything flows from a lifelong passion for environmental and community caring. My interest was sparked by my parents. They were careful with spending and committed to reuse and recycle, even when it required extra effort to get to a recycling depot in a small, rural community.

I’ve been researching and writing about natural resource and environmental economics and policy for over three decades. I am a PhD-trained researcher & long-time post-secondary instructor and professor.

For two decades I’ve been working in the field of legal services, policy analysis, and government relations. I’ve prepared arguments for the Supreme Court of Canada, articles for academic journals, and strategic plans for non-profit organizations.

I also did a deep dive into freshwater issues, policies, solutions along the way.

CM: I have worked in the environmental sector since 1990 as an educator, author and editor, consultant to governments and foundations, and chief executive of non-governmental organizations.

You could think of me as an entrepreneurial, strategic organizational leader who combines intellectual curiosity and an affinity for learning to create pragmatic scholarship and mobilize knowledge. I value rigour, consistency and clarity, but I also bring an adaptive approach to problem solving and innovation.

I’m an academically trained policy practitioner. I’m also the chief executive of non-governmental organizations, which gives me lot practical, real-world experience. My role is often creating and nurturing social and professional networks for collective problem-solving and decision-making.

Over the years, I’ve served as a creative counsel to decision-makers and community stakeholders. I’m proud of having been able to work effectively with a broad cross-section of agencies, organizations and professionals.

Q: What is the difference between your work with Backloop Institute and the other organizations where you work?

CM: I'm lucky in that a lot of my career has been spent on creative and strategic pursuits. But Backloop is different. Backloop gives me a chance to step back from the day-to-day focus, and to help clients reimagine and reinvent.

AL: Backloop is the vessel for the culmination of a lengthy and winding career. I've been a full-time academic. I've been a full-time lawyer. I've chosen volunteer opportunities that align with my deep and abiding interest in humanity's relationship to and with nature (and how we can learn from the past to inform a future grounded in restoration and recovery).

My current full-time work involves supporting an executive director in the effective operation of a non-profit organization. In that role, I'm no longer doing policy analysis, recommendations, and direct engagement with individuals or organizations. Backloop allows me to bring those skills to a select number of projects in the immediate/near term, with the opportunity to add more projects to my plate when its time to move on from my full-time employment.

Q: What’s special about Backloop Institute?

AL: Our approach to problem solving and fierce dedication to resilient systems.

CM: Ana and I complement each other. We both come from academia, but she's trained in environmental economics and law, and I'm a political ecologist with a liberal arts background. So we have a shared foundation of skills and experience, but then we really diverge personally and professionally. Her talents are in the details, mine are on the horizon. We both have extensive organizational leadership experience, but hers has had a national focus, mine a regional and local focus.

Q: If you could sum up Backloop Institute’s mission in one word, what would it be?

AL: Mind-changing (hyphens don’t count).

CM at 8:50 PM: Hmmm.

Learning.

Also, renewal.

CM at 11:00 PM: I should have said progressive. Or inclusion. Or integrity.

Q: What does Backloop Institute’s tagline mean to you? (“Research. Strategy. Resilience.”)

AL: Backloop does the background research to help you create strategic solutions for more resilient systems, policies and decision-making.

CM: There's a natural progression there: you focus, you build, you implement. Rinse and repeat, that's learning. There's a thoughtful, methodical approach there, like we're the geeks but we get the job done.