Ways of working are like the scaffolding on a building that is being put up or renovated. The scaffolding is not the work but the complex network of steel pipes, couplers, braces, ties and ledgers make the work possible, safe and productive. Most of our knowledge about how to work in teams is learnt through…
Our next team focused section considers roles and responsibilities: Who is involved? What roles do they play? What are they responsible for? Are there any gaps in the team? At first sight exploring your team roles probably seems like an obvious and potentially simple area to address, but in some ways, it is a bit…
Art as vaccination against COVID misery Wonderful piece from the Chief Executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association via Francois Matarasso His openness about the emotional impact of Covid is a hopeful contrast to the head of KPMG telling his staff to ‘stop moaning’. The circular economy The circular economy can help save the planet – if…
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has. (Attributed to Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist) In our last blog we talked about defining your purpose as a team; the focus of this blog is on understanding what resources you have available,…
Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever. Amy Poehler Our last post introduced the teamwork canvas and we thought it might be helpful to unpack the individual elements in a bit more detail. We’re starting with purpose and…
I’m a Disability Activist Because I Have to Be, But Not Always Because I Want to Be: Activism is not a hobby for a disabled person like me; activism is the only way I can access the world and live the life I want. Really powerful blog from Shona Louise, a UK based freelance writer,…
We need to work together better as a team. This comment and ones like it, have become a common theme in our work over the last couple of months. A combination of remote working, less staff capacity, fatigue and a sense that we are in for a long period of continuing uncertainty and disruption are…
Values become actionable through behaviors. Becoming more values-driven doesn’t always mean you have to make huge changes. Focusing on micro-habits or smaller behavioral changes can be more effective. Kim Old, eMotive, Over the next couple of weeks we are planning to focus on teams and teamwork but before we kick off with working collectively, I…
Biggest art exhibition ever Firstsite is celebrating its 10th anniversary and encouraging us to be creative through the fabulous Great Big Art Exhibition. There are 18 initial inspirations from Antony Gormley, David Shrigley, Jeremy Deller and a host of major museums and galleries. We are all invited to make and display work in our own…
I have had a passion for organisational development (OD) for many years and have a wide range of influences on my work, from management studies to fiction, and psychology to digital art. It will probably be no surprise that much of the OD field has been driven by US and Euro-centric theories and practices and…
A culture of possibility A culture of possibility and the spaciousness of uncertainty from one of our favourites. Where there is hope, there is creativity A piece from 2013 about the links between hope, creativity and innovation which usefully talks about the different kinds of hope. The business case for hope Paula Davis-Laack explores the…
“I don’t talk about change management anymore.” With an eyebrow raised, a colleague responds, “oh, why?” “Because I don’t think we can manage change anymore.” This is a conversation I have had a many times over the last few years and while it may seem like a semantic debate, I genuinely believe we need to…
I have seen lots of interesting blogs in the last two weeks; top five things to contemplate for the coming year, ways to develop and improve, self-care and so on. The umbrella that unites many of these things for me is ‘change.’ It made me consider how we think about organisational change and I wanted…