Friday Selection Box: 17th February 2023
This week’s weird and wonderful selection of ideas, inspiraiton and creativity.. Among other things we consider AI, apprenticeships and libraries.
This week’s weird and wonderful selection of ideas, inspiraiton and creativity.. Among other things we consider AI, apprenticeships and libraries.
We have included bright spots in our toolkit because it has a focus on researching what is working well and innovating from that point rather than creating a long list of what is going wrong which can be a very demotivating starting point.
Investing in ourselves again One of the many things that the pandemic has impacted is my own training and development so I have been researching courses I could take to restart investing in myself and preparing for taking up a new trusteeship in the autumn. This offering from NCVO caught my eye. How bias against…
It probably comes as no surprise that as teams are coming back together in person there is a lot of talk about mental health, and psychological safety. Over the last two years we have had to learn to be different kinds of teams at the same time as managing wide ranging personal challenges. We are…
It takes two flints to make a fire. (Louisa May Alcott) Originally devised as a paper based questionnaire approach the Delphi Technique can also be used for face to face group sessions. It is a technique that encourages a variety of opinions but that through a series of discussion cycles it moves towards a group…
Climate not culture Sometimes (organisational/team) culture and climate are used interchangeably as if they referred to the same thing but they don’t, although they are connected. Culture has many definitions. One of our favourites is Hofstede’s Simply said, culture is how you were raised. It developed while you grew up. With a computer metaphor, culture…
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…
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…
The crisis isn’t over and in England we are in lockdown again but for many organisations in receipt of CRF and/or other emergency funding the intense crisis management, reactive phase is coming to an end and exhausted minds are turning to recovery, adaptation and the need for a new business plan. However, there is a…
When we first conceived of the idea of a Farewell Fund, it was because there was so little conversation, let alone action when it comes to the idea of renewal in civil society. By renewal we mean the natural cycle of life and death – things fade in their relevance. What was once seen as…
Continuing our merger mini-series today’s post offers a road map for merger. The framework for the map is the Design Council’s Double Diamond: a process of alternating creative and critical thinking to design and create a new merged organisation. Whilst these are shown as linear development, there will be, as in any design process, a…
The greatest change in the way business is being conducted is the accelerating growth of relationships based not on ownership but on partnership. (Peter Drucker, Collaborative Commerce Summit, June 2001) Some 19 years on Drucker’s words have never seemed more relevant. We know that a full blown merger is not going to be right for…
Budgeting for uncertain times Timely article on how to budget within uncertainty. I particularly liked the line Effective planning and budgeting define success as improving outcomes for customers, employees, investors, and communities — not as hitting budgets. Psychological safety in virtual meetings Some great practical guidance on…