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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
29 January 2018
Updated: 23 October 2020
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In August 2017 as part of my Clore Social fellowship, I embarked on a four-month sprint with a group of professionals working outside of their day jobs at Marks & Spencer and Unilever to prototype Project Xroads, an intergenerational support network and skills-sharing programme.
Building leaders
The programme was supported by Collectively, who bring together businesses, innovators, activists, facilitators and change makers to explore issues of inequality, and create action plans to address them. As a social sector leader, I wanted to work in the business sector to extend my leadership experience. There was a huge amount of energy and talent in the team - together we grew as leaders as we worked out how change could be achieved.
Multi-generational working
What interested us was the pace of change in the workplace and how it affects people of different ages. People are living and working longer than ever before and today modern offices can house up to four generations.
In the workplace we identified generational differences in digital skills, confidence and legacy. We found a huge opportunity to bring new entry and long career service employees together to exchange life and business skills.
Developing the prototype
We talked to people across the businesses as well as age, youth and volunteering agencies to gain insight on these issues. We spoke to over 200 people through an online survey, face to face interviews and focus groups with long service and new entry employees, learning that 64% of people would be interested in a cross-generation programme.
Our research findings showed that new entry employees would like a safe space to share every day work issues outside of line management discussions. Their workplace challenges include finding information, navigating office politics, and they would like more decision making and presentation skills to help them grow in confidence. They are concerned about the increasing focus on academia to get a job: ‘All that seems to matter is how you do at school - it would be good for people to define success in a different way.’
Long service employees have a desire to share knowledge and benefit others as they felt they could offer support for younger colleagues with self-management. They recognise the pressure of those entering the workforce today to be financially independent. Their workplace challenges include access to technology and worries around financial security and legacy. They would be excited to be part of something new. ‘I'm increasingly concerned with my 'legacy' and whether my work has made a difference’, explained a long service employee.
To pilot the programme, we teamed up employees who had struggled to find work and had already been on a programme to help them enter the workplace, and those who had been in their careers for over 20 years. We found that the digital savvy newer workforce were keen to exchange their skills with experience and a deeper understanding of the business from longer serving colleagues.
Next steps
We want to develop a six-month skills sharing programme with sessions on connection, digital, wellbeing, empowerment, sustainability and community that could be run in every workplace. Our aim is to build solidarity across generations and create platforms for new thinking. Xroads could increase wellbeing at key points across our working lives - it has the potential to initiate a global step change in intergenerational relations. If you are interested in helping develop the programme do get in touch with me via Twitter.
Jane will be talking about perceptions of ageing at an RSA Ideas event on 30 January.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
27 September 2017
Updated: 23 October 2020
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My brain looks like this. It’s wired up to connect - just like yours! Humans live in communities and weave networks throughout their lives. Given that we are wired up to connect I have often wondered why the organisations we create are so siloed, and organised by geography or function with little room for collaboration?
Over the past two years I have been delving deep into practice and theory of networks. They too are wired up to connect, and in today’s global world there is huge potential to find local solutions and tackle global challenges.
I have always believed in the power of grassroots organisations to solve problems. Many years working in international development has compounded my belief that if we can connect and support local organisations, we can power up global change.
The campaign I co-founded almost ten years ago, Age Demands Action, evolved as a network campaign working across 60 countries, and it achieved policy and practical changes at local, national and global levels. Today the networked approach to campaigning is gaining momentum. Books like Harie Hahn’s How organisations develop activists, are inspiring people to find new ways to distribute power across campaigns, and bring together online mobilising techniques with community organising approaches and targeted research.
This made me think; could we adopt a network approach to organisational structures, and what would this involve? What would be the result? If we replace hierarchical structures with more collaborative, flatter networks can we increase innovation and learning? Can we reduce competition between international and local organisations? From my investigation so far I am optimistic.
Here are five thoughts on the process:
- Concentrate on relationships as much as tasks. Listening, facilitation and co-working processes are critical, invest in face to face meetings when you can.
- Devolve decision making and resources. Focus network resources on collaborative projects, develop feedback loops, constantly think about how to support growth rather than act on behalf of others.
- Focus on the cause not the brand. Trust in the creativity of your network.
- Embrace new technology. Start with simple open technical channels i.e. WhatsApp
- Modesty and curiosity are leadership qualities.
As part of my Clore Social Leadership Fellowship, I am doing a secondment with The Social Change Agency. They have created a hub packed full of examples, practical ideas and challenging questions to help you explore your journey towards starting, or transforming to a networked organisation.
In terms of leadership I found June Holley’s table from The Network Weavers Handbook helpful in summarising the distinction between organisational and network leadership:
Organisational Leadership
- Position, authority
- Few leaders
- Leader broadcasts
- Leader tells what to do
- Leader controls
- Small group in the know
- Directive
- Top down
- Leader ensures tasks completed
- Individual
- Evaluation
- Planning
- Provides service
Network Leadership
- Role, behaviour
- Everyone a leader
- Leader engages
- Many people initiate
- Leader facilitates and supports
- Openness & Transparency
- Emergent
- Bottom-up
- Leader helps identify breakthroughs
- Small group
- Reflection
- Innovation and Experimentation
- Supports self-organisation
How do you feel about the distinction between Organisational and Network leadership?
I would love to hear your thoughts. Please share your comments below or connect with me on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 August 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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Clore Social Fellow Baljeet Sandhu has published a report examining if, and how, social purpose organisations in the United Kingdom value lived expertise.
The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change shines a light on the social sector’s attitude towards, and engagement with, so-called service users and beneficiaries. Written as part of Sandhu’s Clore Social Fellowship, it was informed through conversations with eighty social sector leaders in the UK and US and twelve senior staff working in grant-giving and philanthropy.
The report unpicks the structures and implicit biases that reinforce a culture which undervalues the knowledge and expertise of those with lived experience and calls for a fundamental shift in attitudes. It also highlights the huge benefits that developing leaders with lived experience can have, both to social purpose organisations and civil society as a whole.
Calling for a change in attitudes, Sandhu highlights the need for a new style of leadership that is more “proactive, fluid, reflective and equitable… and recognises the vital role all key stakeholders play in the social sector’s ecosystem – including the people we serve”.
“To its detriment, the social sector often fails to recognise, cultivate and harness the insights, knowledge and lived expertise of experts by experience relevant to its work. The sector now broadly understands that lived experience is important, but still thinks of experts by experience primarily as service-users and informants, rather than drivers or leaders of change. There was general agreement that commitment to lived experience in our work is far from universal; that this is an underdeveloped and unsupported area and in dire need of better leadership."
Read the introduction to “The Value of Lived Experience in Social Change” below and access the full report and accompanying website.
This research was inspired by the simple notion that all members of society have the power to create positive social change in the world – including people and communities with direct experience of social or environmental issues our wider social sector seeks to tackle.
Indeed, history illuminates the power of individuals and communities who have worked to solve the social problems they have directly experienced. Consider the women’s rights movement; the civil rights movement; Alcoholics Anonymous; the world’s first safe house for women and children (Refuge), set up by a child survivor of domestic violence; the family from South East London tackling ‘institutional racism’ following the murder of their son, leading to far-reaching police service reforms – and the list goes on.
Throughout my own career in the social sector, I have and continue to be, inspired by the ingenuity, courage, compassion and leadership of ‘experts by experience’ who have ignited, designed and implemented significant social change initiatives on a local, national and global level.
The aim of this report is to explore how, today, the wider social sector currently cultivates, develops and evolves its social impact efforts through the work of such experts by experience, and how it can go further and do better to harness their knowledge and change-making capacity to lead positive social change now and into the future.
The full report.
Get involved in the conversation around "experts by experience" by using #livedexperience and Tweeting us @CloreSocial, or feedback to Baljeet, here.
Tags:
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
05 June 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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About halfway through my Clore Social fellowship, shortly before the birth of my third child, this was the phrase I muttered to myself as I posted on a local parents Facebook group about setting up a ‘baby bank’ – where people could donate their great quality, unwanted baby clothes and kit, in order to pass them on to other local families in need.
Little did I know that 18 months on, I’d be running a fully-fledged charity, with two branches, and a third in the pipeline. In our first year, Little Village helped nearly 400 families across Wandsworth and Camden, and we’re on course to more than double that this year. This 4 minute video tells you more about our work and what’s important to us.
Little Village on Vimeo.
Little Village grew, without question, from the things I learnt during my Clore Social journey. I love a good catch-phrase (see: Start by starting) and these are the ones I’ve lived by since launching the charity.
What would you do if you were ten times braver?
This question, posed to us on our first residential, remains one of my favourite provocations. I still ask it every time there’s an important decision to be made about Little Village’s future. Asking this question gives me permission to be authentic. It reminds me that I don’t want to play safe, I want to play true and aim high. It has led to having the difficult conversations rather than brushing them under the carpet. It has given permission for my dreams to breathe, and to guide Little Village’s evolution.
Keep things simple, even when they’re not
One of the things people often say to me about Little Village is “how great, that’s such a simple idea!”. I nod my head while thinking ‘if you only knew the half of it’. I’m someone who loves complexity and has spent most of my career working on abstract concepts in the thinktank world. And yet building Little Village as a practical, approachable, friendly organisation has been one of the great pleasures of this journey. I’ve seen how the simplicity of what we do, underlined by our brand, draws people to us. It’s very powerful.
Harness frustrated female energy
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is juggling Little Village with 3 kids under 5. I’ve worked some pretty interesting hours, my kids are definitely better acquainted with CBeebies now than they were, and I’ve pulled in a LOT of granny favours. Little Village is powered by an incredible network of women who are skilled and talented and yet can’t find work that fits with their family life. That’s crazy. We work with the grain of people’s family needs. None of us work more than a 3 day week; some of our volunteers bring their children with them; we offer flexible shifts – and we have access to talent that extends well beyond our core business as a result.
So – start by starting. Putting one step down almost inevitably leads to the next step – so be ready for the consequences, and take great joy from the journey.
Visit Little Village to find out more about their work. Share your comments below, or you can join the conversation with Sophia on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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Daina Leigh is Global Conversation Catalyst for the Bavubuka Foundation and founder of fashion social enterprise Fabric of Life.
Word – Sound – Power is the belief in the power of the vibrations within speech and music to impact the world directly, for better or worse. The power of voice, and its capacity to inspire and initiate change, are central to the practice of the young indigenous hip-hop practitioners that I have had the privilege of working with as part of my role as Global Conversation Catalyst with the Bavubuka (youth) Foundation in East Africa. Observing their practice over the last couple of years, I have noticed something important about leadership that I want to share.
These young leaders utilise the power and position of the Emcee - the leader/performer - to use spoken word to convey their authentic self using their indigenous language to communicate ideas and positive affirmations, and to engage dialogue around finding community solutions.
This performance medium is being used most powerfully within Cyphers (community spaces) where young people use their gifts, such as freestyle rapping, to tell stories, share ideas and celebrate who they are. This unique way of engaging young leaders has inspired even more young people to step forward and serve their community in their own unique way.
What I have learned from participating in these extraordinary events is that voice and sound alone, without a deep knowledge of self and context, is not sufficient to generate transformative energy within communities. The power to lead that these young Hip-Hop practitioners hold, is rooted within the discovery and nurturance of their own unique gifts and personal stories, which people in the community can relate to.
What has been truly significant for me is seeing the way young leaders continually offer themselves in service to people and their surroundings, totally transforming perceptions of a ghetto youth, while also developing a new sense of pride. The young leaders I encounter do this willingly because they believe in the underlying ethos, which is that without service and connection to the community, they really have nothing of significance to say on the microphone. This is powerfully shared within the Kenyan movement ‘Hip-Hop Beyond the Mic.’
Having watched this community activity through my own eyes as a development worker, I see that despite the challenges these young people face, they have some important lessons to teach me and other social leaders about the art of leadership. For me, this has been about understanding that everything I need to be as a leader lies within me, and my aim is to find my own authentic self, leadership style and compelling story.
Finding my own voice remains a challenge, but I continue to learn in my leadership role in Uganda. Here I support the personal development of the young people I work with to utilise the Word–Sound-Power magic that is available to them to help them address the issues they encounter, whilst learning to thrive within their surroundings. Being of service to the community in this way has given me direct experience of what authentic leadership is really about.
Tags:
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