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Services for Organisations, Teams and Individuals to Improve Organisational Effectiveness
Click each service for details |
The Barefoot Guide Connection We host the Barefoot Guide Connection, providing financial and administrative facilities to support it's work. See www.barefootguide.org |
A. Culture Change in Organisations: cultivating more equitable and humane communities of practice - DOWNLOAD PAMPHLET HERE
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB)
A holistic approach
Organisations can move beyond traditional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) approaches to culture, to a more holistic approach that fosters a stronger sense of belonging while growing and harnessing the gifts of all staff. We support a multi-layered systemic approach that does interventions from many different angles, enhancing all dimensions of organisational life.
We help groups become more aware of the impacts of discrimination and othering, supportingculture_change_-_towards_cultivating_more_equitable_and_humane_organisations.pdf them to share experiences and stories to bring greater and more heightened empathy. They learn more language around DEIB to improve dialogue and develop the skills to have deeper and more courageous conversations. We assist the organisation in integrating DEIB into all areas of programme and practice-related work.
We help organisations develop cultures that work consciously and intentionally with DEIB, moving to healthy cultures that nurture, energise, strengthen and renew organisations.
What we offer:
A holistic approach
Organisations can move beyond traditional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) approaches to culture, to a more holistic approach that fosters a stronger sense of belonging while growing and harnessing the gifts of all staff. We support a multi-layered systemic approach that does interventions from many different angles, enhancing all dimensions of organisational life.
We help groups become more aware of the impacts of discrimination and othering, supportingculture_change_-_towards_cultivating_more_equitable_and_humane_organisations.pdf them to share experiences and stories to bring greater and more heightened empathy. They learn more language around DEIB to improve dialogue and develop the skills to have deeper and more courageous conversations. We assist the organisation in integrating DEIB into all areas of programme and practice-related work.
We help organisations develop cultures that work consciously and intentionally with DEIB, moving to healthy cultures that nurture, energise, strengthen and renew organisations.
What we offer:
- Organisational surveys to diagnose the organisational culture and build an accurate picture of the organisation’s current reality. This is done through confidential interviews, focus groups or online surveys where staff can be heard privately and anonymously by an objective external facilitator.
- We mirror what has emerged back to the organisation, using frameworks that help the organisation to better see itself. This includes particular areas of DEIB that need attention, to help the organisation to map the key areas of work needing attention, to prioritise where to start their journey, and to plan a course of action.
- Facilitator training (Trainer of Trainers) – We build the capacity of organisational change agents to lead change and transformation from within, developing their skills and confidence to do so.
- Organisational accompaniment on transformation journeys - each is tailored to the organisational need and is unique – but some core elements may include:
- Leadership development and coaching in DEIB;
- Staff workshops and capacity building in DEIB to develop a deeper understanding and common language to address the issues
- Facilitating dialogue sessions and courageous conversations where staff can connect to share and listen to their experiences;
- Facilitating DEIB strategy conversations around core work areas- embed DEIB initiatives in work areas/streams and supporting teams to do the work.
B. Bringing Depth and Vitality to Monitoring and Evaluation in Social Change Practice: Cultivating Continuous Improvement through Reflective Writing and Learning Dialogues
- DOWNLOAD PAMPHLET HERE
- DOWNLOAD PAMPHLET HERE
How can social change practitioners strengthen the way they reflect on their experience and practice so that they continuously learn and navigate their way through complex and uncertain contexts of change? How can M&E systems be enlivened for both learning and accountability moving beyond simplistic impact measurement?
We offer a consultancy service, with a particular approach, that supports social change organisations, initiatives or partnerships to put learning into the core or DNA of both their practice and their monitoring and evaluation processes or systems. In essence this involves developing specific skills and a disciplined and regular “learning rhythm” based on deep reflection on experiences and progress of their work, developing thoughtful practices that really produce results, while providing a real understanding of their developing impact to share with stakeholders.
In this approach, the perceived tension between learning and accountability is dissolved as an action-learning based approach produces the insights, perspectives and evidence that enables a deep accountability. The point is not just to measure impact but to understand it.
The Outcomes of the Approach:
On the one hand practitioners have conscious concepts, like their theories of change, principles, values, leading ideas and programmes or project plans, all of which help to focus their work. On the other hand, they have methods, like their tools, process designs and exercises etc. which they use to put their plans into action.
But social change work, which must meet unique, unpredictable and complex contexts and dynamics, requires a practice. Practice is the living capacity to observe, reflect and respond appropriately, to do the right thing at the right time, as the situation asks.
Practice is usually the least conscious but the most vital aspect of social change work. Having only plans and methods without a practice runs the risk of working blindly, according to a recipe, without nuance or respect for the uniqueness of the people and their siutation. Many practitioners do have an intuitive practice, guiding responsive actions but this intuition can also lead to formulaic responses when faced with seemingly familiar challenges, complicating their ability to articulate successes, failures, or lessons learned. This is also likely to hinder sharing valuable insights with peers, obstructing vital collaborative learning and practice development
Surfacing, improving and enlivening practice
For practice to be conscious and continually improved it must be surfaced through storytelling, either verbally or in writing, giving an honest account of real experience from which to learn.
Shared stories of practice can be reflected on through collegial dialogues, using the action learning cycle, where collective learning is drawn, theory deepened and implications for future practice, strategies and methodologies considered, adapted and planned for. These dialogues give practitioners a chance to relive their experiences and ask, with the support of colleagues, questions like what was really happening, what was my real work and what else could I have done and why? For everyone this can be a process of enlivening their sense of their practice and the worth of their work.
The skills of writing reflective stories and engaging in learning dialogues
Writing reflective stories of practice makes practice more visible and helps for a more deliberate and disciplined learning dialogue process.
But such stories must be written in a particular way. Using the Barefoot Guide Writeshop methodologies, we help participants to write not only the visible ‘outside story’ but also to surface the less visible ‘inside story’ of what was happening inside and between people e.g. their inner dialogues and evolving assumptions, emotional responses, fears, doubts, motivations, triggers, resiliences and resistances etc. This is where the real dynamics of change are at play.
Reflective stories provide the basis for collective learning dialogues from which deep learning and implications for future practice and strategy can be drawn. Not only can individual practices grow this way, but so can an organisational practice evolve that has a more consistent and continuously improving quality, held between collaborating practitioners.
Practitioners also gain skills and confidence for writing reports, case studies and articles. The dialogues provide quality evidence and insights that can be used for evaluative processes, accountability reports, published writings and for innovations and strategic thinking.
Different kinds of reflective stories of practiceDifferent kinds of reflective stories for different times can be designated by the team, depending on the need or season. Here are five types we have successfully worked with:
Our adaptable approach and process – Online or In-personThe approach would be adapted to the situation, practice and purpose of each organisation or partnership, taking account of what is already being done and to adapt to and improve what is already working.
Ideally, a learning facilitator can also be designated, and we would be able to coach them into holding the space into the future.
***.
Please email Doug Reeler: [email protected]
to set up an online meeting to discuss possibilities.
We offer a consultancy service, with a particular approach, that supports social change organisations, initiatives or partnerships to put learning into the core or DNA of both their practice and their monitoring and evaluation processes or systems. In essence this involves developing specific skills and a disciplined and regular “learning rhythm” based on deep reflection on experiences and progress of their work, developing thoughtful practices that really produce results, while providing a real understanding of their developing impact to share with stakeholders.
In this approach, the perceived tension between learning and accountability is dissolved as an action-learning based approach produces the insights, perspectives and evidence that enables a deep accountability. The point is not just to measure impact but to understand it.
The Outcomes of the Approach:
- Practitioners learn how to write reflective stories of practice that reveal both the “outside and inside stories”, surfacing the deeper unfolding dynamics of social change and change practice;
- Using these reflective stories, practitioners learn how to design, facilitate and participate in reflective learning dialogues. These dialogues enable practitioner teams or partners to go beyond the obvious lessons to collectively develop deeper learnings and implications for practice, while cultivating significantly improved collaborative relationships;
- The outcomes of the writing and dialogues (the learning and implications for the future) become the basis for a deeper accountability to stakeholders (e.g. communities, boards and donors) in the reports and presentations they produce and enable a wider sharing through publishing written case studies and articles.
On the one hand practitioners have conscious concepts, like their theories of change, principles, values, leading ideas and programmes or project plans, all of which help to focus their work. On the other hand, they have methods, like their tools, process designs and exercises etc. which they use to put their plans into action.
But social change work, which must meet unique, unpredictable and complex contexts and dynamics, requires a practice. Practice is the living capacity to observe, reflect and respond appropriately, to do the right thing at the right time, as the situation asks.
Practice is usually the least conscious but the most vital aspect of social change work. Having only plans and methods without a practice runs the risk of working blindly, according to a recipe, without nuance or respect for the uniqueness of the people and their siutation. Many practitioners do have an intuitive practice, guiding responsive actions but this intuition can also lead to formulaic responses when faced with seemingly familiar challenges, complicating their ability to articulate successes, failures, or lessons learned. This is also likely to hinder sharing valuable insights with peers, obstructing vital collaborative learning and practice development
Surfacing, improving and enlivening practice
For practice to be conscious and continually improved it must be surfaced through storytelling, either verbally or in writing, giving an honest account of real experience from which to learn.
Shared stories of practice can be reflected on through collegial dialogues, using the action learning cycle, where collective learning is drawn, theory deepened and implications for future practice, strategies and methodologies considered, adapted and planned for. These dialogues give practitioners a chance to relive their experiences and ask, with the support of colleagues, questions like what was really happening, what was my real work and what else could I have done and why? For everyone this can be a process of enlivening their sense of their practice and the worth of their work.
The skills of writing reflective stories and engaging in learning dialogues
Writing reflective stories of practice makes practice more visible and helps for a more deliberate and disciplined learning dialogue process.
But such stories must be written in a particular way. Using the Barefoot Guide Writeshop methodologies, we help participants to write not only the visible ‘outside story’ but also to surface the less visible ‘inside story’ of what was happening inside and between people e.g. their inner dialogues and evolving assumptions, emotional responses, fears, doubts, motivations, triggers, resiliences and resistances etc. This is where the real dynamics of change are at play.
Reflective stories provide the basis for collective learning dialogues from which deep learning and implications for future practice and strategy can be drawn. Not only can individual practices grow this way, but so can an organisational practice evolve that has a more consistent and continuously improving quality, held between collaborating practitioners.
Practitioners also gain skills and confidence for writing reports, case studies and articles. The dialogues provide quality evidence and insights that can be used for evaluative processes, accountability reports, published writings and for innovations and strategic thinking.
Different kinds of reflective stories of practiceDifferent kinds of reflective stories for different times can be designated by the team, depending on the need or season. Here are five types we have successfully worked with:
- A story of a challenging experience of practice in the past from which to harvest valuable learning;
- A ‘hot’ or current story where the teller is seeking guidance for what to do next;
- A thematic story for all practitioners to draw on their experiences over the past period. These different accounts on the same theme can provide a rich picture to feed practice and strategy;
- Practice scans, where the practitioners survey their whole practices over the past period and look for patterns and issues that give helpful perspectives on their developmental challenges as well as strategic issues for the team to consider;
- Future stories, like designs of coming interventions, to elicit advice and support from peers.
Our adaptable approach and process – Online or In-personThe approach would be adapted to the situation, practice and purpose of each organisation or partnership, taking account of what is already being done and to adapt to and improve what is already working.
- A short survey to understand existing learning practices and context. Interviews with a selection of leaders and practitioners to understand the work and context as well as existing learning processes and challenges to take account of.
- A conceptual session with the team. A three-hour session to see where people’s shared thinking about change practice is and to introduce some key ideas about learning, unlearning and social change, as a foundation for the process going forward.
- Reflective story writing sessions. This is 2 x 4-hour sessions, where the practitioners learn how to write a reflective story of practice.
- The learning dialogues. This is a regular monthly or two-monthly 3-hour learning dialogue. Members would bring a 2-page reflective story to each session of practice for sharing and dialogue.
Ideally, a learning facilitator can also be designated, and we would be able to coach them into holding the space into the future.
***.
Please email Doug Reeler: [email protected]
to set up an online meeting to discuss possibilities.
C. Cultivating Facilitative LeadershiP - DOWNLOAD PAMPHLET HERE
For adaptive practice and healthy organisations
Conventional leadership practices and approaches based on ‘great leaders’ no longer work, bearing little relevance to contemporary, complex social change challenges. Constant change, uncertainty and growing complexity require a more flexible, fluid and respectful leadership approach that nurtures inclusion and encourages purposeful collaboration, with an adaptive practice, underpinned by continuous learning and innovation.
What we offer:
A. How to be an effective facilitative leader - a customised course
We offer a customised course for leadership/management teams to enhance their capacity to lead facilitatively. The course focuses on the essential roles, qualities and practices of facilitative leadership.
B. A Peer Learning Circle of Facilitative Leaders
You can become part of a community of leaders, meeting with peers to gain and offer learning and support to their complex roles, in pursuit of facilitative leadership. It is a space for those who are looking for an approach to leadership that is relational, change-directed, purposeful and catalyses individual and organisational change. Participants are invited to draw on their own leadership experiences. Through a combination of Action Learning, conceptual frameworks and creative activities, they will be supported to deepen understanding, give meaning to, and reframe their experiences and questions more insightfully.
Conventional leadership practices and approaches based on ‘great leaders’ no longer work, bearing little relevance to contemporary, complex social change challenges. Constant change, uncertainty and growing complexity require a more flexible, fluid and respectful leadership approach that nurtures inclusion and encourages purposeful collaboration, with an adaptive practice, underpinned by continuous learning and innovation.
What we offer:
A. How to be an effective facilitative leader - a customised course
We offer a customised course for leadership/management teams to enhance their capacity to lead facilitatively. The course focuses on the essential roles, qualities and practices of facilitative leadership.
B. A Peer Learning Circle of Facilitative Leaders
You can become part of a community of leaders, meeting with peers to gain and offer learning and support to their complex roles, in pursuit of facilitative leadership. It is a space for those who are looking for an approach to leadership that is relational, change-directed, purposeful and catalyses individual and organisational change. Participants are invited to draw on their own leadership experiences. Through a combination of Action Learning, conceptual frameworks and creative activities, they will be supported to deepen understanding, give meaning to, and reframe their experiences and questions more insightfully.
d. Supporting organisational learning, adaptation, and renewaL - DOWNLOAD PAMPHLET HERE
Building resilience and strengthening organisation in complex and uncertain times.
In these times of volatility and uncertainty, organisations are asking more questions. These questions range from the complicated to the complex. Complicated questions are more about securing resources and communications strategies for serving these, and developing PME systems and capacities, often compliance-led. The more complex questions ask about how to deal with conflict, develop realistic and innovative strategies, how to shift to a learning and adaptive practice, how to establish and maintain mutually beneficial collaborative networks with others, as well as organisational transformation and identity. The latter are mostly linked to cultivating organisational resilience.
Despite the glaring challenges we face as organisations, we already know the answers to many of our questions. As human beings, we have an intuitive sense of what is right and what will transform our organisations into effective joyful places that they can be. What then is holding us back? Despite a growing appreciation for new thinking our current understandings, values and organisational practices are still deeply embedded in the traditional instrumentalist, managerial paradigms that no longer serve us. Change on this level is not easy, it requires us to reveal and confront these deeply ingrained thinking patterns, to disrupt old patterns and behaviours, essentially embarking on a process of unlearning. Fundamentally, organisations are complex living phenomena, not machines that can be calibrated and manipulated into performing better. More gardening, less engineering.
What we offer:
1. Facilitating Organisational Change and Renewal: We begin with an initial survey engaging staff and stakeholders and opening an organisational conversation. The intention is to build a relationship of trust with the facilitator, enabling honest reflection. Working with the U-process we help organisations to connect with their past and present journey, analysing and making sense of the emerging organisational picture in context. We help organisations to face what is no longer serving them, to reconnect with their core identity (values), and to move into the future with inspiring, transformed images of organisation, relationships, strategy and practice.
2. Organisational Review and Strategic Planning:
We provide facilitation and process support to organisations engaged in cyclical processes of review and strategic planning. We support co-creative design of participatory processes that enable organisational learning, and adaptation in developing sharper strategic and programmatic responses to change. Our support is designed to leave organisations strengthened with an increased capacity to learn and adapt into the future.
3. Leadership accompaniment:
Here we walk alongside leaders/managers as they navigate their difficult and often lonely paths in the organisation. In our sessions we listen, and ask focused questions, helping them to see their leadership. We apply our action learning and adaptation methodologies to support continued growth, developing their capacities to respond and problem-solve in the organisational context.
In these times of volatility and uncertainty, organisations are asking more questions. These questions range from the complicated to the complex. Complicated questions are more about securing resources and communications strategies for serving these, and developing PME systems and capacities, often compliance-led. The more complex questions ask about how to deal with conflict, develop realistic and innovative strategies, how to shift to a learning and adaptive practice, how to establish and maintain mutually beneficial collaborative networks with others, as well as organisational transformation and identity. The latter are mostly linked to cultivating organisational resilience.
Despite the glaring challenges we face as organisations, we already know the answers to many of our questions. As human beings, we have an intuitive sense of what is right and what will transform our organisations into effective joyful places that they can be. What then is holding us back? Despite a growing appreciation for new thinking our current understandings, values and organisational practices are still deeply embedded in the traditional instrumentalist, managerial paradigms that no longer serve us. Change on this level is not easy, it requires us to reveal and confront these deeply ingrained thinking patterns, to disrupt old patterns and behaviours, essentially embarking on a process of unlearning. Fundamentally, organisations are complex living phenomena, not machines that can be calibrated and manipulated into performing better. More gardening, less engineering.
What we offer:
1. Facilitating Organisational Change and Renewal: We begin with an initial survey engaging staff and stakeholders and opening an organisational conversation. The intention is to build a relationship of trust with the facilitator, enabling honest reflection. Working with the U-process we help organisations to connect with their past and present journey, analysing and making sense of the emerging organisational picture in context. We help organisations to face what is no longer serving them, to reconnect with their core identity (values), and to move into the future with inspiring, transformed images of organisation, relationships, strategy and practice.
2. Organisational Review and Strategic Planning:
We provide facilitation and process support to organisations engaged in cyclical processes of review and strategic planning. We support co-creative design of participatory processes that enable organisational learning, and adaptation in developing sharper strategic and programmatic responses to change. Our support is designed to leave organisations strengthened with an increased capacity to learn and adapt into the future.
3. Leadership accompaniment:
Here we walk alongside leaders/managers as they navigate their difficult and often lonely paths in the organisation. In our sessions we listen, and ask focused questions, helping them to see their leadership. We apply our action learning and adaptation methodologies to support continued growth, developing their capacities to respond and problem-solve in the organisational context.
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Our Approach...is focused on seeing and working with living, human processes in organisations, those less visible relational and cultural dynamics that shape and colour how people work together; ...helps organisations to become more awake to the seen and unseen forces that influence them and to dynamically adapt in both learning and experimental ways to help them to find and focus on what matters ...enables organisations and individuals to reveal systemic constraints and blockages to healthy relationships and development paths; …emphasises how to enhance the inclusive, purposeful, collaborative and joyful impulses people already have as generative beings; ...supports leaders to better see themselves and the people they lead to collaboratively navigate the dilemmas and paradoxes they face, as they shape the future together. |
