Manic, mothballing or managing?

Chances are, you’ve experienced all of these since our last newsletter in March.
Whatever your response, individually or organisationally, we’re here for you. We’ll come out on the other side of today’s challenges together.

• Expanded e-learning offering – accessible sustainability support
• Peer support opportunities
• Online away days – case study
• More free resources
• Sneak peak at the *new* Lasting Difference toolkit!

• Assess your organisation’s next steps and manage change
• Review capacity, resources, priorities and partnerships
• Embed or review Lasting Difference principles in this new reality
• Enhance CPD, gain an elearning badge, learning at you rown pace in your own way.

• Two additional interactive group sessions to reflect on shared challenges and learning
• Two-hours free consultancy support for you or your team
• Reduced fee: Was £120 now £100 (group discounts also available).

• “Inspired me to think about things – and do things – differently! Particularly around pursuing funding and capacity.”
• “Understanding the peaks and pitfalls of sustainability and how to get there safely.”
• “Helpful, clear and easy to digest in bite-size chunks.”
• “Extremely helpful…I now have clear actions I will take as a result.”

Leadership, equalities and next generation leaders 13th October

• Children 1st
• Cerebal Palsy Scotland
• Dyslexia Scotland
• Support in Mind Scotland

Join us on Thursday 4th June via our online platform. Find out more and book your place:
wren@wrenandgreyhound.co.uk

Online away days case study: Shared Care Scotland

“We were a little nervous about undertaking such an important piece of work ‘remotely’…”

Now that we’re all experts with Zoom, Teams, Skype etc, surely we don’t need facilitated sessions…? Having fumbled through clunky online meetings like everyone else, we ran a remote strategy away day recently. Both experiences show there’s value in independent facilitation!

Rather than cancelling a planned strategy day with stakeholders, Shared Care Scotland worked with us to adapt the event, transforming what would have been a full-day’s participation into a shorter online session. As with a face-to-face event, preparation was everything.

We began by checking people’s appetite and availability for this way of working, then provided the key questions in advance via a short survey. This let us work out which topics mattered most to staff, trustees and stakeholders, helping to focus the session. Next we gave participants the chance to explore the online platform in advance. Making the ‘meeting room’ available for a week beforehand and giving clear explanations and guidance ‘gave people confidence’, says Chief Executive Don Williamson.

‘There was a nice pace and good use of the platforms tools to check mood and pace. There was great multi-tasking from the facilitator – listening and building on points whilst also keeping an eye on the chat log, raised hands etc.

‘We were a little nervous about undertaking such an important piece of work ‘remotely’, but we felt it delivered what was needed and has generated some helpful questions and themes for us to explore over the coming months.’

We are grateful to Don and everyone at Shared Care Scotland for the opportunity to test our online learning platform as a facilitation tool. We’ve learned a lot about delivering online courses in the last two years, but knowing we can offer the usual Wren and Greyhound experience virtually, has been really heartening.

We’ve already helped a few organisations learn to more about developing and delivering elearning, so give us a shout if you’d like a look around the platform – or if you’re ready for better online meetings!

More free resources

Last month Graeme should have been in London with our friends at the Directory of Social Change, presenting the Lasting Leadership guide at their leadership summit. Instead, he used the time to make a short film introducing the main ideas behind it. You can see it on our YouTube channel or via the link below.

500 book sales, 500p off!

Monday 27th April is the first anniversary of  Making a Lasting Difference, the ‘inspiring’ ‘must-have’ book on nonprofit sustainability.

We want to improve that ratio, so for the next month we’ve taken 500p off the price of the paperback (now £9.99) and reduced the Kindle edition to £1.99.

Get it from Amazon or our partners at Flying Underground.

‘Should be required reading for every leader in the third sector.’

‘Brilliant book. Highly recommended if you enjoy a systems approach to change to achieve healthy thriving sustainable organisations. First class.’

‘An excellent book. A must have for anyone trying to navigate change. Practical. Based on real experience. Inspiring.’

New Lasting Difference toolkit coming in May!

For as long as we can remember, there’s never been enough time for development. And suddenly we have plenty! We’ve had a bunch of edits ready since last August, but finally had the time to incorporate them and give the toolkit a facelift.

Here’s a sneak peak of what to expect from the new edition which comes out next month:

• Revised and improved indicators for innovation and improvement (fittingly!)
• Fuller, clearer Impact Measurement principles
• New look self-assessment, scoring system and visual score summary
• Aligned ‘leadership’ section and overall design with the Lasting Leadership guide.

The changes give us a renewed sense of pride in the work and we can’t wait to share it with you in May – watch this space!