#WeekNotes w/c 29 May 2023
This week, progress on:
Strapline
Digital presence
Inquiry within the Atelier: 'Using Time Well'.
A maturity scale that was new to me and looks useful.
Constantly re-telling a good founding myth.
Strapline
This week I had to submit to a biography for an event I'm attending (an Immersion run by 4SD Foundation, an organisation which promotes living systems leadership for urgent change, and is cofounded by former UN official Sir David Nabarro). Which meant I had to write something snappy about what I'm doing now. And so, out of that pressure came this strap line:
"What's needed? What's ready? What can we do? What next?"
I've used that in all the new digital presence (see below). Of course, it is too long and probably in other ways imperfect. But what I like about it (so far):
You get a sense of what the Atelier is for: getting new stuff to happen.
The emphasis is on a good process, rather than having answers. Part of a good process is direction and a through-journey, not just talking for talking's sake.
The questions are good prompts for developing anything , I think.
Unpacking the questions:
What's needed? Implicit: "...in this situation, here and now, for us to head in a better direction?" First cut, I think this question is about diagnosis ('simplifies the often overwhelming complexity of reality by identifying certain aspects of the situation as critical' -- Rummelt). It could be outer ("What's needed in the world?"). It could be inner ("What is needed for me?").
What's ready? Or rather, 'what's ready-enough to be reward putting a bit of effort in?' There is also an implication that what's ready aligns with the diagnosis of what's needed.
What can we do? Some different parts to this:
The emphasis on 'we'. The IFF rule is 'no solo climbing'. Any project will need to (over time) becaome a collective endeavour.
If we can't do anything, we should stop.
If nothing is ready, and we care deeply about what's needed, then we should look upstream at the blocks to having stuff that is ready.
What next? What is the action that takes us forward, in the light of all we now know?
WHAT NEXT: See how this tagline lands, and whether it does work in conveying the Atelier.
Digital presence
I've created or updated various things with the Atelier:
A LinkedIn page for the Atelier itself.
Twitter (more of a holding pattern, that one).
No win my email signature
All of that meant creating a logo. To get to good enough, I just went into Canva with a few small requirements:
Looks good as small circle (is the picture you see next to a handle on Twitter).
Positive and bright.
The result:
I couldn't fit the 'of' in. As a colour scheme, I think going from 'confused to go' (purple to green) is a good message. Doubtless this can all be improved. But it is good enough for now.
WHAT NEXT: Pushing out the weeknotes on these digital channels.
Inquiry within the Atelier: ‘Using Time Well’
Background. My wife was an NHS child and adolescent psychotherapist, before she died at 46 of cancer. She had been studying towards a doctorate on the theme of ‘ how much time do we need?’, including how there are conflicting values about time in NHS (my short version: efficiency vs effectiveness). In a peer-reviewed paper, she urges the need to feedback clinical experience into training structures and ongoing learning.
My intentions. Soon after her death, I had a notion of continuing that work. My intention is to have an on-going, positive and practical contribution to the profession. I set up JustGiving page here, which has raised £2,417 so far to explore the question:
How can we ensure the experience of clinicians on 'using time well' is used to help the whole discipline to improve -- and so improve the outcomes for children and adolescents?
The initial concept (created to give something for people to respond to, rather than as something I think is The Only Answer) was an an annual competition for best essay on this topic, which would then act as an attractor for emerging practices which could be shared with the community.
I have made little progress in the last 2 years. Appropriately enough, some of that is because my time has been stretched, but also Jo’s former colleagues, who are overwhelmed with the pressing need of the mental health crisis.
Discover phase activities. In the terms of the '7Ds development process backbone', Jo herself did the 0.Detect (by working in the role) and 1.Describe (pulling her experiences together into a challenge). This inquiry is now at 2.Discover phase.
This week I spoke with someone who has worked in the NHS and its ecosystems. She suggested a few people I could speak to in developing the inquiry further.
Also, she agreed with an intuition I had had. Restricting to child and adolescent psychotherapists is too narrow a boundary. First, there aren't many of them, and so less spare capacity for any undertaking like this. Second, they can be an inward-facing group, making it hard for me to gain any allies. So, going forward I'll start with a wider boundary of 'healthcare professionals'.
One restriction I am keen to keep is the focus on practice, as that was very Jo.
WHAT NEXT. Keep going with the 2.Discover phase. I'm asking these questions:
1/ To what extent practitioners would recognise the issues around using time, and on the tension of efficiency vs effectiveness?
2/ Whether there is enough readiness and energy that some professionals would act, given a good-enough opportunity.
3/ What that good-enough opportunity might be? My first guess: an annual prize selected from descriptions of emerging good practice on using time well (in IFF terms, the ’scanning’ in the social learning cycle, which can then be shared for others to apply where they are).
4/ Who could be allies and collaborators in all this? (My assumption is that an outsider like me can only get so far.)
The answers might be: yes, this is a real issue but there is not enough energy or collaborators to act. Or, the answers might be: there is enough to keep going.
A maturity scale that was new to me and looks useful.
I saw a presentation by Grant Rudgley of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL, I am a tutor on their sustainable finance course). He used the Overton Window as a way of describing the maturity of an issue or idea:
Unthinkable
Radical
Acceptable
Sensible
Popular
Policy
He had a slide with issues down the left, and those stages across the top. I thought that was neat and rather useful. So, I might be nabbing that. Thanks Grant!
Constantly re-telling a good founding myth
The other week I was at the an event where Jonathon Porritt formally left the organisation he founded, Forum for the Future (as covered in The Times). One of my reflections of that evening was the importance of the founding myth that is constantly re-told.
In Forum's case, the constantly retold founding intention of 1996 had two key elements: (1) having a positive vision and (2) working in partnership with currently powerful organisations. The contrast was with Green's approach until then: doom-laden and antagonistic.
Missing from the constantly retold story was a third element: being ahead of the curve. In the mid-90s, it was obvious that partnership and positivity was also a radical departure. But, because that wasn't a 'live' part of the founding myth, it was not something that Forum deliberately sought to maintain as time went on.
Fast forward to now. Forum is doing useful work. But no one, I think, would say it is ahead of the curve. For me (and some other old-guard Forum-ites), the organisation has lost part of what made us work there.
Which makes me reflect on what founding myth I'd like to be constantly re-telling over the decades (if this works out, of course).
The opening post on "Starting 'Exploring What's Next'" is rather...defensive. I say I have a stupid idea. The rationale for the Atelier is rather like being backed into a corner. I regretful realisation that I need to turn ugliness into beauty, and to accept the realities. So, it is all rather inner and dour.
Something I will need to work on is an authentic founding myth which is more inspiring, more heartening, more outward facing. More of an answer to 'How can the Atelier be of service to others in ways they would recognise and be excited for?'.