Discover how the Children's Society has navigated the pandemic and using its learning to improve what it does and how it is tackling new issues Discover how to use learning to help reinvent and renew services & ways of working in this new environment Speaking will be Nerys Anthony – Director of National Operation and Adam Groves, The Children’s Society’s Design Lead.

1. Reflecting on our
learning journey
during COVID
18 September 2020

2. Page 2
Who we are

3. Page 3
"The people of Great Britain
have had enough of experts"
Michael Gove
We are not pretending to
be experts. We're sharing
what we did... we welcome
your critical feedback.

5. Page 5
We're presenting lots of people's hard work
Also on the team...
Gemma Drake
Chloe Dennis-Green
Helen Dudzinska
Ellen Fruijtier

6. Page 6
Not this kind...

7. Page 7
Accelerating Impact Team
- Service design
- Youth work
- Systems change

8. Page 8
Context for this work

9. Page 9
“The way that you change the system
is intervening around the edge, doing
little projects [to] tweak the system...
and then the big thing changes
- hopefully, at some point - but
unfortunately you never know really
in advance when that’s going to
happen.”​
John Thackara

10. Page 10
“Ask someone what happened
during a high intensity, rapidly
moving situation from a month ago.
I’d bet they will put together a
‘story’ that represents a logical,
ordered sequence of events that
match the actions and outcomes
they think happened.”
Chris Bolton
whatsthepont.com
This presentation won’t fully escape this trap.

11. Page 11
• What are services doing differently to
support young people?
• Who influences whether new ways of
working are introduced within services,
and how?
• How are organisational behaviours and
practices changing?
• What do we value? How have our
priorities shifted and what are we
letting go of?

12. Page 12
The goal was to enable colleagues to
identify – and then consciously nurture
and grow – the values, mindsets and
practices which might help us do a
better job of supporting young
people in future.

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A confession?
We didn't know where the
learning would take us.
There was no masterplan
to achieve our goal.

14. Page
14
What we did
(a whistle-stop tour)

15. Page 15
Prompted self-reflections
Collected on Microsoft forms

16. Page 16

17. Page 17
Collective learning
Page 17

18. Observation
Page 18

19. Page 19
Data analysis
Page 19
More face-to-face support
resumes (also staff holidays).
Certain areas leaning into
new ways of working. Why?

20. Page 20
Project weeknotes
Each week we shared
• What we’ve done
• What we’ll do next week
• What we saw and heard
• What we’re mulling over
• Things to celebrate
(sent to all participants, and posted on internal social network)

21. Prompted
self-reflections
April
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
CYP Participation
Leads meetings
Observations
(shadowing)
Synthesis
workshop
Support for teams
with momentum
Three Horizons
Workshops (5 ELT)
SLT sense-making
workshops (30+)
Strategy process
CYP staff survey

22. April
May
June
July
Aug
Sept
How the work evolved
Why?
Partly design
Partly necessity
Partly chance
Partly mistakes
Wanted to be relevant
to colleagues.
(not extractive /
escalated in a report)

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What did we learn?

24. Page
24
Reflecting on our
approach

25. Intensity
of the work
Page 25
MORE IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL LESS IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL
WENT LESS WELL
WENT WELL
Avenues for
hearing from
young
people
Service
engagement
Mix of
methods
and data
Efforts to
be 'open'
(internal &
external)
Mobilising
to support
service
teams
Permission
to do the
work
Leadership
Engagement
and support
We started
with 3yrs of
insight and
relationships
Weekly
synthesis
of what we
were hearing
Sometimes
sign-off
felt slow for
work w/ ELT.
Embedding
reflective
practice
CELEBRATE
THANK PEOPLE
FIX NEXT TIME
ESCALATION /
SYSTEMS CHANGE

26. Intensity
of the work
Page 26
MORE IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL LESS IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL
WENT LESS WELL
Avenues for
hearing from
young
people
Service
engagement
Mix of
methods
and data
Efforts to
be 'open'
(internal &
external)
Mobilising
to support
service
teams
Permission
to do the
work
Leadership
Engagement
and support
We started
with 3yrs of
insight and
relationships
Weekly
synthesis
of what we
were hearing
Sometimes
sign-off
felt slow for
work w/ ELT.
Embedding
reflective
practice
CELEBRATE
THANK PEOPLE
FIX NEXT TIME
ESCALATION /
SYSTEMS CHANGE
WENT WELL

27. Intensity
of the work
Page 27
MORE IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL LESS IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL
WENT LESS WELL
Avenues for
hearing from
young
people
Service
engagement
Mix of
methods
and data
Efforts to
be 'open'
(internal &
external)
Mobilising
to support
service
teams
Permission
to do the
work
Leadership
Engagement
and support
We started
with 3yrs of
insight and
relationships
Weekly
synthesis
of what we
were hearing
Sometimes
sign-off
felt slow for
work w/ ELT.
Embedding
reflective
practice
CELEBRATE
THANK PEOPLE
FIX NEXT TIME
ESCALATION /
SYSTEMS CHANGE
WENT WELL

28. Intensity
of the work
Page 28
MORE IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL LESS IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL
WENT LESS WELL
Avenues for
hearing from
young
people
Service
engagement
Mix of
methods
and data
Efforts to
be 'open'
(internal &
external)
Mobilising
to support
service
teams
Permission
to do the
work
Leadership
Engagement
and support
We started
with 3yrs of
insight and
relationships
Weekly
synthesis
of what we
were hearing
Sometimes
sign-off
felt slow for
work w/ ELT.
Embedding
reflective
practice
CELEBRATE
THANK PEOPLE
FIX NEXT TIME
ESCALATION /
SYSTEMS CHANGE
WENT WELL

29. Intensity
of the work
Page 29
MORE IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL LESS IN OUR TEAM'S CONTROL
WENT LESS WELL
Avenues for
hearing from
young
people
Service
engagement
Mix of
methods
and data
Efforts to
be 'open'
(internal &
external)
Mobilising
to support
service
teams
Permission
to do the
work
Leadership
Engagement
and support
We started
with 3yrs of
insight and
relationships
Weekly
synthesis
of what we
were hearing
Sometimes
sign-off
felt slow for
work w/ ELT.
Embedding
reflective
practice
CELEBRATE
THANK PEOPLE
FIX NEXT TIME
ESCALATION /
SYSTEMS CHANGE
WENT WELL

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30
7 principles
(that worked for us)

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1. Be relevant and useful
Act on needs and opportunities where you see them. Build
on momentum where it exists, rather than attempting to
abstract it into a report or transport it elsewhere.
5. Work at multiple levels
…but don’t stay in your (organisation’s) comfort zone. Seek
insight from multiple levels and parts of the organisation.
Different perspectives yield richer, challenging insights.
2. Radiate intent
Don’t assume permission but model the bravery you love to
see in others. Where you see a good opportunity, pitch to act
on it. Use feedback to understand if the opportunity exists.
6. Work in the open
Share your work and learning as widely as possible. Draw
on any attention your work receives to seek feedback and to
build momentum. Where you can, show don’t tell.
3. Start small and test
You cannot ‘masterplan’ work in a complex context. Look for
opportunities to test the value of your approach. See what
comes back, and then take your next steps.
7. Use simple language
Try to let go of jargon. It alienates people. Speak like a
normal person.
4. Go where the energy is
Recognise the value of existing groups and forums. Frame
asks in ways that respect people’s expertise and experience
– affirm people’s professional identities where possible…

32. Page 32
Some (possible) questions for breakout groups...
What resonated, if anything?
What else is important to consider in your experience?
Anything you would particularly like to ask us?*
*feel free to also send us questions via Twitter after this session.

33. We’d welcome feedback, questions, suggestions, critiques…etc. via Twitter:
@adgro
@nerysanthony