Webinar: Steady the ship: how to navigate your organisation through stormy seas

Lucent's Steady the Ship Webinar

Navigating your organisation through stormy seas

On Thursday 25 June, leaders from across the social sector came together to share their strategy journeys and insight on leading organisations through troubled times.

Participants were introduced to The Strategy Ship - a framework for strategy development that Lucent uses to help organisations unlock their potential by answering five powerful questions.

Rebecca Gray (Chief Executive, Maudsley Charity), Kate Shurety (Executive Director, Campaign to End Loneliness) and Andrew Barnett (Chair, Church Urban Fund) described how they have worked with Lucent using this model.

Rebecca described how working with Lucent on answering the ‘Why Us’ question helped them to “pick out a golden thread which was Henry Maudsley’s vision that if you bring researchers and clinicians and educators together, that collaboration accelerates change in mental health.”

The importance of a collaborative approach to developing strategy was highlighted by Andrew. He described the process of working with Trustees and staff to build a coherent strategy together. Key to the success of this work was about “understanding the culture and personality of the organisation,” he explained. “That was one of the lightbulb moments for us – it energised those who were engaged in the process by helping us focus on not only who we serve, but who we are.”

Learning through the Covid-19 pandemic

As well as sharing their ideas and insights into the strategy process, participants also shared the learning journey their organisations have been on through the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Kate, the crisis has thrown loneliness and the wider experience of social isolation into stark relief. “Because we’d developed a strategy through an iterative conversation involving many different stakeholders we’ve been able to hold fast onto our core purpose,” explained Kate. “This helped us recognise that bringing the best research, evidence base, best practice and experience together into a conversation can fuel change and improvement.”

The webinar provides ideas and inspiration to help you develop an effective strategy to help you through the stormy seas ahead. As Katherine Rake explained: “with strategy unlocked you will have renewed energy, a sense of purpose, resilience and creativity within your organisation.”

Want to find out more? Watch the webinar on our YouTube channel here and download a copy of The Strategy Ship here.