Three lessons from the past year to help you right now
What have we learnt as a sector since we first went into lockdown one year ago? And what can we take from that to help us through this next stage of continued adaptation and challenge?
Here are three reflections that I’ve taken from a year of working with colleagues from across the social sector – and some ideas that I hope you’ll find helpful as we start to emerge from this current period of lockdown.
1. It’s another marathon not a sprint
At the beginning of the first lockdown, it was my recollections of how I prodded and coaxed myself around a 13-mile half marathon that helped me to figure out how I was going to navigate through this extraordinary time.
The map that I printed off of the half marathon I had run and stuck up on my wall was my crutch throughout. All the clues were there: don’t set off at too quick a pace only to feel defeated at mile 3; save your energies for the long slog at the end; tough week – well yes of course, remember this is like the slow uphill but don’t worry there is a drinks station ahead.
Once it became clear that rather than 13 weeks, we had 13 months (and counting) to endure, the map stayed on the wall. And now I can see that we are nearing a sort of finish line again. Whilst we might ache for something different, this is not a finish but just the start of another process of change, repair, grief and readjustment. Maintaining purpose and pace are going to continue to play an important role during this next stage.
2. Relationships and core values are a source of strength
The social sector has been through an extraordinary time of rapid adaptation, with services being redesigned at pace, teams finding new ways to work together and multiple examples of radical delegation with staff stepping up and grasping new roles.
I’ve been struck by the reflections of social sector colleagues who have joined us at our monthly campfires. Their natural instinct as we’ve worked together through this period of change has been to return to their core purpose, invest in relationships and to strengthen their core values. And it is this sense of purpose, values and strong relationships that have helped them through. From our monthly sessions, the candid and brave contributions from across the sector have made clear that personal and organisational wellbeing and resilience are one and the same thing.
Paying careful attention to both our values and relationships will help us as we come out of this lockdown. We will continue to grow through this next period by finding ways of offering and borrowing courage from each other, being kind to ourselves and each other at the same time as recognising where we have more and deeper work to do in the challenge ahead.
3. Now is the moment to think bold and go deeper
Through this turbulent time, the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement and the response to Sarah Everard’s murder, have pointed to the need for the social sector to ask questions about the attitudes and assumptions that underpin all our work. Now is the time for the sector to go deeper and take those bold steps that will help us to reboot our thinking for the future.
That is why today we are sharing our early thinking about how we will help organisations develop a deep, lasting response to combating discrimination and promoting equality. There is an exciting opportunity to unleash an organisation’s power by bringing strategy and equalities work together.
Written by Katherine Rake, Director & Consultant