A free tool for renewal when things feel stuck: Preserve, Grow, Compost
Something we often tell our clients is “what got you here won’t necessarily get you there”. Yet we understand it can be difficult to predict the tangible ways internal tools and practices will need to evolve 3, 5 or 10 years into the future to ‘get you there’.
Despite setting off with a new strategy and good intentions, it is possible there will come a time when you are left feeling stuck. The needs of your beneficiaries may have changed and your services no longer deliver the impact you were hoping to achieve. Software and supporting data processes may be outdated and holding your teams back. Perhaps an opportunity to collaborate in the sector arises that would enable sharing knowledge and resources in a new way.
With changes all around us, tweaks may be needed to help you deliver most impact.
As we explore here, a learning organisation is one where the team can gather evidence about what works, grow what’s good, adapt to changing circumstances and move away from what’s not working - without fear or blame.
This doesn’t mean that you need to undertake a huge strategy review – we’ve developed a tool that can provide an easy and effective way to help you take a fresh look at your work and can bring you unexpected benefits. The Preserve, Grow, Compost framework helps you review your activities and target change where it is most needed - a particularly useful exercise if you are feeling stuck.
Preserve
Looking at your current activities and processes, what are the things that you are confident need to stay the same? These may be activities that are particularly successful at meeting the needs of your beneficiaries, or an essential part of your service provision.
Ask why do they need to stay the same?
Is there a successful element to the activities that you could develop further? If so could you achieve more impact by moving them into the Grow category?
Are there activities that you are keeping in Preserve because they’re in the ‘too hard’ category to do anything about? Perhaps it’s time to really think about the benefit they are bringing – there may be activities that need to move to the Compost stage.
Grow
Identify those elements that, given more capacity and room to develop, have the potential to grow and flourish.
Scrutinise every aspect of your current activities – this is where involving everyone in the team is really important. Perhaps there is a spark of potential – currently hidden – that has the capacity to grow?
Where are the opportunities in the wider sector that these activities, with some additional attention and nurturing, could take advantage of?
Compost
This category is for activities and processes that are no longer fit for purpose and need to be wound down. Typically, our clients struggle to put anything into this category.
What helps is realising that closing activities down does not mean effort was wasted. There will have been learning that will fuel new activity in time, or elements that can be applied in a different setting.
This exercise can throw up some unexpected insights. By splitting into teams, challenging each other on the choices they’ve made, and most importantly checking that they are putting enough into the Compost category, this framework can point to helpful shifts in priorities across the team.
As we’ve worked with teams using this tool, it’s clear that there is a permanent cycle between the three categories. Reviewing them regularly helps to ensure your strategy stays up to date, fresh, relevant and helps you to work more effectively in achieving your goals.
How is your strategy holding up? Try the Preserve, Grow, Compost tool at your next team meeting or strategy review – we’d love to hear what insight it brings you.