Ripples and surprises
Our lab work has multiple rhythms which overlay
We have 90 minute weekly network weaving sessions in which we share conversations that have connected people to each other or our platforms. I wrote about these when we initiated them in January 2017.
We convene for monthly team design sessions to dig into the design and detectorism aspects of our work. We are enjoying holding the design sessions in different places which offer inspiration, connections and ideas, such as Impact Hub Birmingham, MAC Birmingham (including making use of Cannon Hill Park for nature-based design inspiration - see lab team member Daniel J. Blyden’s tweet below), Birmingham Open Media and this month we’re heading to Sandwell College’s Fab Lab.
We design our work in seasons, in harmony with the characteristics of different seasons; Autumn was a period of reflection digging into our systems learning to inform the development of holistic goals, in Winter we focused on the nurturing work of developing our values-based principles; as we headed into Spring we focused on awakening and growing new collaborations, a new Dudley SOUP team and a collective of doers and creatives to work together to create a summer festival of doing.
Since the National Lottery Community Fund has invested in our lab we have added another rhythm to our work; a six monthly reflection point which offers a helpful learning and sharing moment with our colleagues from the National Lottery Community Fund.
Our lab team came together in April to listen to the ripples of our actions, reflect on the emergent qualities of our design and evaluate our successes and challenges over a six month period. We continue to use all kinds of detectorism activities to draw in feedback from a range of perspectives, which offer a wider lens on team reflections. We’ll be digging into our reflections and learning this week with our Lottery Funding Officers, in particular our challenges. We’ll be including their perspectives in a later post on challenges. Below is a summary of what’s surprised us, what’s worked and what ripples we have noticed from our work.
What has surprised us
1. How incredibly helpful our principles are
All team members expressed surprise at the utility of our values-based principles and how much we use them. One team member said
“Everything seems to revolve around the principles; whatever is happening the principles seem to be embedded.”
Jo Orchard-Webb observed that Principles-Focused Evaluation is intuitive for us as a team, it has authenticity and integrity end to end, links back to systems change thinking we started in 2017, and has informed new activities and people getting involved in our lab work.
2. How much new activity is emerging as a result of people making use of our platform
Doers, social entrepreneurs and creatives are coming to us and very quickly initiating projects and activities. Of 21 people we have observed taking the lead over the last 6 months:
- Half live in or around Dudley town centre.
- 8 are people completely new to our platform.
- 10 have used Trade School Dudley to share their skills.
- 6 responded to our open call for new Dudley SOUP team members.
- 4 have been sharing skills and knowledge through our First Thursdays open project evenings.
- 7 have been part of Gather & Create dinners which have helped with relationship building that supports projects and ideas to grow and connect.
- 4 are social entrepreneurs being invested in by lab partner UnLtd.
- 3 are creatives who have bought in Arts Council and other funding for collaborations with CoLab Dudley.
3. Other organisations being interested and wanting the same things
We have spent time with both Fellow Travellers who are keen to learn more about the variety of approaches and ideas we are playing with, and Dudley-based organisations who have similar goals to us while having quite different approaches to moving towards them. Feedback we heard from a new team from Top Church who we invited to a Gather & Create dinner was that hearing what we were bringing people together to work on was “a pleasant surprise”.
What has worked well?
Highlights included:
- Our lab principles — how they guide our team discussions and decisions.
- Referring to lab principles in relation to work with new people and in developing new activities and projects; checking if they fit with principles.
- Monthly team design sessions and Gather & Create dinners which have facilitated meaningful involvement for Daniel J. Blyden as a wider lab team member who isn’t involved in day to day activities or network weaving on the ground.
- Transferability of Principles-Focused Evaluation for values driven work. Jo Orchard-Webb has shared the approach with Wolverhampton for Everyone and Grapevine Coventry and Adam Hall has shared it with social entrepreneurs supported by UnLtd with whom it resonated. Adam has observed that there are 140 impact measurement tools, none seem as useful as Principles-Focused Evaluation does for social entrepreneurs.
Listening to the ripples of our actions
An emerging sister lab!
We felt the biggest ripple has been the emergence of a sister lab, Wolverhampton for Everyone, led by long-time collaborators Saffi Price from Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council and Sam Axtell from Wolverhampton City Council. We have been meeting with their team in various ways, we produced a lab note on one of their visits to us earlier this year.
Journeys that doers are on
- Since offering to volunteer behind the counter at gather, Asheena has taken part in Trade School Dudley classes, taught a class, started offering yoga classes at gather and is testing social enterprise models around her yoga teaching, supported by UnLtd and Gather Dudley CIC.
- Since first offering a Trade School class in British Sign Language in March 2017, Siobhan has gone on to host a Language Cafe at gather, and is now planning to take it to a local pub for an additional daytime session.
- Doers who have been part of the ecosystem for a couple of year or more are really embracing our recently developed lab principles, and deeply understand them.
- Even doers much newer to our work who have been curious have been overheard explaining our approach and activity to others they meet in gather.
Interest in our work and approaches
- Artists and creatives have been approaching us to collaborate on projects they have been securing funds for. We have helped them grow relationships with each other and with doers through Gather & Create dinners, and their projects will feature in and around Do Fest Dudley in July.
- Architects and artists have asked to visit us to learn about our work and approaches, particularly in relation to participation and planning policy explorations they are undertaking. Holly Doron drew on insights from time with us in her learning marathon, which she has blogged about.
- Our funder, the National Lottery Community Fund invited us to speak at their Reaching Communities away day, and are developing a case study with us around our Principles-Focused Evaluation approach to share with others they grant funds to.
Influencing others in lab partner organisations
- Dudley CVS officers including East Coseley Big Local officers have been adopting, adapting and building on things we do and the ways we work. For example sharing examples of inspiring projects from around the world and helping people see how they might easily start similar activities.
- UnLtd staff have shown a lot of interest in our Principles-Focused Evaluation approach and our use of a systems tool called the Iceberg Model.
