NET update: December 2023
Here’s our update for December…
We’re using this update to look back at 2023 and look forward to 2024. And to wish you a very merry Christmas. We look forward to connecting with you all in 2024, and supporting you to connect and collaborate with each other.
Looking back at 2023
This year we’ve been starting on our collaboration learning journey using the eight-part North East Together collaboration framework as our guide over four events in 2023 and 2024. The four half-day in person events for all focused on growing and developing our collaborative leadership capacity and capability. Our ambition is to learn about and start to apply and develop the North East Together Collaboration toolkit and framework to support more, and more effective, collaboration across the north east.
We know our region faces challenges and opportunities that no one person or organisation can resolve or respond to alone. We also recognise the need to embrace complexity and systems thinking when we reflect on the health of our social systems in the north east to develop more nuanced and ultimately effective interventions. Embracing complexity and systems thinking requires a fundamental commitment to working collaboratively.
The final event in this series in November 2024 will find us at the 10th anniversary of starting the network. We’re really curious to see what’s changed. We hope you’ll travel along with us as we share what we’ve learnt in our collaboration inquiry since we started out.
Together we can.
As in 2022, we gathered in person¹ for our whole network events and made the most of working online to host NET Connect, and NET pop ups collaborating with others.
What we’ve been up to this year…
- NET Connect 3: Lay all your love on me (February 2023)
- Gearing up for our collaboration journeys…North East Together’s whole network event 24 (May 2023) — starting our walk through the NET collaboration toolkit, we looked at triggers and motivates for collaboration, initial vision, alignment and relationships, and the leadership needed when collaboration start. We heard from Kevin Franks, Youth Focus North East about the story so far of North East Youth Alliance, and from Mandi Cresswell, then of Meadow Well Connected about Leaders Together for North Tyneside on how a focus on relationships is growing strong roots for future collaborations
- NET Connect 4: Grow and nuture our relationships (September 2023) — we somehow lost our Abba themed event titles along the way…we’ll come back to these in 2024!
- How crowdfunding works for communities: NET x Spacehive pop up event (September 2023) —Spacehive collaborated with us to share how budding north-east based project creators can launch their own community crowdfunding campaigns, and how to get involved in the autumn Crowdfund North of Tyne funding window
- Perspective, participation and power: understanding the health of the systems we need to improve together…North East Together’s whole network event 25 (November 2023) — we looked at system behaviours as part of our continuing collaboration learning journey with the help of Dr Max French, assistant professor, Northumbria University’s Business School. We explored Lankelly Chase’s system behaviours of perspective, participation and power, and thought together about how they can help us have a conversation about system change and collaboration. We also heard from Dr Joanne James about sources of power and creating an environment for participation. Jo asked us: How can we create environments where everyone feels they belong, and their uniqueness is valued?
This year we said a huge thank you and cheerio to Cissie Tsang from the NET team who moved to a different role at Newcastle University. Cissie helped us keep organised, finding the budget for snacks and was generally brilliant. We miss her but know our loss is her new department’s gain.
North East Coaching Collective: Coaching for social change
In 2023, the North East Coaching Collective offered free one to one coaching to people working for positive social change in the north east. We know coaching gives people time and space to think, plan, take action and learn. And we offered this initiative with the intention of helping people cope with and respond better to change after continuing challenging times for us all working and volunteering for social change. In the end we coached 13 people working or volunteering for small VCSE organisations (with a turnover of less than £250,000) and people working independently for social change in the north east.
We asked coaches from the North East Coaching Collective, and qualified coaches and coaches in training from the Newcastle University MSc in Coaching and Mentoring to volunteer their time, knowing gifting a small amount of time each — 4.5 hours — will make a big difference.
We hope to offer this initiative again in 2024.
Looking ahead to 2024
We’ll continue with our big large scale whole network gatherings for the second half of our collaboration learning journey, our more intimate NET Connect gatherings, and plan to host more NET pop ups to inspire us and nudge us to collaborate as topics and opportunities come up.
These are our plans, so far…
- 14 February 2024 — NET Connect #5, 16:00–17:15, online — bringing together North East Together members and network friends to connect, grow and nurture our relationships — book your place
- 21 May 2024 — North East Together #26, whole network event, 13:00 for 13:30–16:30 + later for more informal networking — we’ll open bookings as soon as we can
- 11 September 2024 — NET Connect #6, 16:00–17:15, online — book your place
- November 2024 — North East Together #27, whole network event, 13:00 for 13:30–16:30 + later for more informal networking — we’ll agree a date and open bookings as soon as we can
Want to host your own pop up event in 2024?
If you’re inspired by our previous NET pop ups, don’t forget the NET team can collaborate with you to host your own. Talk with Robert, Marie or Stephanie if you’d like to do this.
A bit of an update from us at YWC for 2024
Lead and manage: Best self, Great teams, Amazing together
We are delighted to be running this again in 2024 — with spring and autumn start dates. Our Lead and manage leadership programme is central to our mission of developing social leadership and is part of our contribution to developing our north east voluntary, community and social enterprise sector workforce. We know our sector is full of great people doing great work, but we also know there are too few opportunities for us to connect, learn, develop and grow. The programme focuses on what we think is important for all of us in leadership roles — being your best self, being part of and leading great teams, and working on amazing things together. The programme is three full days — one for each of the three themes Best self (framework shown below), Great teams, Amazing together — and two half days to help us start and end well.
These are energising days to learn together — from us and each other — and give you time out of your every day to reflect on your own leadership and connect and build relationships with your peers. The cost of each place is £600.
- spring-summer 2024 — 3 x full days (1 May, 5 June, 3 July) and 2 x half days (17 April, 17 July) — all Wednesdays…you can view the programme overview and book your place
- autumn-winter 2024 — 3 x full days (24 September, 22 October, 26 November) and 2 x half days (10 September, 10 December)…bookings are open too
If you’re interested in taking part and/or would like to find out more, email Robert or use our booking form for spring-summer or autumn-winter to book your place. You can also read the impact and feedback report to learn what the spring-summer learning group thought of the programme.
What else are we up to?
We’ll continue working towards our mission and purpose to collaborate to grow and develop social change leadership in the north east. In 2014, we’re looking to collaborate with more people and organisations who share our purpose. We work with individuals, teams, organisations, communities, collaborations and systems. So if you’re looking to develop yourself or your workforce through training, facilitation, coaching, mentoring or action learning; collaborate together better; make plans to develop or change; improve your governance; or gather together…have a conversation with us. We don’t just take one approach, and we will work with you to be your best.
Some of our exciting, purposeful and rewarding work already planned for 2024 includes growing and embedding reflective practices and coaching CPD (with Tyne Housing), supporting an initiative for Your Voice Counts members to coach health professionals in South Tyneside, an action learning set facilitation training and support programme (with North of Tyne Combined Authority), and continuing to create a coaching culture in the north east (with The Phoenix Way North East and Cumbria).
We’re also developing a cunning plan we’re very excited about that we’ll share with you as soon as we can.
About North East Together
North East Together is the network for social change leadership in the north east.
Our collective mission here at North East Together is to create the conditions, and platform for, collaboration to become the norm in the north east and to nurture a healthier social change system.
Our network offers mutual support, enables collaboration and inspires social leaders. We offer a series of dynamic network events; whole day events, self-organised collaborative working groups; pathways into coaching; and independent social change events.
North East Together is hosted by Yes We Can and is a collaboration between Yes We Can and Newcastle University Business School. We’re grateful for the support both organisations give to North East Together.
Cheerio for now.
Stephanie
For the NET team Dr Jo James, Marie Foalle, Robert Laycock, Stephanie Cole
¹ I’m still refusing to use ‘in real life’ as I continue to be uncomfortable about what that says about all the other ways we connect with each other…is online unreal or fake?
