Patterns for Change: a small part of a big transition
Patterns for Change is a simple contribution, made for and by those working within civil society, to help individuals, groups and organisations work better together in times of change.
The 7 behaviours that it surfaces, drawn from existing and emerging practice, aren’t rocket science. Know your why, Set directions together, Listen and share bravely, Build on what’s strong, Know by trying, Understand your limits and Connect generously — this is not complicated or revolutionary sounding stuff. But this way of thinking about organisational development, as something more personal, relational, equitable and collective, does feel part of a much bigger shift.
Civil society, the infinitely diverse assortment of individuals, groups, organisations, networks and movements that work together for the benefit of others, represents, for me, human beings at their very best. But, within this civil society, there are ways of working that have become, over the last 20 years in particular, considerably more highly valued and rewarded than others.
Ways of working that can, for example, identify specific issues, deliver targeted solutions and measure certain forms of impact, have tended to be the most valued. And the organisations that can demonstrate that they do this efficiently and compete effectively have had access to the most resources. Not by coincidence, the people that bring these kinds of ways of working and build organisations that meet these criteria have tended to over-represent white, middle-class groups (like me) with certain forms of knowledge, experience and social capital.
At the same time, all of the layers and threads of civil society that work more holistically and relationally, where the dissection of single issues, the separation of service providers and service users or the competition of individual actors isn’t remotely relevant, have tended to be undervalued. Unless these people can contort themselves and their organisations into the shape of what is valued, they have access to very few resources. Again, not by coincidence, those working in these ways and being excluded from these resources have tended to over-represent ethic minorities and those from working class backgrounds, with different forms of knowledge, experience and social capital.
Conventional organisational development thinking and practice reflects this value model. It seeks to drive “effective growth and longevity of an organisation”, it mostly prioritises “developing, improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures and processes”; and it normally assumes hierarchical management structures within which certain stakeholders “modify the behaviour and performance” of others. And those that inform and drive organisational development (e.g. leaders, funders, consultants), again, over-represent groups with existing power and influence.
These are my reflections and it’s important to say that the work of the Patterns for Change network hasn’t set out to dismiss or criticise any particular way of thinking or talking about OD.
But after a year of bringing many different voices and experiences together from across civil society to explore these questions, I would say that the conventional lens for organisational development, which too often sees people as recipients of change or as passive actors in amongst it, is less relevant to civil society than we’ve realised, more limiting than we’ve understood and has done greater harm and been more dehumanising than we’ve acknowledged.
This better understanding and the action that is flowing from it (of which Patterns for Change is a small part), sits within the wider shift in understanding and action of the last year, with all that the pandemic has revealed and exacerbated and all that the Black Lives Matter movement has made more of us face up to.
We’re seeing the acceleration of a much needed transition. This will, I hope, head towards greater pluralism within civil society, where deeply personal and relational intentions, priorities and ways of working — and the under-represented sources of knowledge and experience that bring them — grow to play much more powerful roles.
Patterns for Change hasn’t tried to build a new narrative or invent new practice. What it’s really done is try to find, celebrate, connect and share some of the stories and ways of working that put people and relationships at their centre, that give agency to everyone, that recognise human fragility and trauma, that embrace the mess and fluidity of change, that see us all as connected across the systems in which we work and much else. And to give more space to the people that have been doing this work, such as Mama Ujuaje, Alison Lowe, Cat Ainsworth & Alex Mecklenburg, Tessa Cooper, Jon Barnes, Emily Bazalgette, Sophia Parker, Tayo Medupin, Panthea Lee, Ellie Hale and Bonnie Chiu. It is also rooted in strong relationships with and ongoing conbtributions to complementary and likeminded work, such as the ambitious and energetic Beyond the Rules partnership and Relationships Project.
The work so far by the Patterns for Change network, which has been supported by Lloyd’s Bank Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund and and lead by a team made up of people at Shift, NPC, IVAR and NCVO, and the work that continues and grows this year, will try to play its modest role in this big transition.
