Inside Catalyst — Sept 16: circles, connection and challenge

Reflections from the Catalyst team on working in person, sharing power and putting our values into action.

Joe Roberson
Catalyst
3 min readSep 16, 2024

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Photo by Shyam on Unsplash

This week we’re happy because

Megan: The kids are back at school and I have that productive September energy! With everyone back from annual leave I’ve spent a good amount of time this week working in person, which has been great. Ellie and I travelled to Rochester to spend the day with our other Co-Director, Sheeza. And we spent a day with our governance circle too.

We all sat on the floor drawing pictures of how we felt our current sociocratic circles related to each other, and how we imagined our circle structure might look in the future. It’s the kind of creative work that is so hard to do when we’re all on Zoom.

Abi: At our governance day I felt like we were uncovering the layers of the onion, painstakingly and with care and looking at the real core of what we are all here for, what stands in our way and what we need to do. Sharing power and enabling others is incredibly challenging. And we are here for it!

Sheeza: I love that we:

  • work sociocratically
  • prioritise governance and finance
  • implement a circle and flat leadership structure
  • centre community voices
  • respond to societal issues that impact people within our network
  • implement a 4-day work week
  • prioritise each other’s wellbeing and make relevant adjustments to support each others needs
  • consider ethical implications of all parts of our work.

Challenges ahoy

Megan: admin vs planning

There’s been some change in our team and that brings a lot of admin tasks and space-making tasks that manage transitions and welcome new people in. Updating companies house, changing banking signatories, adding and removing people from payroll, references, DBS checks, setting up new accounts on our digital tools, and removing others. It all takes time that I’d rather spend talking about plans and values and what we need from each other!

Abi: sharing power, letting go of control

My challenge is working with the reality of what it takes to genuinely let go of power and control, and feel the discomfort this creates…

This includes navigating what comes up about pay, equity and fairness is some of the most challenging work I do. Keeping this aligned with the reality of budgets is even harder.

“It is scary talking about value, pay and equity and working how to move forward within everyone’s range of tolerance. Whilst also thinking about how this affects the wider network It is incredibly difficult to balance inclusion and sharing of perspective and voice with getting things done and moving forward. These will always be tensions, and the more we practise, the more we will build the skill and confidence to make real progress and bring more voices in.”

I’m going to step into this discomfort, be brave, and try to change, adapt and iterate. I want to take some personal risks, talk about it and make it real.

Sheeza: cashflow and governance

My challenges are:

  • thinking about fundraising and cashflow needs
  • competing deadlines and priorities
  • ensuring that we’re designing good governance that is truly in service of the Catalyst network.

To manage these I’m going to be regularly meeting with the team, surfacing critical needs, improving transparency around our information flows so that we can work collectively, and baking in retros / feedback loops into my work.

I’ve also been taking regular breaks in the day to spend time with my girls. This allows me moments to reset before I open my laptop again!

We’ve also been… developing a care policy

We’re developing new policies and plans that put our values into action. This week Megan has also been working on a ‘care’ policy with Abbie Kempson from People Support Co-op. It aims to set out our approach to supporting each other — to ensure everyone’s caring responsibilities and care needs are recognised and accommodated alongside our work commitments.

See you next time! 👋

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Catalyst
Catalyst

Published in Catalyst

UK collaborative to bring a social purpose to the digital revolution.

Joe Roberson
Joe Roberson

Written by Joe Roberson

Bid writer. Content designer. I help charities and tech for good startups raise funds, build tech products, then sustain them. Writes useful stuff. More poetry.

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