Catalyst open working notes April 22nd: transition update
Catalyst has changed its structure and mission. This blog shares what we’ve been thinking about this last week. It’s written by me but the input comes from:
- Ellie Hale: co-director at Catalyst — weaving and bringing coherence
- Megan Gray: co-director at Catalyst — focused on operations.
I used this form to get their input.
This new beginning is energising
It is really energising to have set up as a CIC with a refreshed focus. To think about what might be possible and what change we can make as a network. We have some amazing colleagues and collaborators on this journey with us, which makes us happy.
Our collaborators ran two evaluation events
inFocus, Catalyst’s evaluators ran two brilliant online events this week. Both events explored rethinking sector practices by considering power, relationships and equity alongside digital. These are the kinds of themes we’re excited to focus on in this new phase of Catalyst.
1. Decolonising evaluation
The team ran this with activity lead, Nish Doshi. It featured 3 speakers:
- Suzanne Muhereza from the UNDP Monitoring & Evaluation Sandbox
- Srividya Harish from Oxfam in India
- Laura Miller from SolidarityCoLab —
You can watch the event recording.
2. Evaluating digital products and services for funders
This featured a very memorable and interactive presentation from Adam Groves of Nominet Social Impact.
The uncertainty and ambiguity of a new start is challenging
Now that we’ve rejigged and narrowed the focus of our activities, we’re back to a phase of ‘forming’ with our different teams and circles - as we figure out how best to organise our work together. We’re each building trust with new collaborators and feeling into the best role(s) we can play. This takes time and the inherent uncertainty and ambiguity can be hard to sit with.
It needs time, care and patience! And for us to notice when we’re falling into conditioned patterns that constrict this. Patterns like ‘sense of urgency’ and ‘progress is more/bigger’. Both of these are white supremacy culture characteristics. Activity lead Zoe Amar has signposted an ace learning circle on these characteristics, run by New Ways Collective.
Untangling our spaghetti of tech from CAST is tricky
Setting up a new organisation is difficult enough, but transitioning out of an incubating charity (CAST) after 5 years is complex. There’s some very complex work to do around separating out our tech stack, and ensuring that personal data is transferred in the right way, respecting people’s rights under data protection legislation. It can all feel pretty overwhelming at times.
Luckily we’ve been planning it for a while and have great documentation of decisions, rationales and actions we need to take, thanks to support from our freelance project manager Simon and our virtual assistant, Anita.
We now need to work through those steps and navigate the complex dependencies between things, balancing the need to be pragmatic and keep things simple and understandable, with the importance of doing things in the right way.
Personal reflection: Ellie
Calling myself a co-Director, rather than a Producer (as that’s what we legally are now that Catalyst is an independent CIC), is beginning to sit more comfortably with me 👍
I still haven’t finished writing a reflection blog on the process of deciding which Catalyst initiatives would continue. I find blogs like these to be a bit like emotional hairballs — painful when stuck and a relief when they finally come out! 🙏
Thinking about recruitment: Megan
We’ve just gone live with recruitment for a new Executive Director! It’s exciting to think about what lived and learned experience a new team member could bring.
But it’s also really sad to think about Jo Morfee transitioning out of our core team (though I’m so happy she’ll keep working with us in other roles). It’s important to us to do recruitment well. This makes it time consuming so it’s really important to make the space for it.
Learn more about the transition
- Read about the Catalyst transition and why it has happened.
- Read Jo Morfee’s reflections on the transition and what we think we will learn next.
- Read Kayleigh Walsh’s reflections on supporting the transition process.
