'Interesting' Times
We are taught to be careful of the hidden meaning when people use the word 'interesting'. It can mean just about anything, including the opposite of its dictionary definition. But these ARE interesting times. Alongside the stresses, strains and heartache of everything we've been going through, we have also seen organisations, communities, partnerships and people break from the tramlines of how things have always been done in order to find a way through, and hopefully out of, crisis. As the immediate urgency of crisis response has subsided, we've been starting to help our clients make sense of the past months in order to prepare for both the immediate and longer term future... more on which at the foot of this post.
eBook
On the theme of 'interesting' (we hope!) we've been using some of our lockdown time to complete an eBook. It's been an opportunity to capture our method-of-methods approach to improving in complexity in a way we haven't previously had the time to. It's totally free, no strings attached and no annoying sign-in required to access it. We hope you like it!
Who Knew?
A couple of months ago, when we launched the Next Stage Radicals, we had no idea what was just around the corner for us all. At the time, the aim was just to do something good in the world; to provide a platform for cool people who are doing cool stuff to share it and to collaborate. In these COVID-19 times though, it's been an enormous privilege to have such a community of pioneers to engage with, to learn from and with, and - perhaps most importantly - to find fellowship with.
Having someone like Pilar Orti, for example, with all her experience of 'office optional' working, sharing her insights on how to maintain effective and human(e) collaboration at a distance has been something we at Easier Inc. didn't know we needed but are so grateful to have found.
For us, these first months of the Next Stage Radicals have been a lovely validation of how simply forming human connections without fear, favour or expectation, leads to good things. We couldn't have planned for or predicted the detail but what does seem predictable is that good things emerge when we invest in each other.
A New Podcast, Newsletter & More!
Carrying on this theme of investing in people, we've been shaping up a new podcast, newsletter and webinar series as part of our support to the Next Stage Radicals.
- Each month we are using the podcast to invest in a guest radical - giving them a platform to share their ideas and experiences.
- 2 weeks after each podcast goes live, the same 'guest radical' acts as editor on the Next Stage Radicals "Exploring Aloud" newsletter, curating their favourite stuff from the preceding month.
NB You can subscribe in the footer of the Next Stage Radicals website for all future editions.
- Finally, a couple of weeks after the newsletter publishes, the same 'guest radical' joins us for an "Exploring Aloud" webinar, providing an opportunity to have a proper discussion about the ideas that shaped their podcast, and an opportunity to share your stories, successes, struggles and insights too.
More Learning and Sharing
Another positive to have emerged from the Next Stage Radicals has been a recent series of Human Learning System online webinars, curated and hosted by our friends Toby Lowe, Hannah Hesslegreaves and Melissa Hawkins at Newcastle Business School, and promoted through the Next Stage Radicals website. These were phenomenally well attended and equally well reviewed. Another event is in the offing and we will be bringing you details of that, plus recordings and insights from the previous webinars on a brand new resource-focused website that has...
Just Launched
Together with partners from Newcastle Business School, Collaborate CIC, Centre for Public Impact, Children England, Collective Impact Agency, Concern Group, Edberts House, Gateshead Council, GLT Partners, Impower, Mesopartner, POP+, and Wellbeing Teams (phew!!!), we have just launched a new resource site focused on Human Learning Systems as the emerging new paradigm for public services.
This is already proving to be a great opportunity for the partners to bring the work they have each been doing together under one roof as a learning focused collaborative.
NB Huge appreciation to the team at Collaborate CIC and Newcastle Business School - notably Toby Lowe - for their stellar efforts in framing this work into the coherent and compelling story of Human Learning Systems. We are excited (and delighted!) to be part of it.
Have a gander here:
Beat The Backlog
Talking of human learning systems...
As we all move into this next phase of responding to COVID-19, we've been hearing quite a few people worrying about what a return to work could mean for them. One common anxiety has been the queues of work that may have been building up during social isolation. While we can't claim to be experts in the aftermath (mid-math?) of COVID-19, it struck us that we've learned a thing or two about how to handle backlogs and that this could be useful over the coming weeks. One of our Next Stage Radical pals (and all round force for good) Sam Spencer had a chat with Easier Inc's Andy Brogan about this and how putting a human face on a backlog can be profoundly more effective than treating queues as bundles of work to be done. Sam wrote up the interview over on his blog...
Here To Help
Still talking of human learning systems...
Another thing we've been noticing through the last weeks is that, even in the midst of the stress and heartache, there have been silver linings. In fact, despite the horror of the crisis, many on the frontline have reported a sense of liberation - a new freedom to focus on what is really important. Some have told us that they have been unshackled to experiment and learn quickly in ways that have never been true for them before. We've heard numerous people, at all levels of hierarchy and in all sorts of roles, describe a renewed sense of purpose at work.
For sure, it's been far from plain sailing and not all instances of new found freedom will have worked out exactly as we would all hope BUT there is definitely something to be learning in all of this; an opportunity to systematically build on the gains, and not to slip back to old ways.
So we are starting to work with our clients to help them think about how to re-purpose management, assurance, governance, etc so that they can get the best of BOTH freedom and control, as we all work towards a post-COVID world.
We're doing our best to help them draw on our and other collaborators' years of experience helping organisations to create more effective and more liberating ways of working and we'd like to help you too.
New Associates
(Almost) finally, as part of our prep to help you get ready for the future, we're delighted to welcome onboard a couple of new associates. We know them as "the two Richards" but others have a somewhat ruder (and a whole lot funnier) name for them. Anyway, it's a huge welcome to Dick and Dick as valued members of the extended Easier Inc. family.
Your Feedback
(Actually) finally, this update has been a little experiment in running a newsletter format for Easier Inc. stuff. Did you like it? Was it useful? Would you like us to do it again? How often? What would you change or want more/less of? Let us know through the comments or by getting in touch by email:
Thanks for reading!
Format: News
Tags: Theory , Client Story
Comments
Steve
Yep, i enjoyed reading this newsletter. Nice to bring things together into a summarisation format.
Andy Brogan
Thanks Steve. I appreciate the feedback. We are thinking of making this a regular - probably quarterly - thing so it's good to get a sense of whether that's something that anyone would want :)