Turning Complexity into Clarity

When an organisation has already gathered mountains of feedback, ideas, and evaluation reports, the hardest part of creating a new strategy is often knowing what not to include.

That’s where we began in our recent work with Connected Voice.

Connected Voice is what’s known in the third sector as a Local Infrastructure Organisation (LIO). They play a critical role in Newcastle and Gateshead, supporting the voluntary sector to thrive, and strategically engaging with public and commercial partners to make that happen.

When we joined the process, they had already done a lot of listening — to board members, staff, and members, and through project evaluations. The challenge was making sense of it all, spotting the common threads, and separating the strategic from the tactical.

We began by mapping the big themes and testing them with the team. Then we facilitated live workshops with staff and members, plus online focus groups with other stakeholders — particularly other charities who are members of Connected Voice. The energy and commitment people brought to these sessions was impressive, with participants leaning into the process and taking it seriously.

From there, we worked closely with the Chief Executive and nominated board members to refine the draft plan, iterating until it felt clear, focused, and ready to launch.

The new strategic plan will be unveiled this autumn. It’s designed to steer Connected Voice through the choppy waters facing the sector, while giving them the clarity and confidence to seize key opportunities ahead.

For us at Goodlabs, this was strategy development at its best: turning complexity into clarity, keeping the focus on what really matters, and building ownership across the organisation.

If your charity is ready for a strategic plan that cuts through the noise and sets a clear course for the future, we’d love to help.

Cricket for Good

Making cricket accessible to people with disabilities

Having completed some really interesting projects with sports organisations focused around Football, Rugby and Skateboarding we’ve now begun a really exciting piece of work with Durham Cricket Foundation.

The top flight club, based at the incredible Riverside ground in Chester-le-Street has big ambitions for the future. Responding to new initiatives by the English Cricket Board the DCF is keen to grow its community programmes in terms of reach and impact. Goodlabs have been appointed to support the board and leadership team through the process of formulating a new strategy, rooted in insightful stakeholder consultation.

In addition we’ll help the Foundation to analyse and interpret data from their wide range of community activities in order to produce a new Impact Report to be published alongside the new strategic plan in 2025. There’s so much going on all across the age spectrum and all around the region. We’ve already been pleased to see a really strong inclusion agenda through which cricket is opening up all sorts of connected opportunities for groups of people who often feel left out.

To find out more about the Durham Cricket Foundation click here.

The Impact of Community Organising

It was a pleasure to be in east London for the launch of a substantial new report describing the positive impact that can be made when local churches begin to employ the principles of community organising.

Click here to access the full report.

We’ve been providing consultancy support to the team at the Centre for Theology and Community (CTC) who, along with Citizens UK, have been running the ‘Organising for Growth’ project.

Funded by the Church of England, the project has worked within six parishes located in communities experiencing a range of complex social and economic challenges. However, the fascinating thing about Community Organising methodology is that even in the most difficult of situations it steadfastly refuses to become deficit-defined. Rather, there is a hope-full attitude, rooted in a strong belief about the inherent capacity people possess to change the circumstances around them, especially by working together. This belief is strengthened within a faith-based context that honours the essential dignity and equality of each person.

Having completed an interim evaluation in 2021 this has been a particularly longitudinal study that has provided a special opportunity to observe changes occurring as a sort of time-lapse. Having been first introduced to some of the key people involved in the work more than three years ago it has been fascinating to observe their journeys.

The event itself, inclusive and ecumenical in nature, was a real pleasure to be part of. Whilst hosted in an Anglican context (the historic St. George in the East, Shadwell) key parts were played by Catholic and Pentecostal clergy and congregations too. There were some lovely, poignant moments, and a lot of joy, as people reflected with gratitude on meaningful change taking place at the intersection of the community and the church.

Notes:

Click here to find out more about the work of CTC

Citizens UK defines Community Organising as:
“Bringing people together to win change. This means building community-led solutions to big and small problems, that work for everyone”. Find out more at: citizensuk.org/about-us/what-is-community-organising/