Wren and GreyhoundWren and Greyhound
  • Home
  • About
  • Services
    • Facilitation
    • Strategy and planning
    • Impact measurement
    • Sustainability
    • Thematic learning programmes
    • Advance Retreats
  • Resources
  • News
  • Contact

Review of 2017/18 – the busiest ever!

April 17, 2018Graeme

Although you always know when you’re busy, it’s only when you look back that you realise just how much you’ve achieved! We’ve just completed our review of 2017/18, a busily brilliant year in which we:

  • Supported 37 clients and partners. 22 of these were new to us, reflecting the continued growth of our reputation and relationships (normally about half of our clients are new each year).
  • Led 110 events, workshops and conferences, more than any other year (phew!). Consistent with previous years, these helped us exchange and generate ideas with over 600 organisations. We love our work, but hopefully it’s understandable if we seemed a bit frazzled last year!
  • Wrote and designed 23 reports and publications [several of which are just awaiting sign-off before appearing in our Resources page – watch this space].

We only achieve these successes every year by working with key partners. Membership organisations and funders who thoroughly understand their sectors’ needs – and the contribution we can make – have always been at the heart of our partnership approach.

In 2017/18 we were particularly busy with three large public sector programmes: devising outcome frameworks with partners in the Edinburgh mental health Public Social Partnership; delivering a searching series of masterclasses on sustaining social care projects and their impact; and creating a sustainability guide for organisations supporting survivors of childhood abuse. The ‘Beyond Survival’ guide is due to be published soon, and is given a short introduction in the clip below:

Staffing and growth

It might sound strange, but we’ve resisted growing over the years (basically, Graeme enjoys being a consultant more than he did being a manager and administrator!). But with more demand than ever, 2017 required us to bring in extra capacity and skills.

Jen Curran joined as Lead Associate and her passionate energy and exceptional thoroughness quickly earned clients’ respect—and brought in even more work! Her support to boards and senior managers is greatly in demand, particularly with her ability to make a reality of ‘Lasting Difference’ concepts.

Jen’s research into how people use the Lasting Difference led to a new dedicated website and Implementation Guide. Both are choc-full of powerful sustainability ideas. Which is probably why 2017 saw our 2000th toolkit download (followed soon after by the 2017th, fittingly enough!). With over 1500 print copies also in circulation, the Lasting Difference is the definitive guide to sustaining organisations and impact.

Now it’s time to develop our practice and reach more and newer audiences with them.

Our Development Manager Laura Lebec leads this. Selected from an incredibly strong field of applicants, Laura’s unique blend of skills, combining senior management experience and academic rigour  (MBA long under her belt, PhD on the way), is solidly grounded in third sector reality.

So, despite Graeme’s best efforts, we now have a small, gifted core team, supported by select partners who share our values (specialists in design, illustration, transcription, film-making etc.). We’re always learning and improving, so we’ll always grow—even if we don’t plan to get any bigger!

Leadership

Two words have re-emerged as concerns for the sector in the last year – leadership and governance. We developed creative new approaches to these in 2017: providing 1:1 mentoring; hosting themed dinners; running leadership retreats; and even exploring what it means to ‘lead like a punk’! We’re planning more explicit leadership-focused work in the year ahead.

Learning and resource development

As noted, every year we produce around 20 reports, guides and toolkits, on everything from involvement and consultation to evaluation and income generation.

This year we developed several resources to support learning including:

  • E-learning programmes (one with Scotland’s International Development Alliance – see clip below – and one of our own which will be ready for testing very soon)
  • Stakeholder engagement workshops
  • Mentoring others to become facilitators.

As organisations explore new ways to involve and reach people effectively, making the most of limited budgets and time, this is a growing area for us and our clients. We expect to be developing even more learning resources next year — contact us for information, ideas, and examples of recent projects.

Looking ahead

2018/19 is set to be another busy year. We’ve got lots of development plans for the Lasting Difference resources, including special workshops on leading your organisation through sustainability challenges (starting early Autumn). We’ll also be arranging what is now a biennial leadership retreat in summer 2019. Of course, we’ll continue to respond to the briefs and partnerships that develop: we’re here to serve organisations we believe in. But when things are as busy as we were last year, it’s the new initiatives and developments that keep us going. We’re here to make a #LastingDifference!

 

PS Happy anniversary

Oh, also – 2018 is our fifth birthday as a full-time enterprise – and the 10th anniversary of this website. We’ll probably forget to celebrate this properly – just as well it’s not all about us!

Related Articles

Inspiring leadership

July 3, 2017Graeme

Strategy clarity

April 28, 2015Graeme

Book launch film

August 14, 2019Graeme

Recent Posts

  • Lasting Difference by name…
  • Save the date – system capacity
  • Creative commissioning
  • Victors of our own success
  • NEW: Guide to Managing Capacity

Archives

  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • December 2020
  • July 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • August 2019
  • April 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • September 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • January 2015
  • November 2014
  • June 2014
  • February 2014
  • August 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013

Categories

  • capacity
  • Commissioning
  • Company news
  • Evaluation
  • Facilitation
  • Leadership
  • Quality
  • Strategy
  • Sustainability
  • Uncategorized
  • Workshop news
© Wren and Greyhound Limited. Registered in Scotland SC462842
Web Development by Hot Igloo