A magical day in the woods for a leadership forum of 50 leaders from POhWER, an advocacy charity. The aim was to reconnect the executive team, management team and team leads with each other after a time of change, and to work together on the organisation’s challenges for the year ahead. Client: POhWER Location: Woodland, South London Group size: 50 Who they are POhWER is a charity set up to effect change by providing advice, support and advocacy to people who experience disability, vulnerability, distress and social exclusion. Their leadership team's context and challengesPrior to working with us, there had been a lot of change. People had strong feelings about it and in some parts of the organisation there had been resistance to the change programme, which had led to a polarised culture and tension among certain groups.
A group of staff were not exercising agency and were pushing decisions and solutions upwards. This meant that people were not working together to address challenges. In addition, the cost of living crisis was putting pressure on some staff and that, combined with the continual drip of bad news in the world, was exacerbating mental health issues. POhWER came to us to help them start to change mindsets and culture. An offsite retreat based at a yurt village, for a fast growing charity working in the field of sustainability and the built environment Client: UKGBC - a charity working in the built environment
Location: Yurt Village, West Sussex Group size: 26 Who they are The UK Green Building Council is a membership organisation that aims to radically transform the built environment. This is a growing sector: there is a lot of work to do, and the team was growing. Their context UKGBC’s team had been through a very busy time and were feeling stretched. Plus there had been some instability - several new people had joined, and several key people had left, and the team had been challenged by this. There was a feeling that screen-based remote and hybrid working was creating barriers and as a result the organisation was missing out on creative conversations, people were not collaborating in the way they once were, and some people felt frustrated and that they couldn’t bring their whole selves to work. There was also an issue with a few people being quiet and not speaking up in meetings. Their challenge “How can we support each other, feel connected, bring our true selves to work and be motivated/fulfilled?" The aims and objectives UKGBC wanted their team to reconnect, regroup and develop as a team, and be reminded that their organisation was a great place to work. They wanted a meaningful programme to give them:
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Author & CuratorNigel Berman is the founder of School of the Wild. Archives
December 2024
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