At Pilotlight, we are always astounded by the uncanny ability of our Pilotlighters to know exactly how to get to the bottom of any issue. At our first workshop event on Tuesday 23 February, we sought to encourage our volunteers to share their ideas on how to tackle tricky strategic challenges.
Three charities we have worked with in the past presented to a group of Pilotlighters, ranging from those who had ten years’ experience with us to those who were yet to start their first project. The different organisations demonstrated the range of tough conundrums faced by charities who come to work with Pilotlight.
Firstly, Louise Johns-Shepherd from children’s literacy charity CLPE told us about how they had wanted to explore taking a successful product and rolling it out more widely. This was followed by Bill Feeney from PIP, a charity working with adults with learning disabilities; PIP’s challenge was to appropriately cost their services and adapt to a world in which personal budgets replaced block local authority contracts. Finally, Mark Hobbs from Reaching Higher shared with the group how his relatively recently formed young people’s charity sought to move from uncertain organic growth to a position of stability and sustainability.
The Pilotlighters then discussed how they would address such challenges. A great deal of ideas were thrown around – far too many to sum up! – but here are four of the key questions they felt the charities would need to investigate:
1. What do you exist to do? What is it you do well?
Whatever the challenge, be it seeking funding, managing internal structures or creating marketing materials, gaining clarity on the vision and mission of the organisation was unanimously encouraged across the three workshop groups. This was followed by articulating the central activities it does well. The charity directors all agreed that this had been crucial in achieving their ultimate goals.
2. How did you arrive at this point?
Of course, this is a huge question, with many elements contained therein. What is the environment in which the charity is operating? What are its assets and capabilities? What does the financial picture look like? What has the charity done well and what could be improved upon? Understanding the past and the present situation will give valuable context for ensuing success.
Gaining clarity on the vision and mission of the organisation was unanimously encouraged across the three workshop groups.
3. What are you trying to do? What does success look like?
Whether it’s growth, change or sustainability, it is important to understand what these words really mean in the specific context of the organisation. Picturing the charity in an ideal world several years into the future will help to understand the changes that need to be made to get there.
4. Who needs to be involved in achieving success? How can you bring them along?
This includes internal stakeholders – a charity’s staff and trustees – as well as external. In the external camp, there are those who have an interest as they use the services, and those who have funded or may wish to fund the charity. There is a delicate balancing act to keep all of these happy and engaged, but the first step is identifying them and considering their various requirements and interests.
Every charity is different and every challenge is different. There needs to be a range of approaches and any team of people – be they within a charity or critical external friends – must be adaptable as the journey progresses. However, as this workshop showed, the vital early stages of tackling any problem require escaping tunnel vision and analysing the organisation from top to bottom.
Pilotlight would like to thank the representatives of CLPE, PIP and Reaching Higher who gave up their time to be with us. A special thanks also goes to Pilotlighter Joy Parker for helping to capture several key talking points.