COVID week 11 w/b 25th May
John Hitchin, Renaisi’s CEO shares notes from week 11 of the Covid-19 lockdown. John writes week notes to capture and reflect on the realities of running a social enterprise.
A short week and so some quick notes.
Theory of change
My colleague, Lizzie and I ran a theory of change workshop for a charity we’re working with. We tried to hold the conversation to some key questions and to keep bringing the different threads back towards the core arguments being made by the organisation and its work. The team are thoughtful and challenging (about their work), and so it was hard to do that, but it was a beneficial conversation.
One of the positive things about ToC workshops is that they can open up so many questions about an organisation and its work. It is a tool to get into the big questions. I often, when I listen to people from other disciplines or who use different tools (designers, evaluators, system analysts, data scientists) that they are all striving at very similar questions. We all get hung up on our tools, and on a bad day, forget that it is the question that matters.
Management, team and board updates
We had our management team meeting – I enjoy catching up with colleagues on these calls – a board update, and my usual video for the whole team this week.
The main focus of all of them was our COVID-19 response plan. We are thinking about how all elements of our business are responding and developing at this time, and I am determined that we don’t get stuck as we try to respond to the economic and social challenges proactively.
Below is our topline plan, and it is driving all of our work at the moment. Given our values and approach, we have structured it around questions and exploration.
- How is your organisation responding? Get in touch
- Contact Private: John Hitchin on:
- 020 7033 2639
- j.hitchin@renaisi.com
Reading, listening and watching
I’ve not been doing much of this, but have been spending more time in my garden. I feel very privileged to have the small one that I do at the moment, and it’s been a delight to see it in this weather.
