Sensitively exploring how organisations work
How we work
Animate values the development of the next generation of integrative organisational development consultants. We believe that working with younger professionals provides valuable learning opportunities for both parties.
This way of thinking predisposes us to be curious about a team or organisation’s habits: repeating patterns, recurring issues, power dynamics and history – as they give us valuable insights about the present. It also produces strong and sometimes surprising results for our clients.
We work experientially – reflectively, with conscious and unconscious dynamics - sensitively exploring how people and organisations work.
We are forensic about success – when individuals and organisations understand themselves and the conditions that enable them to be their best, they can develop more easily
We work systemically – this is a way of thinking, acting and viewing the world which focuses on relationships and interconnectedness and recognises that individuals are always affected by their context - be that their organisation, their family, their community, or more widely
Our Approach
Animate consultants are integrative - trained in, and able to draw on a wide range of theories and approaches.
Organisational development
Systemic thinking
Psychodynamic ways of working
Gestalt
Positive psychology
Neuroscience
Process consulting
Leadership theory
Action research
Appreciative Inquiry
Community development
What we do
We work with a range of people from across the public and third sectors, the majority being leaders and senior managers. Together we increase their resilience, strengthen their performance, and improve their effectiveness and satisfaction at work.
Developing Leaders
Being a leader and manager is more challenging than ever due to budget and staffing reductions while society’s demand for public and third-sector services is increasing.
We accompany clients, rather than deliver to them
We’re good at working in the grey areas: helping people to explore what’s going on below the surface of their organisation or team so that they can become better leaders, have higher functioning teams and achieve better outcomes for the organisation and the people it serves.
Because of this everything we do is bespoke — we don’t run ‘off the shelf’ programmes or workshops — but every bespoke piece of work is made up of interlocking blocks, which can be put together in a wide variety of ways.
We always carry out diagnosis before designing a programme. This involves discussions with commissioners and/or managers, and we may also speak to individuals one-to-one so that we have a good picture of the context, culture and issues.
Which interventions we choose depends on the outcomes the organisation wants:
what they want their leaders and managers to be able to do and to achieve
how much they want their leaders to be agents of change.
All our actions are carried out within a set of limitations that include the organisation's budget, timeframe, participants, and desired outcomes. Additionally, the context and field in which the organization operates also play a significant role in shaping these limitations.
We’re always working towards co-design whenever possible
Co-design helps individuals to stretch and try new things and makes them more curious about what is working and not working.
Co-design also allows people to collaborate across departmental or organisational boundaries and builds in-house skills.
Where an organisation, or department or team within an organisation, decides they want to be on the continuum depends on:
how experienced the participants are, how long they have been managers/leaders
how much development they’ve already had, and how skilled they are in the basics of leadership
how confident they are
what difference does the organisation/agency want people to make
how much appetite there is for learning vs being taught
how much change is happening within the organisation and in its context
how much time they have to participate in developing the programme.
*Please see our continuum table below
| Increasing participation by clients → | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership development intervention | Standard 'off the shelf' programme. Designed for a general audience and delivered the same way for all groups | We created the program and decided on its adaptations for the organisation's needs. | Created by us, but fine-tunes through discussion with participants as the programme unfolds | Co-designed with participants throughout |
| Design Process | Doesn't change in response to changes or events | We use our skills and knowledge to design and run the programme | We consult with the participants about details and the order of events | We join with the participants as learning partners. This may include some working with in-house facilitators |
| Expectations of 'experts' | Facilitators have answers and can pass on knowledge to participants | Facilitators have the expertise of leadership development | Facilitators bring most of the expertise but there is space for participants to bring some of their own too | Facilitators and participants can pool their knowledge and expertise to create learning and skill development |
| Who/what for | Participants all need the same information(eg a new system or process) | Participants have limited experience of leadership development | Participants have some experience and real awareness of strengths and gaps | Participants have extensive experience in leadership development and are keen to share knowledge |
| Outcomes (learning, skills, confidence of participation) | Participants have a clear sense of what they are getting before they come and they all get the same | Participants have a secure understanding of basic leadership theory and practice | Participants have developed their skills, added more tools to their box and shared experience | Ownerships, curiosity, adaptive change. Increased confidence in new ways of working |
| Decreasing control by facilitators → | ||||
Fig 1: Animate - Continuum Table
Developing Groups & Teams
We work with groups and teams to stay connected to their shared purpose, supporting them to shape and take action in their roles, devise enabling processes, and develop effective working relationships.
We have worked with groups from as small as 3 to over 100. Regardless of size we design and facilitate processes with groups to help them to achieve their goals.
All members of the Animate team are experienced facilitators, and some bring particular experience of supporting teams to work with conflict and to respond to crisis events.
Developing Organisations
Teams and organisations must consistently invest time and effort to become efficient, and productive, and achieve strategic goals.
We work with organisations to ensure they are aligned with their core purpose and that their people, processes, systems and structures are focused on serving that purpose. Our team has significant experience in supporting organisations in roles such as:
Facilitating development days
Supporting strategic and business planning
Performing organisational reviews and restructuring
Developing and strengthening governance at the board level
Undertaking research, evaluation and stakeholder engagement
Providing support through periods of planned, and unplanned, change
Improving communication, and relationships with government and the media.
In 2018/19, we worked with the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance (SIAA) to develop a set of ‘national outcomes for independent advocacy in Scotland’ – making Scotland the first country to establish outcomes nationally.
These outcomes were developed in consultation with their membership, who also supported the development of a ‘Toolkit for Demonstrating the Impact of Independent Advocacy’ https://www.siaa.org.uk/publications/ .
This toolkit was designed to support members in collecting and working with the evidence of the differences they are making through providing independent advocacy support, thus enabling the SIAA to gather data to produce a national picture of the impact of independent advocacy.
Developing partnerships & collaborations
There is increasing recognition of the necessity to collaborate and work in partnership across the public, third and private sectors to address the complex challenges and uncertainties of our times in the face of tightening public finances.
We know that the most successful outcomes are achieved when partners spend time building relationships, clarifying expectations, sharing risk, agreeing on mutual accountability, staying curious and committing to iterative learning by doing and reflecting on the outcomes.
Our bespoke leadership programmes and action inquiry approaches provide opportunities for diverse stakeholders to learn with and from others working with similar issues and challenges in their organisations and policy areas.
We are working with the Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership and Falkirk Council to support leadership development and promote resilience in the workforce at all levels, and recently delivered a six-month leadership development programme for third-sector Chief Executives leading in our Covid context, through our longstanding collaboration with ACOSVO (Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations).