Newsletter July 2014
Successful Workshops in 2014
Workshops are fun! In March and April we held workshops in Manukau (with Friendship House) and Hamilton (Community Waikato) for small-medium organisations, and in Auckland (CGO Transitions) for medium-large organisations. This brought us in touch with 15 different organisations and 34 participants. Here are some of their comments:
- Liked the clarity of model and ease of understanding; able to relate it immediately to own situation
- (Liked having) a structure for measuring where organisation is at and what needs fixing
- A very engaging day, informing and practical (CEO)
- Clarified our next steps, assisted the team being on the same page. Recommend teams attend together.
- The overall framework, while intricate, really brought a lot of things together. An elegant presentation of complex ideas.
- Case studies were helpful to see what we want to avoid and what we want to implement.
- Bird’s eye view of organisation very helpful.
- Helpful to hear other people’s stories.
Hazel Hodgkin Judith McMorland​
Judith and Hazel are experienced facilitators. They enjoying using their complementary skills to bring out participants’ stories, and help people apply the CGO Model to their own situations.
The workshops are interactive, productively serious and fun!
In June we were invited to facilitate a whole-of-organisation workshop for Cambridge Community House (funded in part by a grant from MSD under their Capability Building grant). Held on a Saturday 9am-3pm, the full staff and board attended. Using sociodramatic techniques we opened with a lively picture of the work CCH does, and the current organisational structures that support this. It soon became obvious that due to recent changes in services and staffing, roles and responsibilities needed to be re-defined. By mapping the work needed (using the Levels of Work tool) staff and board were able to get a clear picture of the infrastructural changes needed to build the right capacity and capability for the future. This was a enlivening learning experience for everyone. If you would be interested in such a workshop, please get in touch judith@cgotransitions.co.nz.
Stepping Through Transitions book progress and publicity
Thanks in large part to the use by the UNITEC Graduate Diploma in Not-for-Profit Management students, we have now sold or distributed nearly half of our stock. Hilary Star Foged, Graduate Programme Director, wrote “The students are loving the book and finding it relevant and thought provoking…Thank you again for the book - what a gift it is to our programme and sector.”
Reaching board and staff members across the spectrum of CGO/NFPs in New Zealand isn’t easy and we depend very much on personal contact and word-of-mouth recommendations.
The Green Party published a review in their newsletter Te Awa, commenting that the book explains how groups move from their foundations through different stages of their lives, and offers a “framework for doing it well…. This story telling is a very engaging way to show the human dimensions of organisations, the often motley nature of participants, and the varying levels of skill and competence. After all, this is how most organisations began and these are the real things that have to be worked with. Highly recommended.”
We have been promoting the book at conferences and meetings, notably the NFP conferences in Auckland in February, and April – thanks to Shaun Lines and GROW for their support for this. The Provocative Breakfast meeting in Takapuna brought us in touch with new people. Network meetings such as the NFP group of HRINZ (Human Resource Institute) and community development workers have also produced interest. If you can help promote the book through your own newsletters, or would like us to attend any of your meetings, we should be delighted.
E-book and greater accessibility
An e-book version is now available through the website. On our way to Cambridge, we met up with Mike Smith, a sight-impaired student on the Hamilton UNITEC programme, who challenged us to think more imaginatively about how the book could be more interactive, accessible and user-friendly for those who are print challenged. We are delighted to work with Mike on this and look forward to his contribution.
Buy the printed copy or the ebook from www.cgotransitions.co.nz
Workshops Programme for late 2014 workshops@cgotransitions.co.nz
Managing, Leading and Governing in Service Organisations
10 September Dunedin, in partnership with Dunedin Council of Social Services
12 September Christchurch, with Hope Presbyterian Church
1 October Auckland, St Chad’s Centre, Meadowbank, Auckland
Managing Transition in Community Organisations (for smaller organisations)
26 August Stratford (South Taranaki), with The Bishop's Action Foundation
17 September West Auckland, with Community Waitakere
4 November Masterton, with Masterton Safe and Healthy Community Council
To find out about any of these workshops, contact us on workshops@cgotransitions.co.nz
If you would like to partner with us, or would like to bring together a group of organisations in a particular region, we will be very happy to discuss these opportunities.
We welcome your feedback and enquiries. Please contact us.
Our aim is to make our training as widely available as possible. We encourage more than one person from each organisation to attend (senior staff and board members together) and price accordingly so this can happen.
CGO Transitions Ltd. www.cgotransitions.co.nz
About the book: judith@cgotransitions.co.nz
About the workshops: hazel@cgotransitions.co.nz judith@cgotransitions.co.nz
Postscript: Steps to making good stuff happen!
Though workshops and the book are the main ways in which to learn about the model, here is one of the tools in our book for you to play with. Give it a go!
This is a diagram of the 5Cs: Capacity, Capability, Composition, Context and Complexity, one of our three main building blocks.
Think about how these dimensions play out in your own organisation. Where is change happening? What transition is being signaled by the changes you are noticing? How do these changes impact on each other?
