The past year I have had the privilege of working for The Ripple, a charity that have been working for more than 25 years, harnessing the skills and enthusiasm of their dedicated volunteers to provide a wide range of well-used services in their community.
Working alongside Director, Rachel Green to coach their newly appointed Senior Management Team and facilitate the co-creation of their Strategic Plan for 2023-26. Rachel says, "Working with Rachael has given us a clarity and focus of our whole organisation. Like putting together a jigsaw we had most of the pieces but couldn’t see the overall vision. With Rachael’s support and guidance we were able to build a focused picture that also showed us which pieces were missing. It’s a long process but Rachael’s expertise empowered us to believe in ourselves and what we do. We now have a clear future that will help us work on the priorities for us and our local community for years to come".
As part of their Strategic Plan they committed to taking time with project leads to implement an annual Planning Cycle, this enables their projects to create transparency, accountability and offers opportunities for everyone to see where they fit in delivering the organisational strategic priorities.
Dawn Baxter, Operations Manager at The Ripple says “Working with Rachael is an investment in the future of The Ripple, through building our confidence, to helping us as the Senior Management Team to focus on our priorities and to successfully take the organisation forward. Giving us the tools to make a difference, but also explaining how to make these tools work for the organisation, Rachael has guided us through the processes and very much ensured the end product was fit for The Ripple”.
As part of their Planning Cycle The Ripple are creating valuable reflective spaces for their staff to regularly; celebrate, share challenges and learning, and revisit their vision, priorities and values. Today we gathered together to launch their Strategic Plan.
Staff feedback that being part of the Planning Cycle allows them to:
"have clear direction", "feel very included in high level strategic decisions", "feel valued as an employee", "like a refurbished grandfather/mother clock, all in sync", "comfortable", "brings us as a team to a central point (the strategic plan)", "gives us somewhere to see where the work we do ties into locally, through funding outcomes, policy etc", "positive", "it's doable", "allows me to see how I can achieve my goals".
I wish them every success in what they have set out to deliver, they have the vision, some new tools and a huge amount of energy and drive. Find our more about their amazing work here.
If you are interested in finding out more about implementing a Planning Cycle please get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.