When are you ever not prototyping?

I’m co-hosting an event at the forthcoming Fire Starter Festival.  We want to ignite conversations about learning-in-action to stimulate thinking about how evaluation practices might flourish to promote learning and innovation.

We put prototyping in the title as a deliberate provocation.  The term is used a lot – thanks in large part to the work of Ulab Scotland  Prototyping translates an idea or a concept into experimental action.  We like this idea of tentativeness, of uncertainty about whether or how something might work and for whom and of being open to being surprised or wrong.   In public programmes, we’re often very committed to cherished ideas and initiatives, especially when something seems so self-evidently ‘worthwhile’.  This word of warning from Gervase Bushe is helpful:

“In prototyping, it is important that people do not fall in love with an idea too early, so that they are still able to go to the stakeholder with an open mind and heart.  They need to be flexible and ready to hear the others’ experience of and reaction to the prototype.”

With this in mind, I’m especially interested in the idea of Living Labs – where ideas and innovations are tested out and refined in real-life contexts.  These experiments start in small, quiet ways, with practitioners who are working with real issues.  How can we make these practices more widespread?  Where does the evidence we already have about ‘what works’ sit alongside emerging new insights?

At the event, our intention is to focus on the future and to provoke discussion amongst us about how we can align our values of participation, collaboration and appreciation with our thinking and practice about evidence to recognise what is working well and to make the impact that is needed.  There are still a few places and we hope to appeal to anyone with an interest in how to create better public services.  Sign up here.

We also hope that this event will lead to a series of ‘Touch Papers’ to continue and broaden this dialogue and develop ideas about “5th generation evaluation” which will develop collaborative and appreciative new practice-oriented evaluation approaches and methods. Do get in touch if you want to contribute.

 

Posted in Appreciative inquiry, Co-production and new ways of working, Courses and events, How can evaluation be useful?, Leadership, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on When are you ever not prototyping?

Are we working well together?

I often ask myself ‘is this worthwhile work?’ And this guest blog for Space Unlimited is some part of a response; it describes a recent highlight of a stimulating week when I took part in a Space Unlimited Lasting Change event that brought young people and teachers from different schools together to explore how to engage and sustain young people to be genuine and active partners in learning.  They have a great deal to teach those of us interested in how to develop collaborative leadership practices that might produce better outcomes for people and communities.

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, Leadership, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Are we working well together?

Is this the best it can be?

I’ve very much enjoyed being involved in the development of this new toolkit for Creative Scotland. The ideas and approaches were developed from desk research and  action research, with seven pilot partnerships of artists, partners and participants using the tools  and sharing learning.  It was fascinating to be engrossed in the challenges of translating principles derived from research into best practice, into useful and practical tools that arts organisations and their partners would actually want to use.

This toolkit aims to open up conversation within partnerships about what is important and what can  be improved. It doesn’t try to define or limit an understanding of what ‘good work’ is.   Rather it aims to help those using the tools to openly discuss what they’re doing – asking themselves, and all those they work with, to think about whether they can do what they do in better ways. The goal is to encourage  a culture of reflection and continuous improvement.  In this respect it’s relevant for many partnerships situations where people need to develop mutual understandings of what they have come together to do.

Posted in Leadership, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Is this the best it can be?

Participative transformation?

I have recently written a book review of Participative transformation learning and development in practising change, by Roger Klev and Morten Levin in the Journal Action Learning:  Research and Practice, 2015

They propose that given the challenges of the uncertainty in which we live, there is a need for learning processes that support and develop the practice of leading change, not by copying recipes or methods, but by being able to create collective reflections around our own and others’ experiences.

So, it’s highly relevant to discussions about developing a ‘Scottish Model’ of learning and change, leadership development and the challenges of health and social care integration.

I hope that their book and my appreciative critique of it can contribute.

The first 50 people who download it through this link will be able to do so for free.

http://bit.ly/1CQ14xa

 

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Leadership, Partnership working, Research Impact, What is action research? | Comments Off on Participative transformation?

Calling time on ancedotal evidence….

I notice my irritation rising whenever someone refers to ‘anecdotal evidence’. As if people are saying the evidence is merely anecdotal. It’s unreliable and based on hearsay. It doesn’t count for much. And so often, such remarks are made in a situation where what we are actually discussing is people’s lived experience, of those who use public services or who work in them….Guest blog at the Alliance for Useful Evidence

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Calling time on ancedotal evidence….

Caring conversations in action

Taking time to hear the stories that matter to matter pays off in the long run…it’s just the way we do things round here.7A

 

Asking for feedback can feel a bit embarrassing but we find the courage because it’s good to know what works well.

32A

 

 

We see inequalities sensitive practice as more than providing equality of care to clients.   We stay curious and find a way to ask what people need. 

28A

 

 

These are just three positive practice pointers that were developed in a recent Inequalities Sensitive Practice inquiry involved practitioners working in early years, homelessness and primary care mental health settings in North East Glasgow.

A strong message from the inquiry is that inequalities sensitive practice is about more than whether services are providing ‘equality of care’ to clients, patients or service users.  It is also about professional practice, the daily business of how staff interact with the people they work with – their clients and with each other.   Read more here about how using caring conversations helped to uncover the good practice under the radar.

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Caring conversations in action

Research as if people were human

I’m delighted to be a guest blogger for IRISS this week.  This post talks about how stories energise and restore people’s connections with each other and what they care about, so motivating people to work together.  Action research – a truly humane approach to inquiry

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Research as if people were human

Appreciative dialogue – co-production in action

Here’s a new article on appreciative dialogue by Belinda Dewar and Cathy Sharp.

We discuss the role of appreciative dialogue in facilitation of practice development and action research. There’s not much guidance about the ‘how’ of facilitation – here we highlight one really valuable approach – the 7Cs of Caring Conversations.  We’re finding that this is a great way to:

  • Get feedback about what is working well as a basis for forward development and motivation.
  • Provide a framework for questioning and co-analysis that helps to share the role of facilitation and supports the development of inquiry skills.
  • Promotes active engagement in service design and delivery of staff and clients, service users or patients.  It’s co-production in action.

Our current work uses this approach with a wide range of practitioners including those who work in Care Homes, mental health practitioners, health visitors and those working with homeless people and in the wider voluntary sector.  The scope is wide and there are forthcoming fuller reports on how this approach is being used, so watch this space.

The journal is free but you will need to register to access it.

International Practice Development Journal

Appreciative dialogue for co-facilitation in action research and practice development

 

 

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories, What is action research? | Comments Off on Appreciative dialogue – co-production in action

Better by Design

Research for Real has been selected, in partnership with Animate, to act as a Learning Partner to the Young Foundation and Taylor Haig in the 2 year BIG funded project Better by Design, which will be supporting 15 voluntary organisations in Scotland to review their work using design principles.  More to follow soon.

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Partnership working, Research Impact, Uncategorized, What is action research? | Comments Off on Better by Design

Stories – how to use them to bring work to life

Changing places with stories is a new resource developed by Space Unlimited with Research for Real to help groups of people to work with stories to support learning and inspire action to improve our places. Experience shows that story-telling can and does change the way we think about problems and solutions.  Far from being anecdotal or subjective, stories are actually gold dust.

You can download the pack here.

Posted in Co-production and new ways of working, How can evaluation be useful?, Living systems research, Participatory research methods, Partnership working, Research Impact, Stories | Comments Off on Stories – how to use them to bring work to life