Category Archives: Partnership working

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 … Continue reading

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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 … Continue reading

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Improvisation and the art of change

At a Total Place event today we were reminded “the revolution will be improvised”. A catchy meme for sure which reminded me of an article I’ve read some time ago by Frank J Barrett.   He makes the point that there are lots … Continue reading

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Really useful evidence?

Recently I was at the same event as Jackie Killeen, Director of the Big Lottery in Scotland.   It was great to hear her say this: “At BIG we have some positive experience of being able to find and utilise evidence … Continue reading

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Don’t do it unless you have to?

We know that multi-agency partnership working is difficult. “Collaboration is by nature inefficient.  It is only sensible to collaborate if real collaborative advantage can be envisaged.  The strongest piece of advice, therefore, is ‘don’t do it unless you have to’”.  … Continue reading

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How to create an appetite for evidence……

I’m just back from a very interesting gathering of folk who find evidence use fascinating and want to see more of it.    We at least seemed to agree that we want to create more of an appetite for evidence and want … Continue reading

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How action research can help to deliver better services

See this short creative storyboard – with thanks to IRISS for their support How action research can help to deliver better services from iriss on Vimeo.

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We need more experimentation….

This is well worth a look……The Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament   An important call for us all to talk about our assumptions, share our thinking and adopt a more experimental approach to the design and delivery of public services.   … Continue reading

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When are you ever not piloting?

See this new page with a short article about the important debate about redefining the relationship between public services and communities and the role of research and evidence.  It would be great to hear your responses.

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

An award for mentoring

The Craighead Institute have been awarded Mentoring in Business Project of the Year 2011 for their Management & Leadership Health, Work and Wellbeing Mentoring Project.  The evaluation of this important project was undertaken by Research for Real. See the report … Continue reading

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