How we helped Action West London respond to COVID-19
We Are Open Co-op recently had the opportunity to do some work funded by Catalyst to help an organisation that needed a rapid response to…
We Are Open Co-op recently had the opportunity to do some work funded by Catalyst to help an organisation that needed a rapid response to the pandemic. Catalyst is a charitable initiative incubated by CAST and connects funders with digital experts and charities who need their help.
Action West London (AWL) is a charity that aims to change lives through employment, education, and enterprise. While they have an established way of delivering their award-winning programmes, COVID-19 turned everything upside down.
Catalyst brought together a digital team which included We Are Open Co-op as lead organisation to help AWL begin their digital transformation. The first thing we did, as we always do, was to run a discovery phase. This took the form of a Thinkathon, a facilitated thinking session which brought the relevant members of the team together to focus on the task at hand.
The power of this approach is that it focuses the mind on where you’ve been as an organisation, where you are now, and where you want to go.
We use a range of techniques and activities in these workshops, and used some of our favourites in the AWL Thinkathon:
- What are you trying to do? Asking this question identifies what is in and out of scope for the project.
- Project pre-mortem. By considering what could derail the project the internal and external risks are laid bare.
- Stand in their shoes. Through creating personas for some of the people impacted, we could all develop empathy for those we are trying to help.
- The Starfish Model. Once we know what we’re trying to do, what could go wrong, and some details of who we’re trying to help, we’re ready to decide what we want to keep doing and what we want to perhaps do less of.
It was clear from the Thinkathon that AWL had two main priorities:
- Job club — get up-and-running online
- Job list — start sending out opportunities to clients
In addition, we identified things that were out-of-scope for the rapid work we were doing with them, but which they wanted to bear in mind (alphabetical):
- Create manual for onboarding team members
- Explore partnerships
- Flexible working
- Follow-up with clients
- Expand portfolio of courses
- Improve social media presence
- Map/audit other client needs
- Measure social impact
- Provide good news stories digitally
- Set up Process Improvement Team
The Thinkathon was swiftly followed by a facilitator session run by Superhighways, the other organisation that formed part of the digital team funded by Catalyst. AWL staff were introduced to Zoom and the basics of facilitating online sessions.
We then provided a Guidance Document which outlined what AWL could do within a short-term timeframe and what would be possible on a longer-term basis. This included everything from choice of video conferencing platform to considerations around moving their job clubs and job list online.
During the project, AWL discovered that their plans for moving their job clubs online would be scuppered by guidance from one of their funders around safeguarding. Although what they had in place, and what we had coached them on would, we believed, be sufficient, the funders were taking a very cautious approach.
As a result, we focused on the online job list, putting together an overview document on how AWL could add a WordPress plugin to their current website to add the functionality they require. We recommended WPJobBoard as it is an established and well-used plugin that provides the functionality AWL requires.
As AWL is experimenting with the Zoho productivity suite, which include Zoho CRM, we recommended they use the Zoho CRM Lead Magnet plugin for WordPress. This would allow AWL to embed a form in their website and automatically capture leads directly into Zoho CRM. Should they decide on another system, we pointed them to a different WordPress plugin that works with any CRM.
Following this, we outlined an eight-step process for getting this system up-and-running, as the initial funding from Catalyst did not cover this next phase. We are waiting to hear back from AWL as to whether they have been successful in further funding, as we are big fans of their work, and would love to help them continue upskilling their team, move their provision online, and provide sustainable services to their clients!
Can we help you and your organisation? Get in touch to book a free 30-minute consultation! Also, you may find our free email-based course The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Virtual Meetings useful.
We Are Open Co-op works to spread the culture, processes, and benefits of openness wherever we can.
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