“The Thinkathon was such a useful way to frame and kick off what we will be developing at London CLC this year.” (Sarah Horrocks)

London CLC thinkathon

A couple of weeks ago, two members of We Are Open, Bryan Mathers and Doug Belshaw, ran a thinkathon for London Connected Learning Centre (CLC) at the invitation of their Director, Sarah Horrocks.

The brief was to think about the continued expansion and success of the CLC, which was initially funded by Department of Education, but since 2011 has sold services and products to educational organisations. They are managed by the education charity Education Development Trust (EDT) with whom they are negotiating ways to expand and scale their efforts.

This thinkathon was different in that it had a ‘blended’ element, with Bryan in the room with the team, while Doug and one of the members of London CLC were present via videoconference. Bryan managed to find time to squeeze in some time to sketch during the session, as well as facilitate.

One method we’ve found works well in terms of projects and change management is to employ a ‘pre-mortem’. This involves everyone present imagining themselves fast-forwarding in time 18 months when the initiative has been a spectacular failure. The question is: why has this happened? Harvard Business Review describe this the benefits of this approach:

Although many project teams engage in prelaunch risk analysis, the premortem’s prospective hindsight approach offers benefits that other methods don’t. Indeed, the premortem doesn’t just help teams to identify potential problems early on. It also reduces the kind of damn-the-torpedoes attitude often assumed by people who are overinvested in a project. Moreover, in describing weaknesses that no one else has mentioned, team members feel valued for their intelligence and experience, and others learn from them. The exercise also sensitizes the team to pick up early signs of trouble once the project gets under way. In the end, a premortem may be the best way to circumvent any need for a painful postmortem.

The pre-mortem highlighted some familiar concerns, which could best be summed-up by the word ‘uncertainty’. This can be destructive of positive team cultures, especially if mismatched expectations are involved.

Another activity we used with the London CLC team encouraged them to think through what they want to protect at all costs, and new areas into which they’d like to expand. Imagining a situation where they had to make 50% cuts to their existing provision, what would they continue doing? Similarly, if they had the opportunity to do anything they wanted, what would they start planning right away?

This led to ‘product mash-ups’ which allowed the London CLC team see how doing one piece of work (e.g. research) could lead to several different outcomes (e.g. events, briefings, funding, partnerships).

A third activity, which the London CLC team started work on immediately, was to define the mission of the organisation, with an associated manifesto. An example of this can be seen through the Mozilla mission, which serves as a big picture sense-check for every project the global non-profit embarks upon. The manifesto allows for for more fine detail for projects across the organisation and community.

This is the first step on an exciting new journey for London CLC, who already have an award-winning team. We look forward to working closely with them in future!

We Are Open Co-op works to spread the culture, processes, and benefits of openness wherever we can.

We are experts in facilitated thinking in a process we call the Thinkathon. Find out more by getting in touch with us for a friendly chat!

Email: thinkathons@weareopen.coop