Ideation

This session was held on 14th March at Carronvale House and the aims of the day were:

  1. For everyone to have loads of fun!
  2. For everyone to feel reconnected to the project vision and values
  3. To revisit the themes that each group prioritised
  4. For each group to have rough ideas that respond to their themes needs/insights
  5. A prioritised set of ideas for each group to take into prototyping

The day started with 3 x fun activities to get the group in a creative mindset (making playdoh creatures, drawing 100 x ways to squeeze a lemon and acting out charades). Following these, we moved into our individual group work.

The Nurturing the Workforce group started by developing key insight cards for Walter and Siobhan’s personas. We used the following focus areas for each persona:

1) how the persona could nurture in their work, and 

2) how the persona could be nurtured by Falkirk Council.

Insight Cards (based on Walter and Siobhan’s personas)

Walter (being the nurturer)

Wants to: Recognise / to understand and appreciate his potential of nurturing at work

Because: He wants work to run more smoothly (fulfillment)

But: Needs to know how to transfer skill into work environment – recognition. He’s restricted by parallel processes, family/work, framework lacking – can’t see yet the potential

 

Walter (being nurtured)

Wants: To experience nurture from / by the workforce – nurture is everyone’s business.

Because: It will help him see this as part of his job and be a more effective nurturer.

But: Currently there’s no crossover between work and life, Walter is a barrier to himself, Walter can’t make himself vulnerable / he protects himself, there’s a perception that nurturing takes time but being more nurturing makes time more effective, lack of availability of quality environments

 

Siobhan (being the nurturer)

Wants: Knowledge about how she can help / nurture young people leaving care

Because: She wants to see and be part of the young person’s journey. She wants to be a point of contact.

But: There’s siloed thinking and many points of contact, cluttered communication

 

Siobhan (being nurtured)

Wants: To feel listened to – staged approach to feeling nurtured, team > service > organisation

Because: She wants fulfillment and personal satisfaction

But: Behaviour of nurturers are absent from the team, lack of framework, no knowledge of containment for staff, level of help is not available yet.

 

We then moved onto brainstorming solutions for Walter and Siobhan. The group initially used the 6 hat thinking technique to get their thinking flowing.

The following ideas and points emerged from our brainstorming session:

Points surrounding the structure of embedding a nurture approach (descending from global to local)

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) surrounding community and our role in it (specifically around goal 3, ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development)
  • Higher up senior management buy in for a softer / more nurturing practice
  • ‘Nurture Tapestry’ (in the local authority) – an idea for the framework name, describing the evolving nature of Falkirk’s nurture approach
  • Layered learning – the nurture tapestry is always evolving 

Points surrounding the measurement of nurture (based on the fact that The Care Inspectorate still require data from Local Authorities)

  • We need to change what we measure
  • We need to include staff well-being as a measure
  • Relationships + Data + Evidence
  • Doing. Feeling. Being

Points surrounding Evidence 

Point surrounding the change we want to see through embedding a nurture approach:

  • Bravery scale – to be a good nurturer how you need to be brave
  • To be a nurturer, you need to be okay with vulnerability
  • Workers need to feel containment e.g. the theory that if a baby is crying, you hold them you don’t leave them
  • People who are nurtured at work feel less risk averse, are less self sabotaging and there is less absenteeism
  • Seeing change as an opportunity
  • Nurturing and being nurtured are fluid
  • Uncovering hidden talents
  • Loving everyone into submission
  • Reciprocal nurture approach between teams and management

Points surrounding the activity we would like to see through embedding a nurture approach:

  • Asking people, “what does a good day at work look like?”
  • Projects like Relationships First
  • Help to manage difficult situations – training
  • 1:1 Development meetings
  • Joy At Work framework = A team plan
  • Awareness and learning about nurture and corporate parenting
  • Nurture UK (NGN) staff toolkit
  • Nurture School
  • Promoting positive behaviour approach
  • Coaching partners
  • Matching system to facilitate nurturing relationships
  • Nurture is 2 way – there’s give and take
  • Career Ready – Falkirk Firm
  • Intranet – Falkirk Five, employee communication, direct email
  • Annual Development Review – 6 month review?
  • Decider training