The Decelerator For Civil Society
In the third and final in blog in this series, Iona Lawrence outlines The Decelerator for civil society — a project emerging from the work and learnings of Stewarding Loss since 2019.
Work on the design of the Decelerator will begin in earnest in June 2023. Please complete this form here to let us know if you’d like to be involved, share your experience or just stay in the loop on progress.
“This is structural, if things ended well in the sector, the sector would be healthier overall.” A participant in Stewarding Loss’ research
The Decelerator in a nutshell
After 3 years of Stewarding Loss work to support better endings for 100+ organisations, we are ready to build The Decelerator. The Decelerator would support organisations and individuals to consider and design closures, mergers, CEO transitions, programming ends, and all sorts of endings as part of the everyday life of organisations and inevitable cycles of change in civil society.
Our 5 year plan for a 20 year transformation
Take a moment to think about the accelerators, funding schemes and leadership programmes that help new ideas, leaders and organisations emerge. And how little exists to support the hospicing or transitioning out of old ideas, organisations or leaders and the start of the next chapter.
In the next 5 years we hope to build The Decelerator to offer the practical support civil society leaders, funders and stakeholders at all levels need to open their hearts and minds to endings and be comfortable actively anticipating and designing endings of all kinds as an everyday part of leading ambitious impactful organisations and projects.
We are interested in better endings, for better beginnings. It’s only through attending to endings that we will create the conditions for the emergence of the projects, organisations and movements needed to drive change in these uncertain and complex times.
Why now?
Our communities and societies are in the throes of a sustained ‘polycrisis’. Many of the organisations and movements which exist to drive change and enable human and planetary flourishing are creaking under the pressure of possible endings — of organisations, of projects, of programmes and of business models, of leadership tenures — and are being held back by a lack of support for endings and stigma around them. Uncertainty is on the rise in organisations and we know that the desire and need for good endings is growing.
An initial sketch of how The Decelerator could work…
ONE: The better endings hotline and direct support
We could continue to offer an Endings Hotline — building on the support we have prototyped over the past 2 years. This free-at-the-point-of-use coaching service would offer one-off, one hour coaching support to organisations who might be considering a closure or ending of some kind — from mergers to ends of programmes, from the end of a team to the ending of a leadership chapter.
This could be run as a collective of skilled coaches and advisers who would be paid per hour from a central pot to offer support and guidance. They could signpost to:
A directory of skilled closure experts and designers: There are many skills consultants but they can be too hard to find for organisations in need of their support. This could be a one-stop shop for organisations anticipating or designing an ending and looking to find paid support to help them to do it well.
A library of resources: This free-at-the-point-of-use library could host resources and signpost to further advice for organisations looking to close well.
TWO: Peer support via Decelerator Cohorts
We could test Decelerator Cohorts. Cohorts would be small groups of organisations or individuals going through closure at similar times and stages. Organisations could be provided the direct support outlined above, in addition to peer networking and support to build confidence, compassion and courage through the process. Building on the support we offered Campaign Bootcamp and the Small Charities Coalition in 2022 (read more here), the initial two cohorts we have already explored prototyping are:
Organisations or substantial programmes looking to end well via closure, merger or acquisition.
CEOs / Founders looking to step down and make space for new leadership.
THREE: Advocacy and influencing
Influencing the practice of regulators, infrastructure organisations and funders: Using the approaches and expertise generated through direct support, we will seek to influence the approaches and practices of critical stakeholders whose work and decisions can promote or impede good endings, better beginnings and regeneration in civil society.
Equipping leaders and future leaders with “ending skills” and confidence: By partnering with civil society leadership trainers and courses, we will put excellence in endings on the list of essential capabilities that leaders need in civil society.
Making the case for farewell funding: Organisations need funding in order to design and deliver good endings. Meaningful change requires resources to be allocated for endings throughout the lifecycle of organisations.
Interested?
Are you an individual with expertise in endings and interested in joining us? We are looking to build a small core team (part time) alongside a bank of associates to design and build The Decelerator. We think a few of the key skills we need include:
Legal, financial and governance expertise to support with the operational side of endings;
Emotional and relational expertise to support these components of good endings. Likely some therapeutic / counselling skills;
Expertise in delivering high quality consultancy services;
Expertise in partnership development;
Conflict mediation or resolution experience;
Influencing and advocacy expertise to ensure that this work impacts wider practice in funders, infrastructure, regulators and wider civil society.
Are you a funder interested in funding core costs to get this idea off the ground? Or perhaps you are keen to explore these sorts of themes in your grantmaking.
Are you an accelerator looking for ways to support your accelerator cohorts to develop the skills and confidence for deceleration and loss alongside acceleration and growth?
Do you have experience to share? If you have experiences of endings to share that could inform this work, we’d love to hear from you.
Are you an organisation that could act as a fiscal and legal host for The Decelerator in its development phase (in exchange for reasonable hosting costs, of course!)?
Work on the design of the Decelerator will begin in earnest in June 2023. Please complete this form here to let us know if you’d like to be involved, share your experience or just stay in the loop on progress.