Following a change in leadership, ICA:UK embarked on a process of change in September 2012. This article describes the process to date, outlines the key ideas emerging, and what is coming next.

Transition time for ICA:UK

By Jonathan Dudding, Interim Director, ICA:UK
 

In September 2012, ICA:UK began a transition with the departure of Martin Gilbraith, who had been with ICA:UK since its inception and Chief Executive since January 2010. In addition to Martin’s departure, the desire for change was fuelled by two other factors. These were the recruitment of six new Trustees to the ICA:UK Board in January 2012, bringing fresh impetus and ideas to the governance of the organisation, and a growing recognition that our current approach, while enabling us to survive, was not achieving the sort of change and impact that we wanted.

The process so far...

A meeting between ICA:UK Board members and the staff in September 2012 reviewed our current situation and set the context for a longer process to determine our future direction. We identified that in the short term (i.e. up until our annual meeting scheduled for January 2013) we wanted to take time to:

• focus on identifying and making the most of existing opportunities with associates, the broader network and potential alliances
• readjust the wording of our mission and vision statements to strengthen our focus and clarify the difference we want to make, noting that our mission statement is a communication tool as well as an internal guide
• maintain a focus on our continued survival
• completely revitalise and refresh our business model, requiring it to be practical, sustainable, inspiring, innovative and re-asserting our role as social pioneers

We recognised that in the longer term, such a process would mean:

• Reviewing our offer, adapting existing and developing new products
• Taking a reinvigorated partnership approach to identifying needs and delivering to meet those needs, whilst not losing sight of our financial imperatives
• Concentrating more on monitoring our impact and finding new and innovative ways of working and sharing our results

With this context in mind, staff members were asked to manage the organisation for an interim period, and a document was circulated to our wider network seeking their views and ideas. Over the following weeks we received responses from around 30 people (about 30% of our membership), some of whom responded without further prompting, while we followed up others whose opinions we particularly wanted to hear. Both Board and staff members were involved in one-to-one conversations with many of the respondents.

From these conversations there emerged a strong sense of consensus over our future direction, both in the sense that ICA:UK needed to change, and in what that change needs to embrace. The key message from the consultation was that for many of the respondents ICA has made a profound difference to their lives (professional and/or personal) and that at the heart of ICA there is something of real value, importance and relevance (in terms of people, values, philosophy and methods) which continues to attract people and to keep them engaged. At the same time, however, there was strong feeling that ICA:UK has yet to fully capitalise on the wealth that we have, and that we need to re-assert ourselves as social pioneers at the cutting edge of practice and thinking.

In response to this message and the many rich and provocative ideas that accompanied it, the staff and Board developed a second paper, outlining our ideas for the future of ICA:UK and how it might best play the role that the network was clearly demanding of it. This was circulated prior to the annual meeting in January 2013, and then discussed by the 18 participants who came to the meeting. From that meeting emerged a clear and unambiguous direction that was immediately endorsed by the ICA:UK Board at a meeting held the same day. (see Box 1).

What does this mean for us?

With clarity at the level of mission and strategy, we are now working through what it means for us and for the organisation. Table One sets out the changes we envisage for our approach and priorities. We need to develop a new business model which will enable the new enterprise to work financially. We still see ourselves “in transition” and, until the new business model is developed and implemented, we will continue to fulfil the dual roles of ensuring the organisation survives and introducing strategic change. We will know we have arrived somewhere new when those two themes merge into one.

What have we learnt from this process so far?

• The importance of (re) engaging the wider ICA:UK network in the deliberations about the new direction. For some time we have not been as effective as we could have been in maintaining and strengthening the relationship with our Associates and network members, so we took this opportunity to re-engage with them and involve them in determining our future. This has led to wider ownership of the results and has led to a broader cross-section of members contacting us and expressing their support for the new direction.

• The positive effect of timely, concise documentation. Much of the communication about our new direction has been via email. We have been careful not to overwhelm people with information, but equally to say enough to keep people on board and to make explicit what we are asking of them. At least part of the feedback has focused on how much people welcome the clear, concise nature of the documents.

• Our decision to focus on the notion of a “culture of participation” has enabled us to articulate much more clearly what it is we do and why. Concentrating on such a cause brings both greater clarity and enables people to relate more easily to us and the work we do.

• This is not a quick process! Clarifying our future direction is one thing, working to turn it into reality while continuing to generate sufficient income to survive, is another. This is the stage we are at now, and while we feel that we have made great progress at some level, we also recognise that there is still much work to be done.

What next?
Over the coming months we will be clarifying where we can begin to make changes and what needs to be put in place now in order to support further change in the future. As an example, we have already begun delegating more delivery to Associates but we realise that to do this on a larger scale will require more streamlined and effective ways of building and maintaining our Associates network. Currently the pool is too small for the amount of work we would like to pass over. Similarly, we also need to review our own roles in all of this. Are we, the current staff members, the right people to take the organisation forward into its new incarnation?

Lots of questions, lots of work, but what is exciting is the sense that we have a lot of people with us on this journey, people who care deeply about ICA and its future in the UK, and who are clear on the sort of organisation they want. We don’t yet know exactly what ICA:UK will look like in a few years, but whatever it is, we can be confident that through this group, the spirit, values and work of ICA will continue.

Our new direction

Table One: What needs to change?