‘Sensitively exploring how people and organisations work’
How we work
Animate works with leaders, teams, organisations and partnerships supporting them to make the positive difference in the world they exist to make. We provide support at developmental points on their journeys when it is useful to have an external partner to work with them to create spaces and interventions that will enable them to address the opportunities and challenges they face.
We bring our experience of organisational life, our curiosity about repeating patterns, recurring issues, power dynamics and history, all of which give us valuable insights about what is showing up in the present.
We work experientially – with conscious and unconscious dynamics - sensitively exploring how people and organisations work.
We are forensic about success – when individuals and organisations understand themselves and the conditions that enable them to be their best, they can develop more easily
We work systemically – this is a way of thinking, acting and viewing the world which focuses on relationships and interconnectedness and recognises that individuals are always affected by their context - be that their organisation, their family, their community, or more widely.
Our Approach
Animate consultants are integrative - trained in and able to draw on a wide range of theories and approaches.
Organisational development
Systemic thinking
Psychodynamic ways of working
Gestalt
Positive psychology
Neuroscience
Process consulting
Leadership theory
Action research
Appreciative Inquiry
Community development
What we do
We work with a range of people and organisations across the public and third sectors supporting them to increase their resilience, strengthen their performance, and improve their effectiveness and satisfaction at work.
Developing Leaders
Many of those we work with are Senior Leaders and Managers. Being a leader and manager is more challenging than ever due to budget and staffing reductions while at the same time the demand on public and third-sector services is increasing.
We accompany clients, rather than deliver to them
We are good at working in grey areas, with uncertainty, helping people to explore what’s going on below the surface so that they can become more effective leaders, have higher functioning teams and achieve better outcomes for the organisation and the people they serve.
We don’t use ‘off the shelf’ programmes. Our approach is bespoke, drawing on a range of interventions which can be put together in a wide variety of ways.
We appreciate the opportunity to diagnose before designing a programme. This involves discussions with commissioners and/or managers, and we may also speak to individuals one-to-one so that we have a good picture of the context, culture and issues.
Which interventions we choose depends on the outcomes the organisation wants:
what they want their leaders and managers to be able to do and to achieve
how much they want their leaders to be agents of change.
Our actions are carried out within agreed boundaries including the organisation's budget, timeframe and desired outcomes, and taking the impact of the context and field in which the organisation operates into account.
We prefer to co-design whenever possible
Co-design helps people to invest in what matters to them, to stretch themselves and try new things, become more curious about what is working and not working, and why that is. It encourages people to collaborate across departmental and organisational boundaries and builds in-house skills.
We work with teams and organisations to create an approach that is best suited to their circumstances. This includes taking the following criteria into account:
how experienced the participants are, how long they have been managers/leaders
how much development they’ve already had, and how skilled they are in the basics of leadership
how confident they are
what difference does the organisation/agency want people to make
how much appetite there is for learning vs being taught
how much change is happening within the organisation and in its context
how much time they have to participate in developing the programme.
A range of options are described in the continuum table below.
| Increasing participation by clients → | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leadership development intervention | Standard 'off the shelf' programme. Designed for a general audience and delivered the same way for all groups | We created the program and decided on its adaptations for the organisation's needs. | Created by us, but fine-tunes through discussion with participants as the programme unfolds | Co-designed with participants throughout |
| Design Process | Doesn't change in response to changes or events | We use our skills and knowledge to design and run the programme | We consult with the participants about details and the order of events | We join with the participants as learning partners. This may include some working with in-house facilitators |
| Expectations of 'experts' | Facilitators have answers and can pass on knowledge to participants | Facilitators have the expertise of leadership development | Facilitators bring most of the expertise but there is space for participants to bring some of their own too | Facilitators and participants can pool their knowledge and expertise to create learning and skill development |
| Who/what for | Participants all need the same information(eg a new system or process) | Participants have limited experience of leadership development | Participants have some experience and real awareness of strengths and gaps | Participants have extensive experience in leadership development and are keen to share knowledge |
| Outcomes (learning, skills, confidence of participation) | Participants have a clear sense of what they are getting before they come and they all get the same | Participants have a secure understanding of basic leadership theory and practice | Participants have developed their skills, added more tools to their box and shared experience | Ownerships, curiosity, adaptive change. Increased confidence in new ways of working |
| Decreasing control by facilitators → | ||||
Fig 1: Animate - Continuum Table
Developing Groups & Teams
We work with groups and teams to stay connected to their shared purpose, supporting them to shape and take action in their roles, devise enabling processes, and develop effective working relationships.
We have worked with groups from as small as 3 to over 100. Regardless of size we design and facilitate processes with groups to help them to achieve their goals.
The Animate team are experienced facilitators and coaches, with some bringing particular experience of supporting teams to work with conflict and to respond to crisis events.
Developing Organisations
There is a continual need for teams and organisations to invest time and effort to remain efficient and productive, in order to achieve their strategic and operational goals.
We work with organisations to ensure they are aligned with their core purpose and that their people, processes, systems and structures are focused on serving that purpose. Our team has significant experience in supporting organisations in roles such as:
Facilitating development days
Supporting strategic and business planning
Performing organisational reviews and restructuring
Developing and strengthening governance at the board level
Undertaking research, evaluation and stakeholder engagement
Providing support through periods of planned and unplanned change
Improving communication and relationships with government and the media.
Developing partnerships & collaborations
There is increasing recognition of the necessity to collaborate and work in partnership across the public, third and private sectors to address the complex challenges and uncertainties of our times in the face of tightening public finances.
We know that the most successful outcomes are achieved when partners spend time building relationships, clarifying expectations, sharing risk, agreeing on mutual accountability, staying curious and committing to iterative learning by doing and reflecting on the outcomes.
Our bespoke leadership programmes and action inquiry approaches provide opportunities for diverse stakeholders to learn with and from others working with similar issues and challenges in their organisations and policy areas.