How would you like to go for a walk?

A walk? We often use the notion of “walking-around” the Caplor House in our sessions. For instance, most recently with the board and staff of Dóchas

When considering behavioural preferences, the “walk-around” can be a very effective individual and team development exercise. Or it can be used as a planning or strategy tool. To learn about the concept of a walk-around, click here

Dóchas is the umbrella body for international development organisations in Ireland. We are delighted to have been facilitating two activities recently: (a) a learning process with the Chairs and Deputy Chairs of “Working Groups”; (b) the development of an “Interim Strategy Statement” which has included team development and a session on governance with the board.

Dóchas works very closely with the Government of Ireland. Click here to read more about the Irish Government’s Policy on International Development.

What is Hope-Based Communications? Through our partnership with UK based Paper Boat, we are working with CEDAR, an NGO in Tamil Nadu, India. Currently we are conducting a 3-part online programme called “Hope Based Communications.”

What does the programme involve? The first session focused on “why do hope-based communications and stories of change matter”; the next on “how can stories be collected and communication improved”; the final session on “what actions will be taken going forwards”. To learn more, relevant to this approach, read “The Influencing Organisation” chapter in our new book by clicking here

John Muir Quote: “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

Have a great day!

Lorna, Ian, Rosie and Ellie

Think Big. Act Wild?!

Think Big. Act Wild?! Recently, we chaired, spoke and facilitated a keynote and break-out session at a fascinating Conference. This was organised by our long-term partners EAUC. Hundreds of UK based students and leaders involved with the movement towards a sustainable future participated in the Conference.

The keynote included the Director of Rewilding Britain, hence ‘Think Big. Act Wild’. Other contributors to the keynote - called ‘The Future Now’ – included the Co-ordinator for the UK’s first Local Conference on Youth; the Director of Drawdown Labs and Prince Charles. Dan shared a model focused on how to think differently about transformational change. See below.

What is Rewilding? Rewilding can be defined as the: “restoration of ecosystems to the point where nature is allowed to take care of itself.” Furthermore, it seeks to: “reinstate natural processes and where appropriate, missing species.” To learn more about Rewilding and Rewilding Britain click here

Thank you! On Friday we had 63 people (based in 11 different countries) from our Caplor Community join a first session of our ‘Strategic Change and Development Group’. Currently 90 people have generously committed to being involved with the Group at one point or another.

What is this about? In essence, we want to be creative and involve members of our Caplor Community in the development of our new strategy (our current one runs to March 2020). And we want to do this in a systematic way that will strengthen our structure. If you would like to know more, please get in touch. We will share about our progress as we go along.

Want to be involved? If you are not a member of this Group at the moment, though would like to contribute in a highly efficient way (that would only take around 5-10 mins), we would very much welcome your attention to questions in a survey. Click here to access the survey. Thank you for considering this. Everyone is very welcome to take part and contribute.

Rewilding Britain quote: “Think long term. Think joined up. Think natural processes. Think climate resilience. Think Big. Act Wild.”

Have a great day!

Lorna, Ian, Rosie and Ellie

How can we eliminate violence against women and children?

How can we eliminate violence against women and children? We have been facilitating a strategy process with a US based ‘Justice Group’. This inspirational group of women is striving to reach horizons: it is concentrating on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Children with a particular focus on formal and informal education.

We have also just facilitated a learning forum on gender balance and cross-cultural communication. This was with a group of remarkable leaders from across the Lasallian network.

The learning forum was part of a wider programme centred on helping bring about strategic and cultural change across the Lasallian network. It has involved the contributions of many people over this past year, most recently, for instance, Fiona (Dowling). Thank you to all involved.

Our Feminist Principles? During the learning forum we shared our nine principles. These are pictured below.

Want to learn more? Click here to read our Thought Leadership Paper on Developing a Gender Balanced Mindset. Or here to hear a fascinating podcast about a feminist called Mary Astell; she lived hundreds of years ago and was one of the first people to highlight the connection between achieving gender balance and education.

This Year’s Annual Report – click here to read our latest Annual Report which has just been published following the completion of an independent examination of our Accounts

Alice Walker quote: “No one is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow”

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Who are Experts by Experience?!

Who are Experts by Experience? We have recently had the opportunity to facilitate sessions with the 'Experts by Experience' Group at Refugee Action. This group involves people that have experience relevant to the work of Refugee Action. They act as 'critical friends' to the staff leadership team and board.

We focused on the 5M model of Governance during our last session. This model was created by Dr Peter Moore; he is an Advisor and specialist in Governance (see image below).

To learn more about Refugee Action, a charity based in the UK, click here.

Fanfare! We've just revised our 'Essentials of a Learning Organisation'. We are particularly appreciative of the contributions of Dr Kemal Shaheen, Craig Franz and Professor Sharon Turnbull in relation to this. To read in English click here; in Spanish click here; in French click here.

Sadako Ogato quote: "I wish to call on you to join hands in the building of a world in which less people will be forced to flee, and in which refugees are protected until they can safely return home one day."

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Time for an experiment?

Time to experiment? As more people are working remotely, it’s important to consider how to keep engaged and remain creative. Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi have identified three points linked to motivation that can lead to increased effectiveness: these are play, purpose and potential. To read more, click here.

We’re delighted to be continuing our collaboration with Dharohar based in Udaipur, India. Dharohar helps young people develop the skills and mindsets needed to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

The current engagement is based on our three part ‘Reaching New Horizons’ programme; click here to learn more about that; or here for more insights about Dharohar. Below is a photo of some Dharohar team members during our last face to face visit in 2019.

What is ‘Sustainability Exchange’? Sustainability Exchange aims to be the world’s leading resource of sustainability information. We’re excited to announce that they are promoting our new book and some of our Thought Leadership Papers. To view and read these please click here.

Many thanks to Iain Patton, CEO of EAUC (the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges) who has helped inspire this process. Iain is one of our Advisors. He is involved in various ways including leading a new strategic initiative about Coaching and Mentoring. Watch this space for news on that in coming months.

Dr. Jane Goodall quote: “One individual cannot possibly make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference—all the difference in the world!”

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

New Normal, New Thinking - what does a connected organisation look like?

What is Crossref? Crossref is a very dynamic organisation that makes research outputs easy to find, cite, link, assess, and reuse. It is a not-for-profit that exists to make scholarly communications better.

We’ve been facilitating team development sessions with Crossref. Vanessa (Fairhurst) - a member of the team at Crossref - is also one of our Advisors.

Vanessa wrote a chapter in our new book. This is titled: ‘The Connected Organisations’. Click here to read the book.

The Chapter examines how the organisations we work in are shaped by influential technologies. It explores how we can all better connect and work together using these technologies.

We’re excited to announce the launch of a ‘Fownhope website’ that Rosie created. Click here to see this. Fownhope is the name of the local community where we are based in the west of England.

Arundhati Roy quote: “historically pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew”. Click here to watch a short clip (less than 2mins) in which Arundhati Roy talks about the important opportunities that can arise from the covid-19 for humanity.

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Are you a driver or a passenger?

How can you ‘drive’ sales!? A famous novelist once said that ‘everyone lives by selling something’. Across the world, due to the coronavirus pandemic and other acute challenges, many not for profits that carry out excellent work are struggling to maintain income streams.

As so many discussions with potential and existing funders are online, we found a recent webinar about ‘selling in a virtual world’ interesting. It addresses how to prepare for, deliver and follow up online interactions in ways that are meaningful and memorable. To learn more click here

Have you made your Commitment? The Commitment is an organisation being incubated within Caplor Horizons. It sets out to demonstrate to politicians in the UK that the public want to actively fight climate change 
 
To find out more, visit the website of The Commitment by clicking on the image below 

We want to say a big thank you to our Advisors, Deven (Thakkar) and Tom (Stokes) as well as everyone else involved with ‘The Great Collaboration’ project. The intention of this UK based initiative is to support communities to adopt sustainable lifestyles.

Greater collaboration is vital, including taking into account that 74% of UK Councils have declared a ‘Climate Emergency’. The platform is scheduled to launch in the New Year.

Wangari Maathai quote: ‘In the course of history there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness; to reach a higher moral ground; a time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other; that time is now.’

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

The case for 'Building Back Better'

Covid-19 is exacerbating inequalities, including those surrounding mental health. A recent paper highlights that rates of distress and mental conditions have substantially increased globally. It emphasises the importance of integrating mental health in Covid-19 responses and therefore ‘Building Back Better’. To learn more click here.

Since increased uncertainties, we have been delivering our new programme called, ‘Reaching New Horizons’. This is a three-part online programme to address: (1) What have we learnt? (2) What are our ‘new horizons’? and (3) How will we get there? To read more about the programme click here or contact us to learn more.

We’ve just started a ‘Reaching New Horizons’ programme with Haygrove – an international horticultural organisation. The online sessions have involved around 26 people from at least 10 different countries. As with other organisations, we’ve adapted the basic ‘Reaching New Horizons’ programme with Haygrove so that it is aligned to the specific challenges and opportunities they face.

Maria Robinson quote: ‘Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending’

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

Why is it the 'century of leadership'?

We believe that everyone is a leader. And that leadership has never been more important in our world. An article prepared for the upcoming 'Drucker Forum' is interesting. It is titled 'Proclaiming the Century of Leadership'. It describes how 'this is a century in which the metaphor of the perfect storm is constantly invoked' and set out the vital importance of leadership. Click here to read more.

Many thanks to everyone who joined our webinar to launch our ebook last week. We had 66 people registered from 9 different countries. You can watch the recording here. For those who would like to read or share the book with others, you can access it by clicking on the image below.

We've just started contributing to the important work of Refugee Action. Refugee Action helps refugees and people seeking asylum to rebuild their lives in the UK. Our facilitation with an 'Experts by Experience' group focuses on team development and effective governance.

Charles Handy quote: 'People need leadership. Things need management. It is dangerous to get it the other way round'

Have a great day!

Ellie, Rosie, Lorna and Ian

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together

Future leaders will need to be compassionate, emotionally intelligent and collaborative! This is something we passionately believe in and is supported by Marian Temmen. Leading in this new reality demands tolerance, respect, collaboration, persistence, and humility. To read more on this topic, read our new book about a change maker's guide to new horizons!

We recently updated our ‘Essentials of Collaboration’ paper. Click here to read in English; here in French; here in Spanish. You’re very welcome to share resources like this with anyone that you think might benefit from them.

What is ‘The Great Collaboration’? We are based in Herefordshire close to the Wales/England border. We are delighted to be involved in a new collaborative initiative addressing the climate change crisis. It is called: ‘The Great Collaboration’. This already involves 10 stakeholders working together. The initiative focuses on accelerating change through engaging people at a local ‘parish’ level. Watch this space to learn more.

Join the party? Still time to sign up for our virtual book launch. This will be held later this week on Friday (2nd October) from 12 to 1:30pm BST/UK time. It would be great to see you. If you would like to learn more about the webinar, click here. To register, contact Ellie: eleanor@caplorhorizons.org. To access the book, click here. We would like to say a big thank you to Sharon (Turnbull), a Professor of Leadership and one of our Advisors, who will be leading the webinar. She was involved very heavily with the book, including as an author and member of the Editorial Team.

African Proverb: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together’

Have a great day,

Rosie, Ellie, Lorna and Ian