A free tool for renewal when things feel stuck: Preserve, Grow, Compost
How is your strategy holding up? As lockdown continues, organisations and teams are under continued strain. You may be struggling to find the energy to address areas of your strategy that are holding you back, and the motivation to move forward.
But even at a time when so much feels stuck and immobile, change is happening around you, and there are opportunities to grasp. This doesn’t mean that you need to undertake a huge strategy review – we’ve developed a tool that can provide an easy and effective way to help you take a fresh look at your work and can bring you unexpected benefits.
The Preserve, Grow, Compost framework helps you review your activities and target change were it is most needed. It can be a particularly useful approach if you are feeling stuck.
Preserve
Looking at your current activities, what are the things that you are confident need to stay the same. These may be activities that are particularly successful at meeting the needs of your beneficiaries, or an essential part of your service provision.
Ask why do they need to stay the same? Is there a successful element to the activities that you could develop further?
If so could you achieve more impact by moving them into the Grow category?
Are there activities that you are keeping in Preserve because they’re in the ‘too hard’ category to do anything about? Perhaps it’s time to really think hard about what benefit they are bringing – there may be activities that need to move to the Compost stage?
Grow
Identify those elements that, given more capacity and room to develop, have the potential to grow and flourish.
Scrutinise every aspect of your current activities – this is where involving everyone in the team is really important. Perhaps there is a spark of potential – currently hidden – that has the capacity to grow?
Where are the opportunities in the wider sector that these activities, with some additional attention and nurturing, could take advantage of?
Compost
This category is for activities that are no longer fit for purpose and need to be wound down. Typically, our clients struggle to put anything into this category.
What helps is realising that closing activities down does not mean effort was wasted. There will have been learning that will fuel new activity in time, or elements that can be applied in a different setting.
This exercise can throw up some unexpected insights. By splitting into teams, challenging each other on the choices they’ve made, and most importantly checking that they are putting enough into the Compost category, this framework can point to helpful shifts in priorities across the team.
As we’ve worked with teams using this tool, it’s clear that there is a permanent cycle between the three categories. Reviewing them regularly helps to ensure your strategy stays up to date, fresh, relevant and helps you to work more effectively in achieving your goals.
Try the Preserve, Grow, Compost tool at your next team meeting or strategy review – we’d love to hear what insight it brings you. Let us know at hello@lucentconsultancy.co.uk.