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Friday, May 22, 2009

Second Open Space meeting

Yesterday was the second Open Space meeting in Manchester - there was a fantastically diverse group of people, including lots of young people, clinical and outreach staff, reception workers, supporters and stakeholders as well as managers.

As with the Open Space meeting in London the passion and creativity of everyone involved led to interesting, fascinating ideas, experiences and thinking which will help inform the future organisational design and governance structure. In closing the day I reflected on how only 5 hours before it would have been hard to imagine we could create the agenda, organise ourselves, type up our discussions and vote on our top priorities. The report totals 42 pages of ideas, discussion points and recommendations.

I was privileged enough to be part of discussions where people reflected proudly on what they do well, and our strengths, as well as having tremendous insights into areas we can still get better at. It is that pride into what we do well and insight and awareness of what we must get better at that gives Brook the integrity I am so proud of.

There were many similarities and common themes as in London with top priorities being helping young people address peer pressure; focusing on staff recruitment, retention and training, ensuring education has a high priority and focusing on maintaining and improving quality standards in all of our work.

Two other common themes were;

  • ensuring that all young people including gay, lesbian and bisexual young people, young disabled people and those from black and minority ethnic communities are involved in all of our work.
  • really thinking about social norms in relation to young people and sex - addressing sexual pleasure in all of our work and setting high expectations for them in relation to sex so they expect a lot from their relationships and sex when they choose it as well as having confidence and pride in themselves and bodies.

Thank you to everyone who participated in both the Open Space meetings. Please do complete the short online survey - the link is in the previous blog and watch this space for further information. Finally thanks once again for the comments you have sent to - please keep them coming.

Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 05:12 PM
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Organisational design survey

So far the review is progressing well and yesterday we had the second of our Open Space meetings.

As part of the review we have also set up an online survey to gather thoughts about Brook's future and the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Please click here to take the survey.  

Posted by on Friday, May 22, 2009 at 04:42 PM
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Thursday, May 14, 2009

What is happening?

Next week is the second open space meeting which will take place in Manchester. I am really looking forward to it as the first one in London provided such rich information and insight to the issues that staff and stakeholders feel very passionate about. Some of these issues can be acted upon immediately and others will feed into the organisational design and governance review process. See my previous blog for feedback about the London event and if you have not registered already and want to come to the meeting in Manchester please contact .  

Three pieces of work are currently underway;

  • Egg research and consultancy are undertaking stakeholder interviews with randomly selected Chairs/Trustees within Brook, local and national commissioners/funders and policy makers as well as experts in sexual health and voluntary sector governance and leadership.
  • Helen Finney , Chair of the Brook Network and Director of Brook in Liverpool is visiting all Centres over the next couple of months to understand the local context, key issues, challenges and opportunities to feed into the review.
  • The first short web based survey for staff will go live next week - details of how to access and respond to the survey will be posted on this blog, and circulated to Centre Directors to pass on to all staff.

All of this information will be used to inform the working group who are working with me on the review. The next meeting is on June 10th.

Next week information about the survey and feedback from the Open Space meeting in Manchester will be posted on the blog.

Thank you to those of you have already emailed questions, thoughts and ideas please do continue to email me at and I will answer you personally.

Posted by on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 10:09 AM
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Open Space - participator feedback

Here is the feedback from the first open space meeting that I thought you would find interesting:

  • "Its been really interesting to hear people's views from all parts of the organisation"
  • "This has been a really interesting format, really well done"
  • "I really enjoyed the discussions ranging from big wide philosophy to tiny detail from all different parts of the Network to inform decision makers and where to go from here"
  • "All that needed to be said has been said today"
  • "Its been really important what we have talked about today"
  • "Its been really excellent - brilliant"
  • "Meeting people from the Network and nationally has been really good"
  • "It's been very interesting as a young person and an American. You have been talking about how to use resources in a country the size of my state!"
  • "Its been really interesting to listen, the range of discussions and to be able to move around"
  • "Really interesting to talk about different levels, structures and systems and in the last group we also had a personal conversation that will stay with me."
  • "The format with no constraints, no preset agenda was really good to get out ideas"
  • "Its been interesting and informative"
  • "Interesting day and good to set our own agenda , a really interesting way of doing things"
  • "A good format, as an older person I could contribute and it seemed that lessons learnt a long time ago are coming around again"
  • "What next that's what I am interested in"
  • "As an outsider its been good to be invited and to take an interest in Brook"
  • "Great to meet everyone and to find out what other centres are doing and to know we are all passionate about the same things no matter where we are from"
  • "Its been a really good day"
  • "In 2019 I will have retired and be drinking wine on my veranda, wondering if Brook have done all we have talked about today - if they have I will raise my glass to Brook having achieved all this!!"
  • "From my perspective its been good, to listen and take part in this really useful day"
  • "It's been a really good day - thanks. Good to find out about Brook"

I look forward to the next Open Space meeting which takes place on Thursday 21 May at the City of Manchester Stadium - please email for further information if you would like to attend.

Posted by on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 01:08 PM
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Monday, April 27, 2009

First Open Space meeting

Last Friday we held the first of the two Open Space meetings that are contributing to the review of the organisational design and governance structure. It was a fantastically inspiring event, and I was really interested to hear the range of things that people want us to get right, to carry on doing, to think about, to change and to understand as part of the review process. Some things are underway already - for example, people at the event want us to sort out the website once and for all, so all Centres have their own pages and Brook has one corporate website. This work has already started and we will be launching the new site later in the summer.

This is just one area that people want us to address and other things will take more time. Like how we make sure we have good quality, consistent staff recruitment, training, development, retention and career pathways so that we make sure Brook makes the most of its precious and valuable staff resource, or how we develop a cross-network IT strategy that facilitates positive communication for the whole of Brook.

You won't be surprised to know that the vital issue of young people's involvement in decision making at Brook was a hot topic of conversation and we also talked about how people with learning disabilities are involved, how Brook can lead a change in the funny culture we have about young people and sexuality, how we can make the HPV Vaccine available, how we improve our communication to different stakeholders so we have greater influence and impact, and the different roles we all have across the Network in leading for change.

This doesn't even begin to capture the diversity of issues that people discussed, all of which will be captured in a report of the event. The event generated so much brilliant material that it has led to me to the question that I want to ask staff, volunteers, trustees and other stakeholders:

What is the one most important message that you want me to hear about any area of the organisation that Brook must address if we are to enable more young people to enjoy their sexuality without harm?

Email me at with your thoughts and I will respond directly. Or comment on the blog and start a conversation.

I am really looking forward to the Open Space meeting in Manchester on May 21st and hope to see you there.

Posted by on Monday, April 27, 2009 at 04:10 PM
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Friday, April 03, 2009

Welcome to the Bigger, Bolder, Better blog!

Brook has launched a review of our organisational design and governance structure and this blog is part of that. It's a place for you to register your thoughts and comments, as well as keeping up to date with progress. We're really keen to hear how people feel about the process and what you'd like to see happen to make the organisation Bigger, Bolder and Better. For more information on what's happening, check out the webpages at www.brook.org.uk/review

I am going to use this blog to keep anyone interested in the review up to date with the review between now and when the review is complete at the end of this year. If you have any questions or comments you can either email me at and I will answer personally. So join in, and if you have comments and thoughts, be sure to leave them on this blog.
Posted by on Friday, April 03, 2009 at 02:40 PM
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