A day of strategic thinking (and fun)

Yesterday at FCSS we took the bold step of pressing the pause button on our usually crazy, busy days and took some time out as a team to reconnect, share and talk about our vision for the future. 

We launched FCSS in January 2020, just 2 short months before the world was turned upside down by Covid-19. This means that most of our time in existence we have been operating in reactive mode, steering our way through multiple challenges, including operating restrictions set by government, staffing challenges, and practical problems like managing all that extra cleaning and fogging (who knew that would become a thing). We’ve been running on adrenalin, taking the decisions needed to protect jobs for our team and of course to continue to support the children and families we work with. 

We’ve managed to grow during this time too, adding new services to our portfolio and moving into new locations.

But the time had come to say STOP, let’s create space to be together and review how we work, and what we do next to ensure the success of our organisation and all of our people.

When considering who should lead us through this process the first person to come to mind was Dave Stewart, aka Fresh Air Dave, who I initially met at a Social Innovation Partnership session a few years ago and have kept in touch with since then. 

Dave runs the Fresh Air Leadership Company and in his words offers “Bespoke, no bullshit, thinking experiences for zoomed-out leaders and teams in amazing Scottish spaces”. 

Our chosen location, was the beautiful Falkland Estate, and it certainly lived up to Dave’s descriptor of “amazing Scottish spaces”. Thank you to Caroline and team for looking after us so well.

Scene set, location described…so what did we actually do? Well the purpose of our day was to explore what is it to lead well together, confidently living our purpose and values, and delivering on FCSS’ ambitious vision. 

Outputs from our day included a first version team charter and a first version high-level strategic roadmap.

To reach these outputs we took part in various workshops, a trust exercise and some team activities and learnt things about each other that we would never have known before. Dave and his colleague Rachel, led us through the sessions using indoor and outdoor spaces, walking towards our future then pausing to consider the steps needed in our day to day world to take us to that future vision.

We end the week with a shared view of the future, a list of practical ways we will operate, some must do, should do, and could do tasks, our core values as a team, and a stronger bond and mutual respect for each other. Plus lots more work to do together. 😉

Now to build that into our business planning and create a communication strategy to share with our teams across the organisation. Link to individual, team and organisational objectives and to tell the world this is who we are, this is what we aim to achieve and this is how we are going to do it. Not a bad place to be in at all, and certainly a place that leaves me feeling optimistic about the future, and proud to be part of such a strong, supportive team…including the crazy one in our planned “sensible”team picture. Lesley was clearly bursting with enthusiasm, lol!