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As we’ve explored and reflected on Learning Partner contracts, we’ve identified three roles that a Learning Partner takes; The mirror, the mentor and the midwife. Each role blends the “learning for” and “learning with” elements that we described previously, and in our experience, Learning Partners need to be confident shifting between the three as learning needs and capacity changes.
Read MoreIn our last blog, we looked at the motivations behind Learning Partnerships. In this one we examine some of the conditions we think are necessary for success – building on our experience, and that of our partners at Renaisi, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. In particular, we look at taking time to set the project up, develop consensus about aims and being explicit about creating the conditions for learning to happen and be acted upon.
Read MoreIt’s perhaps unsurprising that we have been drawn to the concept of the Learning Partner and all the term suggests; that is, working with organisations to enable learning and improvement, and doing so collaboratively. Having carried out several roles badged in this way, we wanted to reflect, as a team and with peers, on what the role can look like, what skills it requires, and what it can contribute to organisations, and to the sector more broadly.
Read MoreAt Dartington, we have been working with Salford Council to develop a systemic Theory of Change for their Better Outcomes New Delivery (BOND) programme. In the course of the work with managers and practitioners from across the BOND programme, we discovered that family resilience was felt to be central to all the programmes – but also under-explored. What did it look like, and how could it be supported? We worked with teams to create a testable model of the dynamic causes of family resilience to underpin and inform subsequent work within the systemic theory of change for all BOND programmes. Here’s what we learnt...
Read MoreAt Dartington, through experience we have learnt the importance and power of a visual depiction of data to communicate meaning. Done well, this can reduce barriers to understanding the data and address any imbalance between those who hold the information or evidence and those who are interested in understanding it. Here Keira Lowther and Daniel Ellis discuss the power of visualisations and show how they can help us understand systems.
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