Crane Gregory - What We Do
What we do - Strategy
For a strategy review, we custom build a process which includes interviews and short intensive working sessions. We agree with the client the range of managers, staff and board members who need to be involved and how they will participate.
We provide a framework of questions to explore the organisation's achievements, capacity and pressures for change. We facilitate using graphics to encourage high levels of participation. We find that visual methods accelerate understanding: they help people see 'the big picture' and get to grips with complex issues, as well as promoting imaginative discussion about future options. We structure the information flowing from the various meetings in the process, to enable the organisation to clarify its purpose and priorities for the next phase of development, and test its realism.
We present the final report as a concise high level plan for the organisation, from which detailed work plans can be developed.
What we do - Multi-sector planning
Working with a multi-sector forum presents its own special challenges, where two aspects of our approach are particularly useful.
Ensuring genuine participation
From our wide experience of working with community organisations, we know the importance of meaningful participation. It is second nature for us to listen to individual 'takes' on the project, and plan ways to involve people, so that they can contribute fully according to their knowledge and experience. For us, this lies at the heart of good facilitation.
Building shared goals
The second challenge is to build commitment to shared goals. People come with different organisational and personal mind-sets. There is a danger that one approach and set of expectations will quickly come to dominate, leading to conflict and feelings of being marginalised.
It is here that "systems thinking", with its use of diagrams to represent complex issues and relationships, comes into play. Through this and other visual methods, we can help reveal different assumptions and world views. Working through these may not be easy, but there is a magic moment when a group discovers a way of representing the goals to which they can all sign up!
What we do - Evaluation
Our aim is to work with clients so that evaluation becomes an integral part of the strategic review and planning process.
When organisations want to develop tools to evaluate their impact, we assist them to:
- Clarify the results they want to achieve for their clients
- Identify the activities needed to deliver those results
- Review their current methods for collecting data about what they do
- Bring to life the impact the organisation is having on its clients and their communities
When we carry out independent evaluation studies, we:
- Clarify the themes to be explored and methods of collecting data
- Pilot the data collection method
- Collect data through, e.g. interviews, on-line surveys, group discussions, case studies
- Analyse the data to provide useful information for the sponsor
