Purpose
In the process of developing ACED, we came to recognise that some aspects of our practice were important to the success of the programme. In this section, we offer practical suggestions to help you prepare.
Actions
ACED is a programme of experimentation encouraging new approaches to innovation and involvement. In particular, it seeks to help an organisation to see its work through different eyes and to be able to change and adapt in the light of new perspectives. These preparatory steps are accordingly geared towards collaboration and change. Facilitators (and/ or Changemakers) might usefully follow these steps.
- First of all, ask if ACED is right for your organisation - see the Are You Ready checklist
- Agree a brief with senior leadership: what change would they like ACED to help them to achieve? What will success look like? What resources can they make available? How will they monitor progress and manage proposals and suggestions from the Changemaker and Task Force? How will they review ACED and how will it affect future strategy.
- All staff briefing – about the aims and process of ACED
- Appoint a “task force” of 6 – 12 people from across your organisation who have diverse roles in or with it. Try to include volunteers or regular participants and collaborators where relevant. Try to create a truly diverse group which represents as many as possible of the teams within your organisation. Make sure they have the time and resources needed to deliver the ACED programme.
- Appoint a "change-maker" to co-ordinate the work of the task force and represent them across the organisation and to the leadership. The changemaker can either work WITH an external facilitator and/ or be an internal facilitator. ACED will form at least 50% of the changemakers role for 2- 6 months. Some organisations appointed both a change-maker and an administrator to work together on driving ACED forwards.
- Brief the Task Force and Change-Maker: what resources, including time, do they have, what is the decision-making and reporting process? Use these resources to introduce the concepts and techniques behind ACED.
- Work with/ ask the changemaker to produce an outline project schedule reflecting the ACED process - include internal communications and check-ins with the leadership. Start with one group workshop per stage and develop this over time. Changemaker and facilitator should be available to coach the task force through various stages.
- You might also want to explore some of the background the ACED programme - in the WHY ACED section
By the end…
You will be ready to try the ACED programme
Organisational learning
In this stage, you will learn
- The value and potential of working with interdisciplinary, task-and-finish groups
- How to manage devolved and democratic decision-making
- The change maker and task force members will become more confident human-centred designers able to cascade their learning