The scoping phases of Fit for the Future are now over and we are into the in depth development stage! It’s really exciting but I’m taking a moment to reflect on progress so far.
I think work so far has been about harvesting good ideas. And what I’ve been thinking about lately is ‘where do good ideas come from?’. I’ve loosely categorised these into three areas; People, Places, Spaces. The difference between place and space for me is that one is about the environment itself, and the other is more about the ‘feel’ of the environment and the ‘space’ that people are occupying.
People
- people who access support
- collaboration
- unexpected speakers – the quiet ones in the room
- new staff!
Places
- training days – away days
- in people’s homes – “on the job”
- at meetings (particularly multi disciplinary- but only when people feel at ease)
- online/in research
Spaces
- in groups where people feel comfortable and supported. This is somehow different from ‘people’ because, I think it’s about removing people from their typical mind frame into a new ‘space’. The best example for this would be that one of our project ideas came from a christmas party! It was the same staff team but in a more informal space, they were able to speak about something that might not have come up in day to day office conversation.
- in ‘electric spaces’ – for example, when staff travel together to training in a separate location, often the journey home after having an opportunity to meet new people and learn new things is ‘electric’ and an opportunity to think about different ideas.