CIPD Branches, doughnuts and strategy

This morning I’ll be hanging out in the cafe at CIPD Towers and calling it work.

We are attempting to write the first draft of our business area’s strategy out in the open with the entire organisation joining in. I look after, amongst other things, making sure we are communicating well with our branches. We are better than we were before, we are not there yet.

The feedback from our branch network has been they want to be confident that the work they do lines up with the CIPD strategy, so we’ve invited the entire CIPD to come down, have a doughnut and share their thoughts.
I have no idea if it will work. I have no idea if there will be a giant crowd, a steady stream of people or tumbleweed. But there are a few benefits

• Things created together create shared accountability
• Doing things in the open creates trust. No rabbits out of hats (when nobody asked for a rabbit)
• If people suggest something that won’t work then we can explain why and then they understand decisions a bit better
• If someone suggests something that would work then that has saved me some thinking – or done some thinking I wasn’t capable with
• It should be fun
• It’s a good opportunity to showcase the amazing work the branches do – and my team does when I’m not getting in their way
• It’s a good excuse to have doughnuts
• When people, our volunteers, are giving their time up the least we owe them is making sure it is being spent on the right things

Once we’ve got the strategy draft we can share more broadly and see where we get. We speak to branches everyday about what they want to see, this is about making sure the organisation is joined up too and we are all pulling in the same direction.

And doughnuts.