Non-executive Chairs

Hello, we’re Kaleidoscope. We’re a consultancy of a different kind. We work to improve health and care.

We’re looking for two amazing people to fill two non-executive positions:

• Chair (and Trustee) of our new Employee Ownership Trust
• Chair (and non-executive director) of the Kaleidoscope Health and Care Board.

These roles are significant for us, yet have a low time requirement: six days per year for the Employee Ownership Trust Chair, and 12 days per year for the Board Chair.

We’re a social enterprise using our earnings to further our mission: to work with others to create a future that is kind, connected and joyful. We meet this mission by advising clients across public, private and voluntary sectors in health and care on their strategy, supporting organisational development, networks and partnerships, carrying out research and evaluations, and designing and facilitating a whole host of face-to-face and digital events.

We are also a Teal organisation, which shapes how we organise ourselves, make decisions and work with others.

Our first requirement is that you’re kind. Beyond this, there is no ‘right’ sort of Kscoper: we want a company inclusive of different and unique people. We are committed to creating a company that ensures a diversity of voices in all parts of our work.

Context

We are currently making two linked sets of governance changes.

Kaleidoscope will shortly transition from being entirely owned by its founder to entirely owned by its staff through an Employee Ownership Trust, overseen by three staff Trustees and chaired by an external (non-staff) Trustee.

Separately, Kaleidoscope will have a formal Board of Directors for the first time, with four internal executive directors, and chaired by an external non-executive director. We are now seeking to fill these two external roles, both of which are new for Kaleidoscope.

These are significant structural changes, but all designed to support a continuation of how Kaleidoscope currently works. Our decision-making is deliberately highly decentralised. Individual Kscopers operate within a structure that supports autonomy and decision-making at every level. We do not have a traditional hierarchy. These new arrangements re-allocate power currently held by Kaleidoscope’s founder into new structures, but do not seek to fundamentally alter the distribution of power in the organisation.

The new Employee Ownershùip Trust will help safeguard the long-term future of Kaleidoscope as an organisation with a set of core principles. While it will meet every six months, its role is best thought of as holding a set of ‘break glass in case of emergency’ powers to be used in extreme circumstances.

The new Kaleidoscope Board of Directors will focus on the medium-term progress of Kaleidoscope, and the execution of its strategy. It will meet every quarter to provide a space for reflection and sense-making on what is going on inside and out of Kaleidoscope, and support individual staff directors with the decisions that they hold individually.

While the Board will discuss many decisions, the number of decisions the Board will make collectively will be exceptionally small. Its role is to ensure Kaleidoscope is making excellent, and ever-improving, decisions through providing mutual support, advice and challenge.

What we’re looking for

We are looking for two exceptional individuals. They will:

• Be deeply committed to what Kaleidoscope is trying to achieve: working with others to create a future that is kind, connected and joyful.
• Be committed to the type of organisation Kaleidoscope is, and aspires to be. You do not need to be an expert on ‘teal’ organisations, management theory, or employee ownership, but your thoughts on organisations will closely align with what Kaleidoscope seeks to be.
• Be capable of giving thoughtful, constructive – and at times highly robust – challenge, supporting Kaleidoscope staff to stop, reflect and make better decisions than they would otherwise do.
• Bring a cool head and sense of perspective to the key decisions facing Kaleidoscope, drawing knowledge, skills and experience from your personal and professional life to help Kscopers make sense of where they are and what they need to do.
• Understand the pressures and trade-offs inherent in small organisations and businesses and what this means for decision-making, ambiguity, and risk tolerance.
• Bring board-level experience from a related field to Kaleidoscope’s work. This may be from within health and care, or from a topic area Kaleidoscope works on – research and evaluation, strategy, organisational development, collaboration, or service change – or from an entrepreneurial or progressive organisation background.

If you’re reading this wondering ‘is it really for me?’ or ‘I don’t quite meet all of the criteria’ then please get in touch to ask some questions or consider applying anyway.

We know that some people are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they can perform every task. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and we know that candidate may come from a less traditional background. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and skill set for the role.

Remuneration and time requirements

Both positions are contracts for services. Respectively:

• Chair of Employee Ownership Trust: expected to be up to 10 days per year, including two meetings in person at the Kaleidoscope offices in London SE4. Remainder of time to provide support and advice across Kaleidoscope and to allow for familiarisation with the business. Annual salary of £5,000.
• Chair of Kaleidoscope Health and Care Board: expected to be up to 20 days per year, including four meetings in person at the Kaleidoscope offices in London SE4. Remainder of time to provide support and advice across Kaleidoscope and to allow for familiarisation with the business. Annual salary of £10,000.

How to apply

To apply, we would like you to do the following:

• Make clear in your covering email which of the two positions you are applying for. Applications for both are allowed; please make this clear, and reflect this in your responses below.
• Write an open letter to Kaleidoscopians answering three questions: Why are you attracted to Kaleidoscope? What do you bring? What do you think Kaleidoscope needs?
• Include a short summary (no more than three sides of A4) of any relevant experience that speaks to the experience  outlined above – please note we do not want a traditional CV.
• Confirm that you have the right to work in the UK.
• Include a contact phone number in your email.
• Put only your initials and the day and month (not year!) of birth at the top of both your blog and work experience summary (e.g. JB2511) as we shortlist in a ‘blind’ process and do not want identifiable information included in the application material.

Please email the above to hello@kscopehealth.org.uk with subject line ‘Non-executive Chairs’.

Deadline: midday, 6 June.

We are provisionally planning to hold interviews in the week commencing 16 June.

Diversity, equality and inclusion

Kaleidoscope Health and Care is committed to promoting equality and eliminating unlawful discrimination, in line with the Equality Act 2010 and Kaleidoscope’s diversity and inclusion policy. We would be grateful if you could complete our diversity and equality monitoring form  to help us understand if we are succeeding in involving a diverse range of different people in our work and to change our approaches and practices if some groups are underrepresented.

Questions?

We will be holding an Ask Me Anything session about this opportunity and working at Kaleidoscope on 29 May, 3.00-3.30pm.

Sign up to attend the Ask Me Anything session.

If you need any reasonable adjustments for the application process or have any specific questions then please email us at hello@kscopehealth.org.uk and put ‘Non-executive Chairs’ as the subject line.

Thanks very much – we hope to hear from you.