Supporting a new strategy direction for Nuffield Council on Bioethics
We helped the Nuffield Council on Bioethics to articulate a clear story of how they want to have impact, and the implications of this for their focus over the coming years.
The challenge
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is an internationally renowned independent body that reports on ethical issues in bioscience and health.
Established more than 30 years ago, the Council has evolved to ensure its continuing relevance in a changing world. Its previous strategy had run its course and, with a new Director, the Council was keen to go back to basics – revisiting what their purpose was as an organisation, engaging their stakeholders, and setting out a new strategy focused on maximising their impact.
Kaleidoscope was commissioned to support this process, helping the Council reflect on their purpose and what it meant to them. With a range of interested stakeholders, the task was to ensure a shared vision of what the future could look like, and what was required to get there.
Our approach
Kaleidoscope provided targeted support at a number of points during the Council’s strategy process. This focused on three main strategic tasks:
- Advising and quality assuring the strategy process and outputs. This included running a process to develop a new articulation of the Council’s purpose, and a supporting logic model that linked desired outcomes to activities.
- Facilitating conversations and workshops with a broad range of Council members, internal staff and stakeholders to understand different perspectives and identify both shared ground, and areas requiring discussion and debate.
- Coaching and support to the team leading the strategy development within the Council, including advice on approach, process and outputs.
This work was concluded by bridging the strategy process into organisational development, running a development session using our high-performing teams methodology.
Results
The strategy process successfully managed to engage and unite a breadth of individuals and perspectives.
Key to this success was the ability to have a set of constructive conversations as to what the Council needed to do differently, and the sometimes sensitive trade-offs that required – including the need to transition from old ways of working to the new.
The resulting strategic approach – and strategy document – were seen as providing an exciting and impactful new direction for the organisation.
Kaleidoscope’s expertise and clarity of thought was invaluable during the strategy development process. Their skills in facilitation – taking time to understand competing perspectives and reach consensus – enabled us to identify a purpose statement and strategy that resonates with our Council, stakeholders and funders alike.
Danielle Hamm
Director, Nuffield Council on Bioethics
