The Value Exchange

It’s been so lovely to reconnect with this week’s podcast guest, Clare Richmond. She’s a social innovator, a coach and most recently an author of the Scavenger Mindset. A book which, she herself admits, has enabled her to capture a lot of what she has learned from working with community led and resource constrained leaders for many years. We talk about her early experiences of traditional leadership and her feeling that this is not actually working with reality. How this moved her from a comfortable marketing and comms role to her founding the Crouch End Project, to working with least likely leaders,  her encouragement to “look again and look deep” and taking her father’s advice that “if a job is worth doing , then it’s worth doing , even if you do it badly”. Plus many more gems of learning she kindly shared which could help us all get more done without needing more than we have already.  Her parting thought about popping the Cabinet on a plane to Rwanda, might be helpful to us all? Another inspiring story. Check it out!

To find out more about Clare, the book and her work visit:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarerichmond/

https://www.speakto.co.uk/

Further to a recent call out for more people to join us to share their story, we were delighted to have spent some time this week with Sem Lee. Sem talks with us about her journey from South Korea at a very early age, to growing up in London and the importance she has always placed on community and making people feel welcomed and part of something. She tells us about the impact of the pandemic on her plans and her motivations for founding Ouri Labs just over a year ago, on a mission to embed human and planetary health at the core of all design. A wonderful and bold ambition. She also talks to us about her work on community led affordable housing and her work as Chair of Forest Community Land Trust which engages her passion for seeking creative ways to deliver more affordable housing. Plus much much more. Check it out!

To find out more about Sem and her work visit:

Lovely to share our recent chat with Josh Gaillemin, half of The Whole Story. We chat about how Josh came to be a Storyteller, how he spent time at a housing association and ended up helping disadvantaged adults. One who even went on who took the work he did with Josh to then become a superstar DJ on the South Bank. Josh talks about a life of falling into things, how he once told an agency he would do any jobs, even those no one else wanted to do, and how that presented him with opportunities he would never have otherwise had. He also shares his story of how a trip to India with his mother went from what he saw as a failed month away actually turned into the beginning of The Whole Story journey, one he is still on and loves very much. Lots of insights into why we all might want to tell better stories, how we might want to consider not waiting until we are 50 to do the things we love and much much more. 

Enjoy!

To find out more about Josh and his work with The Whole Story visit:

A lovely opportunity to catch up with the wonderful Carolyn Dare this week. Sharing with us quite some transition she has experienced over the last few years.  Having moved from Belgium to support her elderly parents, Brexit killing her people and change work of many years, to now and how she has found herself engaged in many community projects from climate hubs, to a most inspiring initiative around Biochar, which everyone really should know about. It’s something that we could all get involved in at a community level, impacting food, biodiversity, community engagement and natural sustainability amongst other things. We also discuss coaching outside and the difference it makes to the outcomes, the importance of moments of Awe and that this is really all not just about planting trees. Prepare to be inspired. 

To find out more about Carolyn and her work visit:

This week we had a lovely opportunity to speak with Dmitry Fedotov, Operations Director at The Youth Association, one of the country’s oldest youth work organisations, founded in 1904. Dmitry talks to us about how part of his passion for youth work stems from his own experiences having been a migrant at the age of 5, moving to South Yorkshire from the former Soviet Union, Latvia to be precise. This certainly fuelled his desire to follow a pathway of helping people. We talk about the lost generation of youth workers, how cutting the youth work sector has meant that those who had no support in this way now don’t even know this support exists as an opportunity. This is a problem that we need to solve. We talk about the principles of youth work and how this informal, voluntary education, delivered in social groups with no fixed goal in sight really enables young people to not only learn great stuff but also follow a pathway that is right for them, not just squashing themselves into spaces they really don’t fit. Plus, of course, much much more. Dmitry is a super passionate person so prepare to be inspired. There is a lot we can all learn from this wonderfully people centred approach to helping young people.

To find out more about Dmitry and The Youth Association:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmitryfedotovuk/

We are delighted to share with you our recent conversation with James Fellowes and Chance Bleu-Montgomery from Bridge of Hope Careers, an organisation looking to champion and enable much more inclusive hiring. Both James and Chance share their own moving, yet very different, stories of their lives and how they came to their work with Bridge of Hope. We talk the importance and benefit of giving people a 2nd chance, we talk grit and how wonderful it can be when people see people for what they really are. So many diamonds in the rough out there that just need that 2nd chance. Get inspired!

To find out more about James, Chance and Bridge of Hope:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesfellowes/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chance-bleu-montgomery-6153691bb/

So delighted to be sharing our recent chat with Jacqueline Hollows, Founder of Beyond Recovery, Wellbeing coach, champion for reform in the criminal justice system and all round wonder woman. Jacqueline shares the story of her difficult upbringing, her many years of living behind a facade and coping via addiction until the day her world collapsed and she was free to start again. With support and research her starting point became “we are all amazing” and after taking much inspiration from the prison inmates she decided she wanted to help, Beyond Recovery was founded and so too her journey for criminal justice reform. As a coach she is a practitioner of the Three Principles to create change and tap into the innate source of unlimited peace of mind and wellbeing that exists within every human being. Empowering stuff it’s difficult to disagree with. All this and much much more. Hope you enjoy this one. Jacqueline is truly uplifting :)

Enjoy!

To find out more about Jacqueline and her work visit:

Super delighted to share with you our recent conversation with Mark Waters. Working with 4wardfutures.org.uk, Mark is on a mission to help children understand their self worth, the value they bring to the things that really interest and motivate them and how they might build on that to reach work they really want to do. He is also expanding their aspirations, helping them quite literally see the universe of opportunities that any and every single one of them could pursue. We talk about Mark’s years in education trying to encourage those in special provision to step back into mainstream education and his epiphany and realisation that that really isn’t the right solution. We talk about how academic qualifications mean very little when it comes to people entering and succeeding in the workplace, we talk transferable skills, the opportunity for virtual working in the face of poor social mobility and the Journey to Mars! And, of course, much more.

To find out more about Mark and his work visit:

Another wonderful opportunity to chat with an old friend of Ethos, Richard Dennis. A retired Brigadier in the British Army, an early days supporter and long term trustee of the Team Forces Foundation and a man on a mission to deliver more social value. We discuss the important role empathy has played in Richard’s life, from the early days of being a new officer on the front line at aged 19, to highlighting and addressing  the causes of petroleum theft in Nigeria, to supporting organisations in helping them truly understand the communities on the ground, their needs and how organisations can really help deliver social value not just pay lip service. Despite having known Richard for quite some time it was a genuinely moving privilege to share his story. Important insights for identifying and solving the right problems well.

For more info on Richard visit: 

This week it was a delight to have spent time chatting with Alan Fowler. We’ve known Alan for nearly 30 years and his passion and interest in designing the future to then establish what needs to happen in the present has certainly had an influence in the development of where we are today with the practice of Value Exchange. We talk about backcasting, viewing the world as a field of dominoes over which we can choose which ones to topple in which direct,  how “we don’t know the causes of anything until the outcome has happened”, that old favourite - why money is never the obstacle people think it is, why getting people to simply look is very difficult and asking Who is We? Amongst much more future thinking. Enjoy!

For more information on Alan and his work visit:

In July 2019, Ben Goldsmith lost his fifteen-year-old daughter, Iris, in an accident on their family farm in Somerset. Iris’s death left her family reeling. Grasping for answers, Ben threw himself into searching for some ongoing trace of his beloved child, exploring ideas that until then had seemed too abstract to mean much to him. Missing his daughter terribly and struggling to imagine how he would face the rest of his life in the shadow of this loss, Ben found solace in nature, the object of a lifelong fascination. As Ben set about rewilding his farm, nature became a vital source of meaning and hope. 

Feeling the importance of sharing the story of his journey he set about writing a book about his experiences. “God in an Octopus” is the story of a year of soul-searching that followed a terrible loss. In an instant, Ben’s world had turned dark. Yet, unbelievably to him, the seasons kept on turning, and as he immersed himself in the dramatic restoration of nature in the place where it happened, he found healing.

We were delighted to be able to chat with Ben recently about his experience, his book, but mostly about his finding meaning in his passion for nature/rewilding/the environment, how important access to nature is for all, especially for one’s health and wellbeing and learning about how indigenous cultures might be where we find a better future.

For more info on Value Exchange visit - https://www.ethosvo.org/our-value-exchange-dynamic/ 

Contact - value_exchangers@ethosvo.org 

It was lovely this week to be reunited with one of our Young Leaders, Ahmad Mohammad. From first meeting Ahmad in a virtual job centre meet in Leeds, to him becoming a  Young Leader, a mentor, a ClickUp expert, a business developer for Tech for Good in Pakistan to now supporting impact start ups. Ahmad shares his story, his own impact and how impact became part of his decision making when building his career. 

We hope you enjoy 

We were hugely delighted to have spent time this week talking with old friend and Founder of Wilder Sensing, Mr Geoff Carss. We talk with Geoff about how his passion for the environment, nature and rewilding started with a feral childhood and finding an unusual rock one day. After many years working in various consulting tech organisations we ask Geoff why he picked up his passion and began to take action. We discuss his work and importance of the data he is surfacing in our habitat plus the importance of citizen science, growing nature deficit disorder and the need for future generations to get out in the wild and for everyone to be a bit more activist. 

We hope you enjoy 

This week we have taken the opportunity to explore and share stories from our journey so far, with a particular focus on People and Change and how Value Exchange has really helped engender trust and alignment around the change problems we’ve addressed through our work delivering social value.  

We have used this as an opportunity for some Working Out Loud and we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we can improve. If you are interested in our call to action/collaboration then get in touch. Contact details below.

It was an absolute delight to meet and chat with Jess Flack, Essex County Council Digital Inclusion Lead Officer recently. Jess tells us about her journey to her current role, about her mission to sew the patchwork quilt of activities across Essex, fulfilling her passion for helping and connecting people through better communication. We also touch on funding, education, storytelling, the fact that she has a certificate for the use of chopsticks and an interesting idea for Love Island. 

This week we had a great opportunity to catch up with Jon Husband who has been a friend and partner of Ethos for many years. Well known for inventing the term “Wirearchy”, Jon has been a coach, consultant, writer and public speaker focused on how humans are interacting with each other and organising in networks to get things done.

Over the past 20 years he has been deeply involved with the Web, blogging and wikis, collaborative work platforms, and the sociological, psychological and behavioural implications of leading and managing in a networked environment.

We were delighted to talk about how far the networks of wirearchy have progressed, how the world has significantly changed in particularly for young people facing a very different world right now,  as well as touching on hybrid working, value exchange, purpose,  social networks and their shining a light on us, not always revealing our best selves

We were delighted to spend some time catching up with Transformational Coach, Claire Borer. Claire has worked with us as a volunteer for the past couple of years, predominantly during that time working to support our Young Leaders* programme. Claire’s passion is all about enabling people to realise their full potential. Her latest programme “Uncovering Your Brilliance” helps all people (young, old, or anything in between) to understand the in built natural brilliance of the innate human state, as Claire would say everything else is just noise and we can choose to turn the volume down. We discuss the importance of Permission, understanding that although this applies to everyone not everyone is ready to hear it. We also discussed how life is a contact sport and how Value Exchange helps you discover your own “Hell Yes!” moments. 

As a figure in Ethos folklore it was super exciting to talk recently with Etienne Wenger-Trayner and his wife and business partner Beverly Wenger-Trayner. Having first met Etienne 24 years ago in California we were keen to catch up with “Communities of Practice”, the totally unexpected journey that took him on, and now with Bev the journey they are on with practice and social learning and the importance of embracing uncertainty to drive learning. 

It was an absolute pleasure to recently catch up and chat with Oscar Franklyn-Rudd. Based in one of the UK's most remote locations in Cornwall, it has been a privilege to learn from Oscar just what it's like for young people in the area, his own hugely thoughtful ideas about decentralisation, citizen action he has experienced and some insightful thinking of what might be changed for the better to help young people to make the decision to stay in Cornwall, rather than be forced to leave to make a decent living. For anyone interested in a young person’s perspective, Oscar offers extremely thoughtful stories, insights and ideas for all this and much much more.

We are delighted this week to be talking with Chih Hoong Sin. Chih Hoong is an international expert in the field of Social Impact Investing, having supported, amongst other social outcomes investments,  the creation, introduction and implementation of Social Impact Bonds in the UK and then their adoption across the world. He works with DCMS, the UK Home Office, Governments in Abu Dhabi and Japan as well as the UN and UNESCO.  He generously shares his thoughts and stories about where and how Social impact investing is being used well and meeting his own personal great passion for greater societal wellbeing, plus the ways in which we can do much much better.

This week we had the wonderful opportunity to speak with Mr Ian Holloway, Orthopaedic Surgeon, who works within a north London NHS Trust. Obviously we cover Why he finds himself in the role he’s in, the moments that have given him real meaning over his career. We talk about keeping the patients at the forefront of decision making, especially when it comes to change, the change fatigue that NHS staff are feeling, support and wellbeing, and how that it is really the lack of time that is one of the fundamental problems facing the service. A wonderful open and honest conversation hearing about the strains and stresses, but also the privilege of working in front line healthcare. 

This week we were delighted to spend some time speaking with Steve Latchem, former Chief Architect at the MoD and CTO/Exec Director at Mastek,now strategically advising a number of tech organisations and self proclaimed Ethos Pro-bono Super Fan No.1. We hear from Steve about his education, from CSE Grade 1 in Computer Science to becoming Chief Architect at the MoD and beyond. We were keen to hear too about his experience with Servant Leadership, where that first impacted him, what this means in practice and the relationship with Value Exchange and delivering more real social value in the future. There are also snoring dogs!

We had the most wonderful opportunity to spend some time in conversation with Michel Bauwens, Founder and Vision Co-ordinator of the Peer to Peer Foundation and author of P2P, A Commons Manifesto. We covered SO much but in reality probably only scratching the surface of his research. The headlines are that we are facing a time of descent as a society, but there are solutions, alternative economics and planetary accounting that we must adopt. Embrace our stewardship of the Commons and most importantly of all Keep the Faith, take action and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Something beautiful can blossom if we take care of it. Some great stories from Michel which can inspire us to do the job we need to do “We are the mediating agents to create more green and awareness in the universe”

It is with great pleasure that we were able to interview Professor Atul K Shah, Research Fellow and Professor at London City University. Prof. Atul has recently published his new book which has been 30 years in the making  - Inclusive and Sustainable Finance, Leaderships, Ethics and Culture. We enjoyed talking with Prof Atul about his research and learning, we covered authenticity, the importance of thinking differently and having courage to speak out, plus great examples of where finance is working well and a good dose of where it really does need some ethical and cultural change.

We are delighted to welcome this week's special guest, Jake Richings. Jake first became part of our network about 18 months ago, at the height of our Young Leaders project. He’s super inspiring. Jake works with charities, schools, businesses and most importantly young people. He is looking to help young people feel empowered to give things a go, learn from trying and build skills, experience and a network that will help them on a journey of discovery to find what might be the right work for them. He is also looking to help businesses to improve their engagement with young people.

We discuss many things including the seemingly contradictory gap between young people struggling to find work and businesses not able to find the young people they need, the importance of experimentation, feeling empowered to make time for reflection and taking control of your own work journey plus reflections on Value Exchange and how that can help.

We are venturing over to Stateside for episode 4 of The Value Exchange. Another impromptu recording, but we were delighted to be speaking with Virginia Hamilton. We first met Virginia when participating in an OECD supported webinar panel, entitled “Human-centred design and local employment services: possibilities, promises and pitfalls”. She says of herself  “I’m an experienced public policy expert, with deep knowledge of both content and process skills. I utilize and teach design thinking (aka human centered design) to improve public policy and program design.”  

In this episode we discuss some of the exciting workforce transformation work Virginia is leading on in California, the gaps in delivering real ESG outcomes and insights into employment services data, amongst other things.  

This was an informal meet, not really recorded as a podcast, but we felt worth sharing, particularly as part of our more mission for more working out loud. We hope you enjoy it!  

SPECIAL GUEST Tony Clarke has been practising Systems Thinking for at least the last 30 years. Using it to explore possibilities and movement towards effective change. In part 2, Tony shares some great insights and thinking around alignment, communication and the importance of taking an Action Research approach to experiment in order for systems to adapt. We need more experiments for sure!   

SPECIAL GUEST Tony Clarke has been practising Systems Thinking for at least the last 30 years. Using it to explore possibilities and movement towards effective change. In this short conversation he highlights where Systems Thinking meets the practice of Value Exchange and  how individuals through capturing a story that keeps unfolding can test their own and others perspectives, opening themselves up to other mental models, and how powerful that can be in making sense of the world and what outcomes they are looking to achieve in it.  

Why you need to give yourself permission… before you do any work that involves other humans! This is the starting point for putting yourself back at the centre of your engagement with your work. This is a conversation discussing what we have learned about giving ourselves permission over the last 24 years.