Workforce – Workshop – it’s all work!

06 Dec Workforce – Workshop – it’s all work!

My last few weeks have been spent planning and implementing a series of workshops under the banner of Workforce of the Future!
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) partnering with The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) set out with the aim of developing a handful of pilot projects that increase workforce capability in the future.
The challenge runs from June 2012 through to March 2013.

Two stages have happened already…
1) An ‘ideas‘ day in June 2012 challenged professionals to go away and post service concepts online.
2) With almost 650 Social Service professionals commenting and voting online, a two day event in September saw 60+ of them working with designers to refine and visualise 8 of those ideas into a conceivable reality.
3) Stage three gives those same professionals, and many who are new to the process, the opportunity to refine the presentations originally delivered in September and polish them for a final delivery on Monday 10 December at Edinburgh’s Dynamic Earth; after which the potential is there for organisations in the audience to take the projects away and pilot them for real!

A series of workshops have been held across Scotland, Dundee, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Six of the eight designers who took part in Edinburgh are back;

Stephanie Fulke, Gabriela Ichimura, Rebecca Lindsay,
Sara Nevay, Jamie Thoms, Angela Tulloch,

  and it was my job to facilitate the designers and teams to build on the foundation of the September event in preparation of the final presentations this month.

The focus was not to re-think the idea, but how to present it in a concise and compelling manner. The audience should be itching to get started not fidgeting with boredom!
With time to consider this new challenge before the workshops the groups arrived with a fresh perspective and clearer vision of what their idea was all about. When armed with this kind of enthusiasm it’s amazing what can get done in 3 hours!
Monday seems very, very, close now with only a few, final, frantic emails between now and the stage at Dynamic Earth. Concepts were questioned. Ideas have been illustrated. The presentations will be polished!

Well done to the teams – I think the work you’re putting in will pay off and that Monday will have a succession of exciting and compelling stories to tell.
Please watch this space – it’s quite possible that services in you area will be improved as a direct result of the Workforce Of The Future challenge…
For more info on the projects visit the WorkforceOTF Blog
Follow the progress on Twitter using #workforceOTF