The Organisational Exploratory Program

The Organisational Exploratory Program worked with organisations addressing causes including deforestation, promoting education and community development, and working with vulnerable young people. In collaboration with The Wellbeing Project, The Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin and eight partnering social change organisations across the world, we supported change-makers to achieve organisational changes which foster greater wellbeing and more supportive working cultures.

Context

The dedication of organisations and individuals campaigning for social change and social justice is often such that their wellbeing and personal lives suffer as a result; rates of burnout, depression and divorce are high in this sector.

This intervention was intended to serve not only as a means of improving the working lives and personal wellbeing of staff members in social change organisations but as a means of assisting the causes social change organisations exist to further; a workforce receiving a greater amount of care in a more supportive organisational culture will be more effective in their efforts to promote social justice.

Methodology

The Tavistock Institute’s role in the project was primarily to conduct a developmental evaluation, assessing the ongoing progress of the intervention and the ways in which it adapts to the different environments participating organisations exist in and pose through their idiosyncratic organisational makeup and culture. We brought our expertise in organisational change and group dynamics to facilitate a space for learning and reflection on the processes and complexities engaged by each intervention. 

Additionally, we contributed qualitative insights to the outcome evaluation to complement The Healthy Mind Center’s more quantitatively oriented approach. 

Over the course of the program, we explored the challenges participating organisations encounter in their efforts to generate more supportive and wellbeing-focused internal cultures, as well as any unanticipated issues and the impact of the intervention and related processes on the individuals and social systems involved.