Reflecting on Charlotte Lamb’s eloquent interview about her work at NPC on lived experience brought to mind a client’s difficulty with establishing clarity to their executive role, and their fear of mission drift as a consequence of “losing touch” with the lived experience of the very people the charity was established to help. A leader has to juggle numerous priorities and at times of uncertainty it helps to find space to think about your guiding light and key principles. If inclusion of lived experience is one of your key principles, here are 3 ways in which lived experience can be integrated within an organisation:
- Assign to a role/team. This comes with a note of caution as assigning responsibility to a small part of the organisation can hinder the process. For lived experience to be fully integrated, the engagement role needs to be strategic and given the power to lead a culture change from within, starting at leadership level. @Charlotte Lamb talks about improvements to the governance process and bringing lived experience alongisde other skills on boards.
- Upskill staff. Engaging effectively with people who are marginalised is an art which extends beyond the token exit surveys. The higher up the ladder of participation you go, the more sophisticated your processes need to be, especially in hierarchical structures. The organisation as a whole needs to be emotionally intelligent and self aware, it needs to question itself and reflect upon its own power and position over people’s lives. It needs to question who it is here to serve and protect.
- Create a framework. The framework includes all the stages and opportuntities where lived experience can feed into the organisation. It is supported by systems that capture how lived experience influences how the organisation is run at all levels. A CRM such as D365 can help with this, but there are other sector specific systems on the market. The data produced by CRMs informs continuous improvement and helps the organisation stay relevant.
These options can be deployed one at a time or together. They will need sufficient resourcing and buy in from leaders who are open to changing how they do things. Charlotte reminds us that thus takes time and requires a long term vision. It is not an easy process and wherever you start on this journey, Charlotte recommends that you start by involving people with lived experience in the workings of the organisation and put it at the forefront of internal conversations at all levels. I agree and will add that the benefits of doing so will make the organisation all the stronger for it.