Archive blog from March 2022
Hear participants' journeys so far in their own words - and find out how to share your work openly too
Two months ago, 35 charities embarked on the new Deloitte Digital Connect programme. Since launch, the programme has moved at pace: participants have attended workshops on human connection, user research and design thinking, filled out ‘Routefinder’ documents laying out key issues and objectives, and been matched with Deloitte volunteers who will guide them through the next two months as they plot priorities, investigate needs - and begin to work towards solutions.
But you don’t need to hear the details of everyone’s progress from us! From the outset, participants have been encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences on the dedicated Deloitte Digital Connect Medium - so you can read about grantees’ progress in their own words. And in the spirit of open sharing, the CAST and Deloitte teams have been posting updates too - resulting in a growing bank of more than 50 articles detailing challenges, highlights, revelations, reflections, tips and advice.
The benefits of open working
We know from previous programmes that open working offers a wide variety of benefits - grantees on Catalyst and The National Lottery Community Fund COVID-19 Digital Response programmes (delivered by CAST) reported that open working “enabled connection and opportunities”; “positioned (us) well for funding”, and “saved time on report writing”. And of course, the posts serve as a valuable source of support and inspiration for participants progressing along the same programme.
How to work in the open
If you’d like to share your own work, we’ve got some handy resources that can help! At the start of the Deloitte Digital Connect programme, content designer Joe Roberson ran two workshops to introduce participants to open working - not just the concept and the benefits, but - crucially - how to do it in a way that is easy, effective and enjoyable. Take a look at Joe’s tips on writing weeknotes when you’re short on time, getting started with a blog post and making your updates fun for others to read.
And Joe was also amongst the collective of content and service designers that worked together to produce the open working toolkit, a free resource designed to help organisations share their own work - and reuse the wealth of valuable assets already made available by others. Full of practical tools and templates, the toolkit enables readers to quickly absorb the ‘why’ of open working - and get straight into the ‘how’. Dive into the open working toolkit here.
Stay in the loop
We’ll keep you updated as the programme progresses - and Deloitte will also be sharing updates in occasional newsletters, the first of which will be sent out in early April. Sign up to receive these at [email protected].