Case study: Thistle Foundation, Scotland
Starting point:
The Thistle Foundation is a Scottish charity supporting people with long-term health conditions and disabilities. Through one-to-one support, wellbeing courses, community groups and supported physical activity, they support people to live well regardless of challenges faced.
Our support:
We worked with the leadership team to design and put in place an operational framework setting out the ground rules within which Thistle’s Supported Living teams of Wellbeing Practitioners self-organise. This defines the boundaries of authority and a few specific expectations of the teams about how they organise themselves.
Then we provided learning and development support to 10 of the teams, introducing a new team meeting methodology to enable quick and effect solution-focused decision making. Covid interrupted progress somewhat, but we were able to provide similar support to a further 10 teams through a blended approach of online materials and workshops, which has now evolved into our Humanity at the Heart programme.
Alongside that training to the teams themselves we have provided support to the development of Thistle’s in-house coaching and leadership teams, and to the Thistle Hub, a new one-stop shop that deals with team requests for help with IT, administration and so on.
At the end of 2024, having stabilised the financial and staffing challenges faced in the wake of the pandemic, Thistle asked Public World to take stock of the progress of the teams and a new phase of collaboration is underway to build on what has already been achieved.
“We want to continue building a culture of trust where teams have autonomy to use their knowledge, skills and experience to personalise the support we provide for people. Working with Public World has made all the difference as we have developed our teams in recent years! They understand what it takes to succeed with self-organised teamwork – for the teams themselves, their coaches, and myself as a leader – and working with them has enabled us to learn. It’s a work in progress – a long-term transition — but we’re on our way and seeing the results with the support of Public World.” Mark Hoolahan, CEO
The outcomes:
In the early days of Thistle’s transition to self-organised teams a Care Inspectorate report noted:
“The staff, families and managers involved said how well this had been working, families felt very included in the development, roles and responsibilities of each team member and how individualised all care and support was. … One staff member highlighted on the questionnaire returned to us the following: “Development: I have begun the ‘Test and Learn’ phase of the Self Organised Teams. This is an excellent opportunity to learn and develop new and existing skills, enhancing self-esteem and team morale and progression with our roles and responsibilities being recognised.”
Those benefits have continued and grown, as highlighted in the following video and audio clips from Thistle staff:
Hear Wellbeing Practioner, Yesim Boe, talk about what she likes about self-organisation (Public World’s Caring Places Festival, October 2021)
Listen to Julie Gardner, a coach from the Thistle Foundation in Edinburgh, sharing feedback from the team on their improved work/life balance.
Here Yesim tells us about how her relationship with colleagues has changed since they’ve been working in self-organising teams.
And here Julie Gardner, a coach, gives an example of how self-organised teams are supported through the coaching role.