DAV - De Anbragtes Vilkår
Strategy and organisational development - from board to leadership to employees
De Anbragtes Vilkår is an advocacy organisation founded by former children in care. They work to strengthen the conditions of current and former children in care by ensuring that their knowledge, interests and wishes have a clear place in the development of policy and practice on out-of-home care - with the aim of levelling the differences between children in care and those not in care in Denmark.
Their need
De Anbragtes Vilkår has gone through substantial development over recent years, particularly within policy development, advocacy and practice partnerships.
The board therefore wanted support in formulating a strategy for the organisation's development, so it could become 'the best organisation for the purpose'. As a continuation of this, the leadership across secretariat and board wanted to strengthen their shared and individual leadership foundation in order to strengthen collaboration and leadership.
The solution
In close collaboration with DAV we designed and facilitated a tailored development programme grounded in DAV's concrete needs, values and ambitions. The strategy programme was built around three core elements:
- Strategy development in partnership with and facilitation of the board.
- Project leadership of the development programme leading up to the General Assembly.
- Quality assurance of process and conclusions for use by the board in its recommendation for approval at the General Assembly.
In addition came work with the leadership group to support a shared leadership foundation as well as roles, responsibilities and mandate across.
To support the secretariat's employees in collaborating around implementing the strategy, two further workshops were held:
- When difference is a strength - focus on preferences, communication and collaboration, and on where you have your superpowers.
- The art of giving and receiving feedback - when psychological safety is the starting point.
Outcome
DAV ended up with an organisational strategy that everyone could see themselves in, and that was adopted at the General Assembly without amendments. Board, members of the association and employees in DAV alike share a common understanding of the direction for the association in the coming years - and it has been made concrete for them what the board is working towards and expects.
Both leaders and employees experienced that their collaboration and mutual understanding of each other was sharpened through the series of workshops run for, respectively, the chair group and leadership, and the staff group in DAV.