HCT Stepping Stones
Skills, structure, support
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HCT co-lab: from bonding to bridging
10 Min Read
Relational practice was always in the background of HCT, but came to the fore over time as we realised the importance of equitable and creative collaboration in creating fairer health. We went from monthly meetings to weekly check-ins, enjoying the chance to understand different perspectives and viewpoints. Holding the question ‘who are we to benefit from this space?’, the group began thinking about how we might seed these practices in a non-prescriptive, equitable way.
Building on learning from the group, and models like Barnwood’s Stewardship Circles and Create Gloucestershire and Nowhere’s Catalyst programme, the idea of a relational and experiential working laboratory took shape. Over the course of two years the HCT co-laboratory, or ‘co-lab’ was co-created with a range of partners, aiming to offer a ’supercharged’ intentional version of HCT’s relational practices, along with elements that weren’t part of the Stewardship Group’s foundations.
The HCT co-lab invited people to explore the ‘why’ of relational practice: we need better tools and approaches to actively lean in to difference so that new solutions can emerge. We need to learn how to hold the - sometimes uncomfortable and difficult - conversations that are necessary to disrupt the status quo and find a different way forward.
If Stepping Stone 3 is characterised by better relationships, safe spaces and emergence, Stepping Stone 4 focuses more on an explicit intention to develop strong structures and skills for navigating the unknown, and ensuring that everyone is committed to working through challenges towards a shared goal. It recognises safety is not an end in itself, but a necessary condition of change. It moves from bonding (safe spaces that focus on what unites us) to bridging (brave spaces that welcome difference and surface the tensions we would usually shy away from). It’s about ensuring that people are signed up for a journey of discovery. One that might be tense, exhilarating and exciting, where they won’t know the answers, and that requires bravery and humility. Only then can they build a container that will be robust enough to support them on that journey.
Why is this important? HCT learned that, without a shared commitment to, and skills for, a change process, the dynamics of money and power will always exert themselves. They can disrupt, cause hurt, and reinforce inequality and competition. To mitigate this we need a ‘structure of togetherness’ that is strong enough to hold discomfort, stuck-ness and strong emotional responses, using the heat generated to forge something new. A space for creative tension, not personal conflict..
HCT co-lab, run by Create Gloucestershire (CG) and Nowhere, responded to this need. It was designed as an experiment to take a specific skills development approach from the private sector and adapt the content and delivery to the voluntary, community, public and civil society sectors. Its structure included:
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Rather than a completely open call, participants were invited through the Stewardship Group’s database and existing networks to ensure cross-sector representation. The invitation framed the programme as exploring “new ways of working together for fairer health in Gloucestershire,” helping to attract people curious about the long-term impact of relational practice.
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Outlining what was being asked of participants and what CG and Nowhere, as facilitators, committed in return. This included an explicit focus on what we all needed to learn together, and how we would support each other in that process.
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With detailed discussions about individual learning needs, which were woven into the co-design and delivery of the programme. Support was shaped around participants as people, not roles.
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‘Micro skills’ development around gathering, facilitating and giving feedback, and tools like Constellations, were brought in only after trust had started to build, and used to explore different perspectives and surface systemic patterns. Sessions were supported by a specialist facilitator, with space for 1:1 or small group conversations where needed to debrief issues that had come up in the session. Group members have already identified this as a key motivator for change.
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The first phase focused on shared skills development, before moving to Open Space gatherings where participants shaped the agenda. Lightning Talks and peer-led sessions allowed people to follow their curiosity and build shared momentum.
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Participants could access mentoring, coaching, peer exchange or shadowing, depending on their needs and interests. These 3.5 hour exchanges often drew on pro bono contributions from Gloucestershire-based networks, with costs covered where needed.
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The work didn’t end in the room. Participants helped develop tools to support this like a reflective journal, collaboration cards, conversational badges and an e-appreciation card to stay connected and carry forward learning as the first HCT co-lab alumni group.
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Artist Lucy J Turner worked alongside the group, reflecting their experiences back to them through creative practice. Art became a hopeful gesture and a mirror for the emotional and relational depth of the work.
Governance
The Stewardship Group were keen to ensure they didn’t replicate the funder/funded power dynamic, wanting to develop the work in a spirit of trust, openness and learning. At the same time they recognised the need for guardrails to ensure shared ownership and the safety of both Create Gloucestershire as Lead Partner, and the HCT co-lab participants. A traditional commissioning process would have used a partnership agreement (e.g. contract or Memorandum of Understanding). Instead HCT created a Polarity Map to help navigate between these opposing forces.
From Convenor to Catalyst
HCT co-lab describes the role participants might take in the system as a ‘Catalyst’. Built on similar foundations to the Convenor role within the HCT Stewardship Group, the Catalyst is more explicitly focused on sensing, surfacing and holding discomfort within a group in order to enable something new to emerge. They aim to hold a collective vision that is greater than the issues of any one individual in the room, and convene spaces with enough safety for the boldness and challenge of change. In order to do this, there needs to be a mandate and commitment from everyone to be part of that process and lean in to difference and not knowing if things get uncomfortable. That’s when transformation becomes possible.
What else?
HCT co-lab is one version of what Stepping Stone 4 might look like, but it is by no means the only version. In this first iteration participants were not wrestling with questions of how to distribute resources, or structure their own governance. In addition to spaces to connect, and skills and agreement to have hard conversations, we need infrastructure to enable the ideas that emerge. Which brings us to Stepping Stone 5…
