values | Triangle

How the ideas driving social provision are steering service delivery off course

Posted on 19th July 20219th November 2021 by Donna

Triangle, the social enterprise behind the widely used Outcomes Star tools, is calling for a paradigm shift in social provision. In a new report to be published in September 2021, co-founder and Star co-author Joy MacKeith argues that at its heart service delivery is about meeting human needs and changing behaviour. Everything we know about how change happens points to the importance of relationships, trust and connection. Research also shows that services must be holistic and tailored to each person. But the ideas currently driving social provision steer the focus away from relationships and flexibility and onto procedures, markets, targets and standardisation. They break service delivery down into parts rather than focusing on the whole system.

The report presents an alternative vision – an enabling approach to service delivery. Called Enabling Help, this alternative puts the focus of the service delivery system on the service user, rather than the helper, the service or the intervention. Enabling Help builds relationships, trust and hope, develops skills and capabilities, is holistic, responsive and tailored to each individual person.

It also paints a picture of what it means to make Enabling Help a reality in practice. At the front-line it means moving to a collaborative approach rather than telling and directing. For managers it means changing the emphasis from managing procedures to enabling front-line workers to deliver relationship oriented, collaborative, flexible, problem-solving services. For commissioners it means shifting the focus from numbers to narratives – co-learning with service providers about what works.

‘Enabling Help’ builds on Triangle’s twenty years’ experience of helping organisations to support and measure change for people receiving services. Working with over one hundred collaborating organisations including local and national charities, housing associations, grant-making trusts, local authorities and NHS trusts, has provided a unique insight into what works when supporting change and building well-being and potential. And training and supporting over one thousand organisations to use the Outcomes Star in practice has highlighted what can get in the way of delivering what works. This report pulls all this learning together and identifies the real reasons why people being helped get stuck in services and the people delivering the help feel frustrated and de-motivated.

The report calls on all those involved in service delivery from front-line workers, to managers, commissioners, researchers and policy-makers to embrace this new set of ideas and put relationships, responsiveness and learning at the heart of everything they do.

A Society in which everyone is able to thrive

Posted on 7th October 20206th October 2020 by Donna

Triangle Director Joy MacKeith reflects on the Social Value Matters 2020 international conference which took place last week and how it helped locate Triangle’s work in a wider movement for a fairer world.

The Social Value Matters 2020 conference was a truly immersive event. The organisers took the opportunity of moving the event online to create a 24-hour programme so there was something for everyone, in every time zone, at every possible hour of the day.

The result was a somewhat overwhelming amount of content but also a tremendous sense of being part of an international community looking for ways to measure things that really matter from environmental impact to worker’s rights to social inclusion. And importantly looking for ways to make sure these things are not only valued but drive decision-making as well.

What was most interesting and encouraging for me was hearing the way that diverse agendas seem to be converging.

Philanthropic organisations are more interested in systems change – understanding the underlying dynamics which keep the problems they are trying to address in place. Corporations are going beyond the traditional domain of corporate social responsibility to engage with wider issues such as inequality.

Governments are providing incentives to business owners to transfer ownership to their employees. Third sector organisations are using the language and practices of the market to express their achievements in terms that are engaging to governments and investors. It seems that it is becoming easier, at least for some, to talk across sectoral boundaries.

The wider vision that underpinned many of the contributions was the idea that if companies can be required to report on their environmental and social impact and demonstrate ethical governance (the ‘ESG’ agenda) then capitalism can start to serve the many and not just the few.

It seems that a growing number of investors want this and that many of the challenges are now technical – finding common metrics and benchmarks to allow comparability. Jeremy Nicolls, one of the founders of Social Value International, urged everyone to be pragmatic and make it happen rather than spend time in pursuit of an impossible perfection. There was a real sense of the possibility of change, and of the urgency too.

It all seemed a far cry from our Triangle world of supporting better conversations, enabling personal change and giving managers tools for service learning and development. However, it was good to put our mission of helping service providers transform lives into a wider global context. Triangle’s vision is a society in which everyone is able to thrive. Every contributor at the event was, in one way or another, addressing that cause. I hope that we can all find our place in the bigger picture so that we can play as full a part as possible in achieving this vision.

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Triangle is the social enterprise behind the Outcomes Star™. Triangle exists to help service providers transform lives by creating engaging tools and promoting enabling approaches. Through the Outcomes Star, they work with services to promote and measure individual change and to enable learning at an individual, service, organisation and sector-wide levels. The Outcomes Star™ is an evidence-based management tool for both supporting and measuring change. For more information email info@triangleconsulting.co.uk.

Triangle and our social enterprise model

Posted on 19th June 20194th February 2021 by Outcomes Star

Sara Burns, Director and Co-Founder of Triangle, and one of the authors of the Outcomes Stars™ explores what it means to Triangle to be a social enterprise.

By Sara Burns, Director and Co-Founder of Triangle, June 2019.

When we incorporated “social enterprise” into our name in 2009, it seemed entirely natural and obvious to me, yet I gave it little thought and there were few guidelines at the time. Fast forward 10 years and I find myself passionate about the concept and practice of social enterprise, as well as better informed and in a sector that is becoming more defined.

In our case, the expression of our social mission and our enterprise (business activity) are one and the same thing. There are many types of social enterprise, including those who raise money through a neutral business activity in order to fund a separate social mission. As Triangle, we develop Outcomes Stars and other tools and help organisations use them because we believe in their transformative potential. We witness time and again in many sectors how the right tool can support people to really listen, have good conversations, plan and deliver support, gather meaningful information and learn about what works. Like so many people, we are operating in a world where services and funding are severely squeezed, and our aim is to keep listening and learning, so we can continue to innovate and make a contribution.

So why am I passionate about social enterprise?

There are a number of reasons.

We make choices and decisions based on what is helpful at a
sector level, not what will bring in the most money. This has been the case
since we started. It provides a refreshing clarity
and simplicity; even though the choices are not always immediately obvious,
we are able to focus on the question of what will be most helpful. Somehow the
big decisions and changes of direction over the years have always been made
easily and harmoniously, and I believe that is because of this clarity of
purpose.

Receiving an income from the expression of our social
mission in the world, rather than relying on grants or other funding, gives us
relative freedom and independence.
Ultimately, the majority of our income from training and licenses can be
tracked back to the UK government, we collaborate widely in developing Stars
and other tools and respond as best we can to different needs and agendas. Yet,
at the end of the day, we are the authors and can make decisions based on our
learning and experience of what works. And we can plan ahead without the
limiting factor of short term funding and the inevitable uncertainties that
brings.

Similarly, because we have an income and are committed to
reinvesting at least half of the surplus each year, we have some freedom to be generous and experiment. We offer
training and licenses at (often below) cost to enable small organisations to
use the Outcome Stars if it’s right for them. We provide implementation support
according to need, not based on what people pay. We take risks and invest in
new developments before there is a market for them.

All this contributes to a working life that is more fun and meaningful. Money is powerful
and I enjoy the potential it affords to be successful in making a contribution –
to use the very particular expertise we have built up over the years for good.

My anecdotal impression is that some people who enter the social enterprise sector, while passionate about their social mission, feel ambivalence or even resistance to the enterprise/business aspect, to money and charging. Ultimately, this can result in lack of sustainability and good ideas not getting off the ground. When everything feels too tight financially, that can be stressful and less enjoyable. Being confident about embracing the enterprise aspect and charging realistically for services and products can open some space. Space is important for people to be able to move freely, take risks, be creative and innovate. That is the culture we seek to develop and maintain within Triangle, so that everybody working with us feels able to contribute ideas and enjoy the sense of purpose, clarity and independence, so that we can be as helpful as possible in the challenged world of health and social care.

Interested in finding out more about Triangle’s mission and values?

For more information on Triangle, please take a look at our Values. For more information on the Outcomes Stars and our licensing and training options please contact us: email Triangle at info@triangleconsulting.co.uk, or call on +44(0)202 7272 8765.

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Sara Burns: Sara is co-creator of the Outcomes Stars. She leads on and is continually inspired by developing new versions for new sectors, as well as overseeing all the other ways Triangle can be helpful and support people to use the Star well.

For more information on Triangle and the team behind the Outcomes Stars, please take a look at our About Triangle pages. For more information on the Outcomes Stars and the values that underpin each version, or explore the history of the Star at About the Star or please contact us with any questions: email Triangle at info@triangleconsulting.co.uk.