Introducing The Decelerator: A new beginning for better endings
After 4 years of researching and practically supporting better endings in nonprofits, we've secured pilot funding to build The Decelerator for civil society. Read on to find out more.
By Iona Lawrence, Louise Armstrong and Linda Craig — aka Team Decelerator
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A 122 word summary…
The Decelerator is a new support service for civil society organisations. We offer information, tools and hands-on support for ‘better endings’.
We support organisations and individuals to anticipate and design closures, mergers, CEO transitions, programming ends, and all sorts of endings as just part of the everyday life of organisations and inevitable cycles of change in civil society.
We are setting out on a 10 year journey to shift mindsets and money so that individuals, organisations, sectors and movements consider possible endings as regularly and readily as growth in their ambitious, courageous pursuit of impact for the people and communities they serve.
To find out more about the work, and to see how we can support you, take a look at our website.
“I haven’t said this to anyone yet…”
Since 2020 Iona Lawrence has spent a handful of hours a week running the Endings Hotline which offers staff or trustees of civil society organisations a confidential, one-off, free coaching session about an ending that is either underway or anticipated.
Hotline conversations almost always start the same way. Iona logs into zoom, smiles carefully at the person at the other end and says “so, tell me what brings you here”. People often respond the same way: “I haven’t said this to anyone yet… but I think the game is up and my role / organisation / project might need to come to an end.”
These hotline conversations are designed to be full of care, compassion and practical information. And they are necessary because civil society is trapped in a game…
…a game in which nonprofit leaders, funders and stakeholders fuelled by deep passion, belief, hope — and sometimes a sprinkling of ego — have been led to believe that the brave, bold, ambitious thing is to start something new, to chart uncharted waters, to grow relentlessly and to survive at all costs.
…a game in which none of the incentives are in place within or outside of us to reflect on what isn’t working, or what has served its purpose and now needs to move aside.
…a game in which resources and power move in a way that prioritises “the new” and underpins and drives a growth and survival at all costs agenda.
This matters now more than ever in an age of polycrisis (Cambridge Dictionary: a time of great disagreement, confusion, or suffering that is caused by many different problems happening at the same time so that they together have a very big effect). Many of the organisations and movements which exist to drive change and to promote human and planetary flourishing are creaking under the pressure of possible endings — of organisations, of projects, of programmes, of services, of business models, of leadership tenures and of whole systems that no longer serve us — many of which are being held back from good endings by a lack of resourcing, and the shame, fear, avoidance and stigma associated with them.
The roots of this work
Four years ago Stewarding Loss was initiated by Cassie Robinson with a small Ideas and Pioneers grant from Paul Hamyln Foundation to explore the idea of a fund specifically to help organisations to consider closure. Iona Lawrence was involved as a researcher initially and has gone on to work with Louise Armstrong and a host of other pioneers in this small, budding field of practice to consider and design all sorts of endings for 93 organisations and counting: closures, mergers, programme terminations, CEO / founder successions and many more.
Over the past four years we’ve witnessed and played a part in better endings — those which place an organisation’s purpose at the heart of decision making, take steps to treat all the people involved or affected with respect and are planned well enough and funded adequately enough to unleash a lasting legacy.
Too often, organisations do not have the time, money or headspace needed to end well. This can result in the loss of decades of expertise overnight. It can place an unnecessary and unfair emotional burden on staff and trustees. It can mean whole sectors and communities miss priceless opportunities to reflect, learn and collaborate to build back better.
After four years of work we know that with enough time, planning and funding, better endings are possible and powerful new chapters for people, communities and beneficiaries can follow. It’s only natural that endings of all kinds are an inevitable part of organisational life cycles, but bad endings don’t have to be. This is where The Decelerator comes in.
Endings as opportunities: courageous, bold, ambitious moments to achieve impact for the places, people and causes that matter most
So after four years of work, we’re taking the (perhaps ironic) step of starting something to help other people stop doing things — or at least to slow down for long enough that they can decide whether something needs to stop, end or be left behind.
The Decelerator is here to turn the game on its head. We are here to widen the concept of bravery, courage and ambition in civil society. We believe it isn’t just possible, but preferable for civil society to be led with energy, tenacity, ambition and vigour whilst holding the end in mind. We believe we all have a part to play and we can all start as soon as tomorrow by asking ourselves ‘what needs to end?’ Not because this question determines that something will inevitably end, but because staying open to the possibility of it unleashes purpose, conviction and a relentless pursuit of what is absolutely necessary and most impactful.
So in September 2023 we entered a 12 month design phase to build a 10 year, time-bound project to try and change the game on endings. We plan to become an independent organisation, and we’re very glad to be being incubated in our pilot phase by New Constellations whose work on new beginnings is such an integral part of our cyclical vision for civil society.
We hope you will journey with us into a future of better endings, and better beginnings.