Working in a matrix should be empowering, agile and developmental. So why am I finding it confusing, hard and messy? Put simply, matrix management is about dual reporting lines. Someone based in a regional office might report to the regional manager – the geographical line – and to the head of their department who’s based […]
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Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of calls lot about providing training and advice for managers in two specific areas. One call, often delivered in a slightly worried and urgent tone, asks for training on managing change. Another, usually slightly more upbeat call, asks for a workshop on creativity and innovation. What strikes me as […]
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Negotiating with others, whether it’s at home with a partner over household chores, or at work with a colleague about help with in a project, is part of everyday life. And reaching an amicable agreement isn’t always easy. People often tell us they walk away from these situations feeling they either haven’t achieved what they […]
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We’ve all been there. After a long day at work, in meeting after meeting, you look at your phone and see that dot. The FEAR begins. The one that tells you there are 87 unread messages. And you are itching to look at them – but you have to get off home. You get in, […]
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In this blog, =mc’s newest Learning & Development Consultant Georgina Wright blogs on the exciting journey from extinguishing fires to preventing them. Why am I dealing with this issue again? Why am I hearing the same complaint that I heard before? Why are people unhappy about what that their manager keeps doing? Why are managers […]
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In this halloween blog, Bernard Ross, =mc Director gets right to the heart of what fundraisers fear the most… In Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness, the ‘hero’ Kurtz finally confronts his own demons. His final words? “the horror, the horror”. (Note carefully introduced pretentious reference and avoidance of plot spoiler.) As Halloween approaches I […]
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Help! It’s all changing! Hardly a week seems to go by these days without someone asking me about change and how to manage change at work. The world is changing, our sector is changing and our jobs are changing. Whether you’re a manager driving change in your organisation, or a member of staff implementing change, […]
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In this blog, =mc Assistant Director and L&D consultant Yvette Gyles shares three top tips for giving memorable, impactful presentations that you can enjoy, rather than dread
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When we put together management training, we like to involve potential participants in the design. This co-creation approach has some real benefits – participants are engaged early on, and we can understand exactly what their management challenges are and ensure the training is tailored to meet their needs. We also find out what their teams […]
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Whether you are a fan of the ‘to-do’ notepad, post-it piles, scrap paper, a bullet journal, or =mc’s Action Sheets – sometimes even looking at the number of things that need to be done can be utterly overwhelming. And make you hate the list that itself seems to be nagging at you. When you’re up […]
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In this guest blog, National Arts Fundraising School alumna Fiona Mason, now a freelance writer, arts consultant and Development Manager for Pacitti Company, shares her story since attending the School. It’s a bright, crisp November day in 1998 when I arrive at the country house hotel outside Bath, Gloucestershire, for the National Arts Fundraising School […]
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=mc Director Bernard Ross bucks against the latest fundraising trend… and with good reason. Sometimes I feel like I’ve been transported back into the arts and culture world of the 1970s. To be honest it’s not all bad. I mean I could live with the bad hair, the purple nylon velour loon pants, and even […]
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In this guest blog, Kay Burnett, Creative Projects Development Manager at Northern Broadsides shares her experience on the National Arts Fundraising School. Right – Kay Burnett on NAFS 2017 Working for a company that has a small core of four full time staff means that we all wear many different hats. So, when the issue of […]
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Help! I need to manage my stakeholders and I don’t know where to start. As a project manager it’s important to know and understand who your stakeholders are and how to manage your relationships with them. People can make or break a project so handling your stakeholders well is essential. At =mc we define stakeholders […]
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I was recently sent an interesting report on crowdfunding by a participant on the National Arts Fundraising School – and specifically a scheme that’s been successfully run in Plymouth. At first the results look really impressive – and the follow up up report reinforces this. But after an interesting debate at the school I decided […]
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Guest blog: Caroline Notman, Director of Development & Alumni Relations, St. Aloysius’ College The National Arts Fundraising School will be in it’s 30th year come 2018, having trained over 1,300 fundraisers helping them to raise £300M+ for their organisations. One of the most rewarding parts of running the School is hearing from past Alumni, how […]
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In this blog =mc‘s Director Laura Slater shares practical tips on how to become an outstanding project manager, and introduces the highly effective =mc Systems Model. What skills do I need to be a good project manager?
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What’s the Big Idea? If you want to have a good relationship with your colleagues, managers and leaders at work, the best thing to do is to perform your job well. But there will be times when you need to actively influence someone – to get help or resources, to get buy-in for your ideas, […]
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In this guest blog, Meg Abdy, Director at Legacy Foresight shares insights on legacy fundraising for arts organisations. Legacy Foresight and Arts Quarter LLP recently teamed up to research legacy fundraising in the UK arts community, building on previous surveys in 2010 and 2012. We looked to explore current levels of investment in legacy fundraising – both […]
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As fundraisers we often think we’re very clever – using sophisticated techniques from marketing, from neuroscience and from psychology to share and organise our powerful and engaging messages. When we’re feeling down about our low response rates – clearly the failing of our unsophisticated audience – we can always go into our spam folders to […]
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=mc Director Bernard Ross blogs on which charities are deserving all the love, and which are pushing donors away this Valentine’s Day. I hate Valentine’s Day. I mean I can live with the schmaltzy overpriced commercial nonsense: genetically modified, scentless roses at £5 a stem, cards that range from diabetes-causing sweetness to jaw-dropping crudeness, and opportunities to […]
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Do you feel like you aren’t working at full power? Then take these two steps to boost your energy… 1. Get focus To boost your energy you need to focus on the right things for you. One way to think about this is to consider whether you are working at full power in each of […]
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Just who is responsible for learning in organisations, and for learning transfer after training programmes? Yvette Gyles, =mc Director, explores the role of accountability in learning. Many of our customers ask us to ensure the training we deliver encourages personal responsibility for learning – but exactly what they mean by that is not always clear. Learning is […]
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=mc Director Laura Slater blogs on a the benefits of using the ‘coach approach’ with your teams. Here at =mc we know that stepping into leadership is a big deal. As you become more senior in an organisation, an exciting aspect of moving up is being able to actually set the direction for your team or department […]
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In September 2016 Ruth Jobling, Research Advisor at The Brooke, was a participant at their bespoke introductory day on Presentation Skills, run by =mc. For Ruth it was very much ‘just in time’ training – she was booked to put her learning into practise in front of a large audience at an international conference the following […]
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Bad day? How to control your responses, and not let your emotions control you. We’ve all had bad days – and bad interactions with other people. You know the ones – where you feel the prickle of anger or upset, surges of frustration or even crushing levels of disappointment. These sometimes overwhelming feelings are the […]
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This guest blog is written by National Arts Fundraising School Alumna Deborah Parker, Chief Executive Officer at Cinema For All. We caught up with Deborah at a recent Alumni event and asked her to share her story since attending the School seven years ago: In 2009 I was working for one of the old Regional Screen Agencies in Manchester […]
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We all procrastinate on occasion. But do you ever miss a deadline because you put things off for just a bit too long? Or delay starting on something and then have to rush to get it done, compromising on quality? Or miss an opportunity because you didn’t act earlier? If any of this sounds like […]
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Social housing needs skilled managers and strong leadership to lead others through change and protect its social purpose. Housing associations have a core social purpose – to support those in need, ensuring strong communities and to do so in a way that empowers individuals to lead healthy, happy, and secure lives. However, we know from […]
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Last month 29 arts and culture fundraisers came together for the intensive, immersive – and hugely enjoyable – experience that is the National Arts Fundraising School. Three days into the 6-day programme, we asked them to reflect on three clusters of action: things they wanted to start doing things they wanted to stop doing things they wanted to consider further We’ve […]
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Behavioural Economics is changing our understanding of how people make decisions. While we like to think we are rationale, considered beings, the majority of our daily decisions are made quickly and often irrationally. This has huge implications for us as fundraisers, not least in the way we engage with donors making ‘impulse’ or ‘spur of the […]
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In the blog below, Learning & Development Consultant Philly Graham shares 5 practical energisers to help bring teams together. Before you read on… if you’re fed up of enforced fun with no clear output from your standard summer away-day we want to hear from you. =mc‘s tailor made away-days for teams are more fun, more […]
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This blog post is the first in a series of posts from =mc’s Senior Associate Consultant Laurence Brady, who is currently undertaking an exciting piece of fundraising work in the Middle East and North Africa. During his time on the project, Laurence will be writing regular blog posts in a series called ‘The MENA Blogs’. […]
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This blog post is the sixth in a series of posts from =mc’s Senior Associate Consultant Laurence Brady, who is currently undertaking an exciting piece of fundraising work in the Middle East and North Africa. During his time on the project, Laurence will be writing regular blog posts in a series called ‘The MENA Blogs’. […]
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How often do you send your staff on training programmes only to discover that down the line, nothing really seems to have improved or changed, either in skill, practice or results? While you might be able to claim back the money for the course – you’ll never be able to get back the two or […]
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This blog post is the seventh in a series of posts from =mc’s Senior Associate Consultant Laurence Brady, who is currently undertaking an exciting piece of fundraising work in the Middle East and North Africa. During his time on the project, Laurence will be writing regular blog posts in a series called ‘The MENA Blogs’. […]
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This blog post is the eighth in a series of posts from =mc’s Senior Associate Consultant Laurence Brady, who is currently undertaking an exciting piece of fundraising work in the Middle East and North Africa. During his time on the project, Laurence will be writing regular blog posts in a series called ‘The MENA Blogs’. […]
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12 Books for Non-profit Managers We take a look at 12 books recommended by =mc as being thought pieces, influencers and guides for non-profit managers and emerging managers. Add to the list by leaving us a comment. 1. Managing at the Leading Edge by Mike Hudson This is a great insight into organisational thinking for […]
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I started my new job as a consultant at =mc today. And one of the first things they asked me to do was to write a blog… So I decided that I needed to learn from my past experience of changing jobs. After all I have done this before First I noticed there are two […]
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=mc held a thought leadership seminar in Geneva two weeks ago to discuss a major concern among all INGOs and UN Agencies: how to raise unrestricted income, especially now with governmental funds reducing. Participants included senior figures from a number of key agencies including UNHCR, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, WWF, CARE International, IFRC, International Diabetes Federation, […]
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