Member networks review launched

This development will be essential to keeping the society and its networks relevant in a rapidly changing world.

To enable this change, the trustees and member board have commissioned the member network review.

The review is a root-and-branch review of our member networks, giving us the opportunity to ask the big questions about the role that networks could and should play in the life of members and the society, what we can do to support them, and how the networks' development could be focused.

We are conscious that this isn't the first time the society has considered this question and we know members will be keen to make sure that any work we do now has real impact.

To help us achieve this, the trustees have commissioned outside support to facilitate the review. We ran a competitive tendering exercise earlier in the autumn and through this have appointed Korn Ferry as our partners. 

Korn Ferry is a global consulting firm whose work centres on organisational design and change. Korn Ferry's approach focuses on partnering with organisations to enable change, with a belief that collaboration is the best way to making any change sustainable.

Alongside a track record of working with some of the world's largest and most complex organisations, Korn Ferry also has experience of helping member organisations and learned societies develop capabilities relevant to supporting and serving members.

The Korn Ferry team is building on the work from previous reviews and the member journey project. Their focus is to help us develop our existing insights and ideas into a practical programme of change that reflects members' ambitions, aspirations and the society's strategic direction. 

The review and its implementation will run through 2021, moving at pace so that we can get to design and implementation. The initial phases of work will add to our existing insights in order to scope the design and development that will follow. In practice, this means:

• Between now and Christmas, engaging with stakeholders to collect insights that complement what we already have and to help confirm scope. The team has already engaged with several networks through their forum meetings this month and will be conducting select interviews (including with trustees and network chairs) over the new few weeks.
• In the first quarter of 2021, conducting a 'deep dive' to explore the specific questions we need to answer to create the vision and plan for change. This will involve a number of focus groups, and the team will also put together a cross-network reference group to work with them to develop ideas and design what the changes might look like. The output will be clear idea of the shape of the reform and how it can be delivered before the work then moves into a more detailed design and implementation phase across the rest of the year.

How to get involved

The voice of members and the member networks is critical in this review.

We want to ensure that we are hearing from a range of members and gathering your views and inputs.

There will be a number of engagement opportunities, including forums, focus groups, and the reference group.

If you would like to get involved, please get in touch.