Giving Compass' Take:

• Mike Adamson, CEO of the British Red Cross, shares his thoughts on the road to recovery through the lens of "New Power" responses to COVID-19 challenges. 

• How can funders collaborate on recovery responses to COVID-19? 

• Read about moving from relief to recovery in response to the pandemic. 

The first half of 2020 has been stretching and heart breaking – and yet at times hugely inspiring. I feel like we are six rounds into a 15 round heavyweight boxing match; during which we realised our opponent is more resilient, more adaptable and has more tricks than anyone we have faced before. We have talked to our ringside trainer, we know we will need to be at our absolute best if we are to prevail in this fight, and we’ve realised we need to learn from what has happened in the first six rounds.

During all of this, I found time to read: New Power: Why outsiders are winning, institutions are failing, and how the rest of us can keep up in the age of mass participation, by Henry Timms and Jeremy Heimans.

It made me think about Old Power and New Power responses to the challenges of the first six rounds.

An ‘Old Power’ response would be to restructure our organisations to live within a reduced income, put up the defences, pull up the drawbridges and only build relationships with people who have money to offer.

A ‘New Power’ response would be rooted in participation of the people we are here to serve, designed by them, reflecting their needs and circumstances, and stewarded through a network.

We need to think through what will accelerate and sustain our response to the challenges we have identified above.

Here are four big things I think we need to get right if we are to prevail in the rest of this fight and be ready for the next one:

  • Inclusion
  • Organisational design and capabilities
  • Working with government
  • Leadership

Read the full article about rebuilding after COVID-19 by Mike Adamson at NPC.