A Brilliant Thing CIC

Scale: Leadership + System Capacity

In partnership with HMR Local Care Organisation and Community Enterprises

How can we scale systems change beyond a single project?

Navigating Leadership Together is a leadership development programme co-designed with NHS, local authority and community partners across Rochdale. Through community conversations, participatory research and creative learning, the programme is developing a place-based approach to leadership that reflects the needs of local people, organisations and communities.

Why Leadership Development Matters

Many systems change projects create valuable relationships, ideas and learning. But when the project ends, the knowledge often stays with the people who were involved. Lasting systems change happens when new ways of working can be shared, adopted and adapted by others.

Co-designing Leadership with Communities

Following two years of collaboration between HMR Local Care Organisation and social enterprises Maverick Lab, Aspire to Inspire and A Brilliant Thing CIC, we co-designed Navigating Leadership Together; a practical programme for leaders in health, local authority and community sectors, who are working on cross-sector projects or partnerships. The programme provides leadership development through experiential learning and builds understanding about how communities and systems can work together to create change, rooted in Rochdale Borough.

We translated the programme into a practical leadership development toolkit of resources that will be used during the training programme and can then be used by participants to support their leadership work.

Through place-based learning, community placements, collaborative research and reflective practice, we developed a shared approach that enables others to understand communities, navigate power, build relationships and work across organisational boundaries.

Building Leadership Across Health, Council and Community

Together, we created a programme and practical toolkit to build system capability, including the Co-operative Communities Model, Relational Research Guide, exercises and tools like Street Mapping, Hyper-Local Snapshot, Conversation Compass, Power Tree and Learning Landscape.

The toolkit enables facilitators, organisations and partnerships to deliver the programme consistently while adapting it to different neighbourhoods, priorities and communities. Instead of relying on a small group of experts, the approach builds capability across the wider system, enabling more people to facilitate collaboration, develop partnerships and lead place-based change.

Leadership and Systems Change

Scaling systems change is not about expanding a project. It is about expanding the system’s ability to create change so the programme is supported by a clear train-the-trainer scaling model.

Navigating Leadership Together transformed two years of partnership learning into a training programme and toolkit that enables others to apply, adapt and improve in their own contexts. As more people complete the training and become trainers themselves, partnership working can draw on a common language, strengthen collaborative practice and increase the system’s collective capability to respond to complex challenges.

This is how systems change scales: by creating practical assets that enable more people, in more places, to lead change together.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are Human Skills?

Human Skills are the everyday behaviours we encourage through our work, that help people work well together through change. Skills like compassion, trust-building, conflict navigation, adaptability and critical thinking help teams communicate, collaborate and thrive under pressure.

What is Healing-Centred Design®?

Healing-Centred Design® is our approach to creating positive change, that blends trauma-informed practice, systems thinking and creative coaching. Rather than just solving problems, it helps people, teams and communities design ways of working that build wellbeing, strengthen relationships and create lasting change.

What is Systems Change work?

Systems change is the collaborative work of identifying the patterns, relationships and structures that shape everyday experiences. It helps uncover the root causes of challenges and redesign how systems, services and communities work together to achieve better outcomes for people.

By bringing together the people who use, deliver and influence services, through meaningful consultation and research, codesign and coproduction, systems change work creates more effective, sustainable solutions that improve wellbeing, reduce inequalities and strengthen communities.