We recently welcomed Colin Gavigan to SOL for the first in a series of ‘Brave the Day’ Lunches. The events, facilitated by the Social Care Ideas Factory, explore what bravery means for each of us individually.

We caught up with Colin to find out what ‘Brave the Day’ lunches are about.

Colin told us “It’s about self-discovery. It’s about people coming to the lunch in more ‘wholeness’, it’s not just about them as SOL workers, because we’re more than that.

It’s about helping people to discover their own compass, to navigate their own route. Often times we find ourselves being ‘sat nav’ users which takes the responsibility away from us, so we end up in a totally different place from where we intended. It’s very much a metaphor model we use. When you navigate you need to constantly take stock of your terrain and match this up with a map and a compass. We talk about taking stock of your internal terrain.

We also use the metaphor of the Sherpa, which comes from the Sherpa Union that SCIF have been growing. The ethos of the Sherpa is they won’t lead from the front, from the side or from behind but primarily from within, so they lead their lives inside-out rather than outside-in! The ‘Union’ part of the Sherpa Union is to signify that you’re not alone, that’s why the lunch is so important, because we come together to ‘break bread’ and discuss topics, learn from each other and share solutions to the issues that we face.

It’s about people putting their whole selves into it, exploring parts they haven’t explored before and encouraging people to be brave and make decisions, whether that is in their home life or work life.”

We also caught up with Liz and Kerry who attended the event. Liz commented “As someone who works in social care, we spend all our time making sure people are supported but this gave me time to nurture myself, to reflect and be supported. I really enjoyed it.”

Kerry said “I found it to be a really open, honest and emotional experience. It’s been great for team building and getting to know my colleagues on a totally different level. It’s fun and we got a bit of space to not take ourselves so seriously”

Ashleigh commented “It was so lovely to hear and feel how much the team got from their time with Colin, they were buzzing afterwards. We work in relentlessly challenging times in social care at the moment and we can often take for granted the bravery and the resilience our leaders must demonstrate every day. Now, more than ever, organisations need to create the conditions and the space for our leaders to ‘break bread and take stock of the terrain”

For more information about Brave the Day please visit www.socialcareideasfactory.com