How we work

Interactive, empowering, and aligned with partners’ goals, our method is designed to ensure that our learning journeys and workshops spark systemic changes that can make the world a better place.

There is no “one size fits all” for social change, so we use a tailor-made approach for every project. From one-off workshops to co-designed learning and design journeys, every project is underpinned by our tried and tested toolkit of coaching, design and innovation methods.

Find out more about our method below.

We’re currently working on some exciting new ideas in health + social care, refugees + asylum seekers, criminal justice, and place-based programmes. Take a read through these and if you’re interested in working with us on these, please get in touch – we’d love to hear from you.

Empathy-based innovation

We use tailored design and innovation tools to facilitate open, meaningful and insightful conversation between people who rarely have the chance to connect.

Skilfully co-designed with our clients and participants, Telescope’s projects build empathy, trust and understanding.

We look at problems from different points of view, especially platforming those perspectives from people whose voices are traditionally more seldom heard.

We provide practical tools and guidance to support changemakers to make a difference - in their projects, their teams, or when starting new initiatives.

Our approach

  • Stage 1: Connection

    We support the whole group to build empathy and gain insights through active listening and other connection tools e.g. Golden Circles. Using mapping activities, we help everyone to understand their positions within the wider system, and how they are interconnected.

  • Stage 2: Insights

    The group shares their perspectives on the current challenges in the sector, before using journey mapping and feedback loop exercises to identify key pain points.

  • Stage 3: Innovation

    Participants take their new-found insights and develop ideas for collaboration. We encourage creative ideation and “fail fast” approaches, supporting groups to identify where their own power and resources are, how they can collaborate meaningfully, and what’s next.

  • Stage 4: Impact

    We support long-term sustainable change by providing project-specific impact evaluation that identifies the opportunities for innovation, and showcases best practices that can be replicated across other projects and sectors.

How we work

We usually co-design our projects with clients, based on our unique “empathy-based innovation” approach. You can find some examples of our programme structures below, or click through to this slide deck to see a visual outline.

  • If you’re leading a group working on a challenging social problem, we will work with you to co-design learning experiences or pilot projects that will:

    • Bring everyone together to build meaningful connection

    • Give your group the chance to see through different lenses

    • Take participants out of their comfort zones

    • Explore innovative ideas generated collaboratively by the team

    Through a series of fun and interactive sessions, with additional learning prompts and opportunities to connect in-between, we’ll help you achieve your programme objectives and deliver tangible change. We base our learning journeys on the double diamond approach (discover, design, develop, deliver) - but with a unique twist to each stage.

    Once the programme is complete, you’ll be able to ground your project decisions in the reality of life and nurture new connections to support your work.

  • These short workshops run either virtually or in-person at a frontline service, offering an opportunity for service delivery organisations to showcase their work and demonstrate examples of best practice and experience.

    Our interactive workshops will:

    • Teach you how to apply our empathy-based innovation methods to your work in order to tackle specific challenges within your organisation or sector.

    • Create an open and trusting environment to learn how a frontline organisation really works on a day-to-day basis.

    Unlike other training sessions, you’ll go deeper and gain more insights in just a short space of time.

  • Central to any project’s success is identifying, documenting and celebrating successes, before using them to define ways forward. This is also the same for areas of improvement, where acknowledging and respecting developmental opportunities is key for growth.

    We bring specialist knowledge around how to implement these methodologies, and will support your project to be inclusive, effective, and long-lasting.

    Full project support packages include:

    • Engaging cross-sector workshops

    • Team-wide collaborative sessions

    • Experimental initiatives that embed learnings

    • Evaluation

    By creating a space where all stakeholder voices can be heard, and sharing that with project participants and leadership, we help you drive your project forward in an inclusive and cost-efficient way.

    We can provide light-touch support packages to sit alongside an existing project, or combine these packages with our co-designed learning journeys as above, depending on what you need.

  • We’ve been operating for 5 years across areas including criminal justice, health, adult social care, young carers, homelessness, and at a local community level. In that time we’ve worked with over 30 organisations, of which 12 have been central government bodies, and around 10 have been local authorities or public sector bodies focusing on a particular local area. We’ve won projects ranging in size from £800 to £56,000 and have got business through both word-of-mouth and official tender processes. This has given us great insight into the public sector sales cycle and the specificities of working with public sector bodies.

    In these 2/3-hour public sector sales sessions, we share some of our learnings from 5 years of working with the public sector. We use some of our own innovation tools to get you thinking creatively about the public sector as your clients, and we give you the chance to refine your pitch and “framing” of your solution for a public sector audience. Participants leave with more understanding of how to work effectively with the public sector, as well as practical tools and frameworks that you can take back to teams and use to build out your sales strategy.

    We need ideally 6 and a minimum of 3 organisations / individuals to run this session.