The Endings Directory
The Decelerator is one part of a vibrant and growing field of people, organisations and sectors who are making space for better endings. On this page are a few pointers to people, places and projects that we think are interesting and useful. They all guide and inspire our work in some way. Scroll down to find:
Historic blogs about The Decelerator and the insight and research that underpin it
Other services to call on
Practices to learn from
Data to pay attention to
Things to read, listen to and watch
Networks and communities to join
In 2023 - 2024 we are bringing together networks of practitioners who we will profile on our website to help organisations looking for help with their endings. If you are one of these people, please sign up to our event on 6th December 2023 to find out more about our plans and contribute to this work.
This Directory isn’t designed to be an exhaustive list (nor are we trying to define or own this field of practice)! If you think you, your work or your organisation should be profiled in future versions of this Directory, we’d love to hear from you. Keep your eyes peeled as this list will grow and develop in the months and years ahead.
Historic blogs about The Decelerator and insights and research that underpin it
There is an urgent need to reframe endings - a transformation to a world where they are seen as an essential and positive force for the transformation of civil society. Here are a few blogs that have been part of the journey leading up to the creation of The Decelerator and supports this narrative shift.
Cassie Robinson has long been making the case for better endings, for example "How do we help things die?" and ‘Hospicing the old’, both published in 2019 at the start of Stewarding Loss.
Through Stewarding Loss’s research and testing around better endings work in civil society, the case for dedicated support for endings like The Decelerator grew. These blogs will give you a flavour of this journey: A aare-Full infrastructure for better endings (2020), An experiment with The Care-full Closures Fund (2021), A stronger civil society future needs us all to embrace better endings today (2022), and The case for a decelerator for civil society (2023).
Other services to call on
Infrastructure organisations: There are many local and national infrastructure organisations in the UK whose support to members on many fronts is vital. Association of Chairs, NCVO, SCVO, ACEVO, WCVA, NICVA, Charity Finance Group to name but a few alongside the many local CVS organisations up and down the country. We strongly encourage all individuals / organisations to contact their infrastructure organisation to understand the support that might be available for organisational endings and change more broadly.
Lifeboat Service: Members of infrastructure organisation Locality are eligible for the Lifeboat service. Lifeboat offers expert and confidential advice and support if you’re experiencing problems which could affect the short-term viability of your organisation. The support can include an in-depth analysis of your organisation’s challenges including financial issues, support to deal with disputes and conflict within your organisation, proposing a strategy to help turn your situation around.
Healing Justice London: The work and resources of Healing Justice London offers individuals, organisations and movements an evolving political framework rooted in the need for endings and new beginnings. With its roots in Black feminist traditions and southern Black radical traditions of the global south, healing justice seeks to transform, intervene and respond to generational trauma and violence in our movements, communities and lives.
Endings For Beginnings is the project of two coaches: Alison Lucas and Lizzie Bentley Bowers. They have designed a coaching approach specifically for individuals and teams approaching an ending. Their website of Endings For Beginnings is rich with podcasts, articles and resources sharing their learnings.
Need a hand marking a final moment or a transition point in your organisation’s ending? There are many facilitators and ritual designers out there who can help. A few to help you get started with your search: Rhetta Morgan, Tiu De Haan and the Community Rituals team
Practices to learn from
Stopping As Success for a stronger development futures: Stopping As Success is a consortium-run initiative to enable development partnerships to be more locally led and for transitions of power, resource and leadership to be effective and sustainable. Check out their resources to learn more about their work to transform the development sector by paying attention to what needs to be stopped or left behind to unleash truly equitable development futures.
Healthy Human Cultures: Organisational endings of all kinds have their roots in deeper organisational cultures, working styles and all the endings that have come before. Sophy Bank’s Healthy Human Culture Model explores the neurological roots of why endings can be so challenging and offers some practical tools to navigate endings.
Quitting Quadrant: Sarah Weiler’s Quitting Quadrent is a useful decision making and design tool for knowing how to know when to go. The quadrant is rooted in the wisdom generated from Sarah’s podcast Knowing When To Quit which is a deeply human and very practical account of these critical decisions we all face at some point in our personal or professional lives!
Data to pay attention to
NCVO’s Almanac is a one-stop shop for data on the health and strength of civil society organisations in the UK. Paying attention to sector-wide or societal data is one of the many ways in which an organisation can deepen their understanding of their own position and consider whether or not possible endings could or should be on the table.
For the first time in a decade, overall sector income declined.
Difficulties for small organisations highlight uneven impact of pandemic.
Overall volunteering levels remain lower than pre-pandemic.
If you are experiencing the effects of these or other changes in civil society, the Endings Hotline is available to you to explore a niggle, idea or decision about endings within your organisation.
Things to read, listen to and watch
Why endings? Malkia Devich-Cyril offers an important provocation about the role of endings in social movements in this piece. ‘Change is the heartbeat of social movement. But, on either side of change is loss. Reimagining the world requires that we release the parts of the system and ways of being that are ready to die, and mourn the destructive losses that we could not control, despite our best efforts.’
Conscious closure. Vanessa Reid’s TED talk on Conscious Closure is a compelling call to action and invitation to turn our attention towards that which needs to end. Vanessa makes a compelling case that organisations need leaders to attend to the different points in the natural lifecycles of organisations. And for an organisation to be truly sustainable, it must be alive to the question of when might the right time be to let go of something, or even close.
The art of leaving well. Sophia Parker’s blog from 2020 detailing her approach to succession planning at the organisation she founded - Little Village - is a simple masterclass in how to approach founder endings. In a similar vein, Sarah Weiler’s behind the scenes explorations with Founder Zahra Davidson document the process of succession and transition planning and is an interesting live case study of paying close attention to one founder’s ending. And Naomi Hattaway’s Leaving Well Podcast offers a a navigation guide for leaving well teeming with stories, examples and tips on how to leave well.
Case-by-case explorations of organisational dynamics. Esther Perel’s podcast How’s Work is a treasure trove of insights on organisational dynamics and relationships. If you’re new to it this episode might be a good place to start: If I just quit, what will people say?
Networks and communities to join
Practices in Composting And Hospicing is a network that gathers online for a monthly meet-up. It’s teeming with people who are developing practices around a range of related things: intentional discontinuation, composting, leaving behind, dismantling, system abandonment, hospicing and preparedness for loss. It is hosted by Stewarding Loss. Contact Cassie Robinson to join the Slack community and find out about the upcoming events.
The Stopping As Success Community of Practice is a network is creating a mutual learning experience around their work to seed localization and responsible transitions from international to local leadership and ownership in the development sector. They are curating a mutual learning space to familiarise their networks and beyond with the various forms that localisation processes can take and how stopping things, as much as starting things, is central to this transformative process. Contact Melina Villeneuve for more information and to find out about upcoming events.