Fair Seas - Impact Strategy

How do you map your way forward in an unknown world? How do you create the space for collaboration and co-design when your team is rarely in the same place at the same time?

Fair Seas is a coalition of Ireland’s leading environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs) and environmental networks, calling for 30% of Ireland’s ocean territory to be fully protected by 2030. They bring together a team from seven incredible eNGOs to protect, conserve and restore Ireland’s unique marine environment.

They asked us to design and facilitate a two-day workshop for their team on the West Coast of Ireland - an opportunity for them to re-group after a big year of campaigning, reconnect and explore next steps. The mission was clear - design an experience that makes the most of the 48 hours the team had together before they all returned to their respective homes and organisations.

In our opinion, one of the most important decisions had already been made - deciding where to host the workshop. So often organisations fall into default mode and book a conference room in a centrally located hotel. Flooded with artificial light, recycled air and screens. Hardly awe-inspiring. Fair Seas, on the other hand had found a surf lodge overlooking the very coastline that the team are working so hard to protect. It was remote, rugged and wild. There was plenty of space to think and breathe.

We kicked off the process a couple of weeks before the workshop with a team survey - an opportunity for us to listen deeply and hear everyone’s voices. This is not a team who work side by side in an office every day - this is a remote, distributed team of individuals who all work for different eNGOs - allocating a part of their week to Fair Seas. The survey gave everyone a chance to speak freely about their experiences and hopes for the future. It gave us insight into the team dynamics and the challenges they face and meant that we walked into the experience with a better sense of what was needed.

As with all our residential programs, we created a workbook for every member of the team. A way to record the work, scribble down ideas and ensure the tools we shared can be used again and again.

We leaned into our Design-Thinking tools and collectively mapped a strategy for the next 12 months. As the day progressed we filled the walls (literally) with ideas, plans and a co-designed vision. Each tool building on the next and enabling every member of the team to share their input, experience and wisdom.

We made space for the humans behind the work - we shared origin stories and superpowers. We talked openly and honestly about burn out and the realities of being en environmentalist in these challenging times.

There’s something so simple yet transformative about spending time together in nature. Of sharing meals and having conversations with different folk every time you head out on a walk.

Our time together was jam-packed but not rushed. It was full but not overwhelming. We managed to spend time workshopping outside (quite a feat in springtime Ireland), we surfed together and we relaxed in quite possibly the best-situated sauna/cold plunge/hot tub set up I’ve ever seen.

Our last morning was spent visioning - imagining the future that Fair Seas are working so hard to create. A way of bringing together all the theory, the planning and the practical, and ending with radical optimism.