Closing one door, but opening another

Today is my last day on-site. I am at the end of my 5 week "free transfer" to dreamwall and am busy scrabbling around trying to leave everything in some semblance of order. Last week I felt sad and down as I neared the end. This was because I knew I could make a difference, but I saw my time running out. Today I am both happy and calm. I have a plan, and I love plans. More of that later.

The last few days have been fun as we swing into execution mode on some things and sustainability mode on others. In execution terms we have....

• more or less secured double the work and funding at Southampton
• we get the yea or nae on one of our new funding applications tomorrow or Monday. The grapevine says we are in good shape. That secures another programme for another year
• we have been keeping the potential new contract at Hampshire warm by being super responsive and, again, the word on the street is positive. We hear more next week
• we viewed several properties in Southampton yesterday. Having seen them in the flesh they work for us and we can imagine them buzzing with activity. This will give dreamwall several times the space they have now, a venue for kids to drop-in and a base that is near their commissioner and their clients. Oh yes, and we think it will be free, as will the fit out

On the sustainability side, we have a clear strategy. We met with the board on Tuesday and debated this new and refined strategy. They liked it, we like it and Brett and the team feel enthused and able to "see it" and then "live it". The seeing it and the living it are absolutley mission critical here. We concluded early on that only a small part was logic, but that the vast majority of the magic dust that would deliver success was about a belief in the team that it was right and that it was within them. I just had an hour with Brett working this through and the man is good to go on banging down doors and making it work. That is proper sustainability, not a report from PwC laying out a lot of bright ideas that nobody can implement.

So, that little lot is part of my plan; here is the other part... Jonathan and I have found that we can make a difference and that it makes us feel good when we do it. So, we are going to keep on making a difference. We are both joining the board. We will form a new team on that board that will meet with Brett and the gang more regularly and provide practical advice and input to him. We will have the normal governance responsibilities, but what we have proven to ourselves and to those around us, is that we bring real life business skills to the party. We do not need to be different people and to change that which we are good at. We can bring what we are good at and apply our skills to this environment.

I have learnt so much in the last few weeks. I have learnt about the public and third sectors, how they work and how they don't, but that is just facts. I have learnt about others in society and the bad things that happen. I have discovered within myself a desire to apply some social justice. I am going to go on making a difference and keep discovering. I have discovered compassion. [Reading this I also discover that I can sound like an evangelical git, but hey, it's my last day]

Finally, I have met a lot of people who do an amazing amount of good with little recognition and often little or no financial reward; they do it because they know it is right. These inspirational leaders caused me, maybe you, to look harder at myself and ask how I could make a difference. I discovered that I could and that I wanted to. So I did. And I will.