January 2025 Community Gathering: The Decelerator – One Year In

It was only fitting that we close this “season” of the Composting and Hospicing community of practice the way it was closed the year before: with a visit from our friends at The Decelerator. Iona Lawrence and Louise Armstrong were important members of the Stewarding Loss project (from which this community also sprung!) and are the co-founders of The Decelerator, a ten-year initiative to help transform the experience and perception of closures in UK civil society.

It has only been a year since the organization formed, but they already had brilliant insights to share and a packed-out Zoom room that was hanging on Iona’s every word. Here are some of what they touched on:

Endings As Part of A Cycle of Change

As we’ve heard many times over the last few months — most notably in the December session with Sarah Weiler — nature gives us a wonderful basis to think about cycles of beginning, ending and regeneration, and The Decelerator’s work is rooted in this idea. iona noted that the group’s informal catchphrase is “We exist because endings are inevitable, but bad endings don’t have to be.”

To that end, they provide a free hotline for any one who is looking at a possible organizational or program ending, succession planning, structural transition, or merger and wants to do it well. For The Decelerator, better endings are those that “place an organization’s purpose at the heart of decision-making, take steps to treat everyone involved or affected by an ending with respect,
and ultimately they create the foundations for the renewal of civil society.”

The Power of Privacy

At the heart of the work are intimate, hour-long confidential calls in which people can share their concerns and fears about the major organizational changes they may be facing. The Decelerator currently has three “navigators” that take these calls, providing a “judgment-free” space to address both practical and emotional needs. Within the time of the calls — each individual is eligible for up to three free calls — the navigator brings the person into what they call a “mini deceleration” and offer a chance for the person on the other end of the line to breathe and take stock.

Not The Grim Reaper!

While many people who reach out to The Decelerator will indeed be having to close, this is by no means always the case. Oftentimes, callers may be thinking about leaving an organization and worried about how to erect the right sort of scaffolding to ensure their departure doesn’t have destabilizing effect. Other times people are just interested in safe space to talk about a topic that is often taboo and whispered in hushed tones.

Although, many people may wait until the house is falling before they call, The Decelerator also hopes that they can touch people further upstream and inspire more organizations to talk about endings earlier in their lifecycle.

Practicing the Principles

As The Decelerator works on supporting other organizations in thinking about their own longevity and impact, they are also thinking about what these ideas mean for their own project. Iona shared that one of the operating questions for the team is, “Can we escape some of the trappings of like survival or costs and growth as a measure of success in order to deliver our impact?” To that end,

If this leaves you clambering for more, I strongly suggest you check out their full report here. They also have dozens of hands-on resources on their website.

Thanks to Iona, Louise, and Sieske from The Decelerator for being such fantastic guests!