Buddy System
Each person should have two Buddies within the co-op: a Talking Buddy and Listening Buddy. These relationships facilitate connections across the co-op, opportunities for exchanging insights, and deeper understanding of individuals and areas of work. They also help us ensure that we're looking after people.
Some of the things that a Buddy might do are:
- support you to meet your personal development goals
- help make sure you do the things you said you were going to do
- be the ones you talk to if you're having problems
When you have an issue, you can’t approach a group; you need a specific person you know you can turn to. This is what your Buddy is for. They won’t solve every problem, but they are your point of contact to make sure the problem gets solved. If you don't know who to go to, you can always go to them.
The Buddy System is not about managing your daily work. It's about you as an individual, and your relationship to the co-op. They can be your mentor, or your guide, or your sounding board. If you ever get into a conflict situation, they’ll be by your side making sure you are well supported to a resolution.
Questions
Your Buddy might ask you questions like:
- how was last month? what did you like or dislike?
- what do you want to do differently this month?
- what longer term goals are you working on? how are you progressing on them since last time?
- how can I best support you?
- ...and sometimes the co-op will suggest a prompt or theme for buddies to bring up
Personal development
There's been some discussion about using buddy chats as a chance to design and keep track of 'personal development plans' and there's lots of pre-existing practice around this in other organisations.
The Co-Op has some resources on personal 'growth' plans. https://colleagues.coop.co.uk/personal-growth-planning-pgp