Friday round-up: Coca-Cola, Clay, Causes

Posted on May 23, 2008 by sse

Another week passes, and for your Bank Holiday reading, we present… the Friday round-up:

– Some good recent posts from some of the Social Enterprise Ambassadors: Matt Stevenson-Dodd, Daniel Heery and Chris Allwood; all well worth a read

– I’ve banged on a lot about the need for blogs to be authentic and honest; Stephen Bubb’s blog, whilst he divides opinion, continues to deliver on both fronts: entertaining, name-drop-tastic, frank posts that feel like a conversation: how many ACEVO members will follow his lead, I wonder?

– This is a useful intro on using Social Media for Social Change

– And, as a nice foil to that, here’s a piece about how Facebook Causes don’t tackle root causes: or how social media is only useful if it impacts in the real offline world….

– Clay Shirky video that discusses where we find the time to watch TV, blog and the like…. [hat tip Beth]

– Interesting article on developments in Chinese philanthropy of late (post-earthquake)

– Edge Upstarts Awards are happening on June 18th at Lindley Hall (near Pimlico); keynote speaker is Ed Balls….and the Enterprising Solutions Awards are also open for nominations / entries (till July 1st). Don’t be put off by our CEO Alastair being a judge for both!

– The 9 myths of fundraising diversification is quite interesting: for those who need to do it (in these times of credit crunches and the like) to ensure no over-reliance in any one area; it’s been a key part of SSE’s strategy over the last few years, and this is good on stuff to consider before you start

– Simon Berry, CEO of the mighty Ruralnet, has been pushing an idea about using Coca-Cola’s distribution system to help send out rehydration tablets in the developing world; support the campaign by joining the Facebook group or viewing the website here

Have a great weekend…..

Concept and practice: Charlie Leadbeater and Peter Holbrook

Posted on May 19, 2008 by sse

I’m never at my finest on Mondays, but today was a really stimulating and interesting one which revolved around two very different individuals: one more conceptual, and one very practical. [apologies for length of post]

First up was Charlie Leadbeater at the Hub for breakfast (two coffees necessary before I could form sentences, needless to say), talking about the ideas and issues which inform and underly his book, We-Think. Leadbeater has been an innovator and ideas pioneer for many years (in 1997, for example, he wrote ‘The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur’ at the same time as the SSE was being founded). We-Think is about the rise of mass, creative collaboration, and how this is changing society, employment, and traditional systems.

Some interesting tidbits I took from his talk this morning were the five themes in the book:

– the move from marginal to mainstream can happen much more quickly these days
– creativity is a social and collaborative process
– the world is cloud / swamp-like; organisations are box-like….
– a different approach to ownership and control is emerging (sharing animates the economy….)
– these are old systems re-emerging in new incarnations (peer-to-peer, the commons etc.)

He also posed two key questions about this movement: How do you make money from it? (the financial q) and Can we be trusted with this stuff? (the political q). The discussion was interesting, particularly for me around how to make best use of a distinctive piece of intellectual property (don’t keep it in a darkened room…think counter-intuitively), about the importance of relationships (could we see SSE through a lens of creating relationships that motivate, support, trade and inspire?) and the three principles of (self) governance in this area, which again seemed very much related to what we do:

– the need for these connected networked communities to have leadership that leads by values/purpose and tends to come from within that community
– the community needs motivation to contribute and left options to decide why and how they will do so
– peer-to-peer becomes much more important for accountability, review, resources, credibility and so on

Much food for thought.

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I was then straight off, via a swift clear-up of my desk (we’ve moved around in the office), to visit Sunlight Development Trust in Gillingham. Peter Holbrook, who founded the trust (the building was an old Sunlight laundry factory that they got the funding to renovate), is a social enterprise ambassador, and it’s been a pleasure to meet and work with him on that programme.

Sunlight is an inspiring place, and is growing really fast: a network of cafes is stretching through the Medway Towns in Kent, and, most recently, they won the contract to provide all the catering in the new Medway Council building: so there is a social enterprise serving up all the lunches, coffees etc in the heart of the local authority. The original Gillingham site is also piloting a range of other initiatives, including a music studio, a radio station, parenting workshops, community gardening and so on…..

It’s hugely impressive and a good kick up the arse for those who become occasionally jaded and cynical (this is my arse I’m kicking) about what these types of organisation can achieve. Whilst Peter and I agree that it is about the people, leadership, quality of service, transparency of operation etc that brings success, the CIC model clearly has brought Sunlight benefits; with freer governance, but also the badging / recognition that it brings.

Peter himself is one of those genuinely inspiring blokes; not only because of his energy and enthusiasm, but also because he is fired up and passionate about Sunlight being the best it can be, and about making a difference in what is a hard, tough business. It is a professional outfit, but also remains passionate and personal(ised)…which is a great achievement. Though he made me feel like he’d done more that morning than I had done in the past two weeks, I left inspired: take the concepts and thoughts, and start to deliver.

Charlie Leadbeater referred to a headteacher friend of his who labelled himself a ‘pragmatopian’, in that he had kept his utopian ideal of the power of education, but had had to do inspite of (and weaving through) the national curriculum, Keystages, league tables etc. It’s a horrible neologism, but I think Peter is one too: pragmatic and entrepreneurial, but with values written through everything he does.

Thursday round-up…Blakebrough, Baroness and blogs

Posted on May 15, 2008 by sse

Ok, so what with the pressures of Shine, a swathe of documents to write, and two new programmes starting, things have been a little busy. Also been covering some ground of late: Liverpool, Nottingham, Leeds and so on….all good stuff. Particularly enjoyed the board meeting at EMSSE: great to see the progress the organisation has made under Fergus Brazel, with much assistance from the board; and also enjoyed delivering my measuring social impact session with the cultural social entrepreneurs in Liverpool. What a great bunch they are, and look forward to seeing their progress over the coming months.

Anyway, here’s a long overdue round-up:

– Adele Blakebrough, CEO of CAN, is stepping aside to spend more time with her family (whilst retaining an involvement in their Breakthough investment fund). CAN and SSE started at a similar juncture around 10 or 11 years ago, and have worked together on direct delivery of support, on the founding of UnLtd and, more recently, on promoting the policy agenda for social entrepreneurs. Adele is a unique, engaging and inspiring presence in the sector, and that energy and passion will be sorely missed. She’ll be welcome as an expert witness here anytime ;0)

– At the recent Good Deals conference, a couple of things stood out for me: the first was the social enterprise ambassadors launching their first campaign, called More For Your Money, about the added value the movement brings; the second was a typically rabble-rousing effort by (ambassador) Nigel Kershaw about the need for incentives to attract investment (interestingly mentioning that 3 of the 1706 CICs have received inward investment of this type)

– OTS is investing about £350,000 on developing a standard for measuring SROI; it’s a thorny, complex area, but if (even limited) consensus can be achieved, the benefits could be substantial….watch and wait.

– At a recent ACEVO conference, Baroness Glenys Thornton (formerly chair of Social Enterprise Coalition), mentioned her beginnings in this world, which is relevant to us / our founder:

"I was very fortunate when I was a young woman to work for one of the
20th century’s social entrepreneurs – Michael Young. He’s a person who
gave birth to many of the great ideas we take for granted today, like
the Open University and the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The thing
he taught me was that you mustn’t be afraid of coming up with ideas and
testing it to see if it works. He was always prepared for ideas not to
work."

From what I know from those who worked with him, that certainly rings true.

– And on that note of ideas not working, here’s a cheery little piece called the Six Signs of NonProfit Decline., which includes both the obvious ("1. Loss of all or a significant portion of support from a key funding source") and the less obvious ("3. Sudden and dramatic expansion of services"). Interesting to note, and put alongside your organisation, or those in your sector….

– And finally, for those who missed my session at Shine (where were you?), here’s my How and Why to blog set of slides….feel free to use (with credit!):

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Shine 2008 aftermath: toasting success

Posted on May 12, 2008 by sse

So Shine 2008 was a real success, I think: really did what it set out to do in terms of accessibility (of price), a dynamic feel, practical/relevant sessions, lots of connections and conversations, a real mix of participants and contributors. I think the social reporting also went well, and big thanks to David Wilcox, Paul Henderson, Dave Briggs, Duncan Arrow, as well as guest bloggers Dave Dawes, Darragh Doyle and Ben Matthews….for getting involved and helping it happen! [btw, if you can’t see the site, it may be because your ISP is Virgin….] Do check out some of the videos and photos which give a real sense of the vibe and atmosphere of the event.

Lots to learn of course, and my (unthoughtthrough) changes/amendments would be to do with some bigger collective moments (as per what Kaos Pilots Netherlands did), slightly more structure / formality at certain times, linking online and face-to-face connections better, more food/drink options and so on. And, at times, numbers were affected by a) it being the most beautiful weekend for many months, and b) the Premiership title decider….

Nevertheless, whilst fully acknowledging my inbuilt bias, the event was a real success and very much in line with what we had discussed and planned since the get go; and it’s a tribute to those involved that it all happened on such a tight budget. HUGE thanks to Andres from Eudemonic and Jess from Germination (and their teams: Grace, Lizzie, Gemma et al), all the blue t-shirted volunteers, all the contributors who took a risk on an unproven event, the pioneering funders (NESTA, DCLG, Buzzacott, BWB, OTS), the pro-bono branders and web designers (Neru, Rolled), Green-works for providing all the event furniture, and many many more.

Along with the other founding partners, UnLtd, Ashoka and the Hub, SSE‘s delighted to have been involved in making it happen…and look forward to next year’s event, which can now be built on some really credible (if radical) foundations.

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