Just a brief animation to end the week, courtesy of SEC and Inside Job productions (itself a division of Media For Development, established and run by SSE Fellow James Greenshields). Enjoy:
Your Chance to Change the World launch
Just a brief note to say that I attended the launch of Craig Dearden-Phillips’ book, Your Chance to Change the World this lunchtime. In proper disclaimer fashion, I should say that SSE is formally endorsing the book as a good and practical guide for social entrepreneurs, particularly for those in the early stages. [SSE Fellows reading this: contact me for a negotiated discount!]
The reason we agreed to support the book is that, like SSE programmes (which are the antithesis of classroom-textbook-teacher approach), it is practitioner-led and peer-led, not just in terms of being authored by a person who walks the walk (Craig founded Speaking Up and has seen it through a fair rollercoaster ride to its current position), but also in terms of containing nuggets of advice and experience from other social entrepreneurs (including SSE Fellows Luljeta Nuzi, Roger Wilson-Hinds and Simon Fenton-Jones).
Simon was at the launch, along with more recent SSE Fellows Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa and Cerdic Hall, SSE champion / friend David Gold, and former SSE Director of Learning Matthew Thomson (now at LCRN). As that reunion went on in one corner, my eyes scanned the room, and it was a good turnout: Phil Hope said a few words after Craig and Debra Allcock Tyler (DSC‘s CEO), and there was good government representation from OTS, DCFS and others; + sector-heads Owen Jarvis (from Aspire UK), Bergin O’Malley (from SEC Ambassadors) etc….
All good stuff, and we wish DSC and Craig all the best with the book: Craig is a really good, and talented guy, and it’s nice to see someone nice have their day (and his mum looked chuffed too ;0).
Storytelling in the modern world
Storytelling seems to be a crucial part of how social entrepreneurs operate, develop and communicate, so I’ve been meaning to write up this session from the Skoll World Forum for a while (that I posted about before), but haven’t been best to decide how to do so; looking at my notes is just a bunch of quotes…but then I thought, maybe that will provide some sort of narrative. Here goes, with all due apologies for paraphrasing and bad note-taking. The people speaking, hereon shortened to initials, were:
- Ken Brecher, Executive Director, Sundance Institute
- Cara Mertes, Director, Documentary Film, Sundance Institute
- Walter Mosley, Author, The Thingitself Inc.
- James Orbinski, Ph.D., of Medecins Sans Frontieres / Rwanda
- Annie Sundberg, Filmmaker and Writer, Break Thru Films
- Bill Strickland, President and Chief Executive Officer, Manchester Bidwell Corporation
KB: "storytelling is a way of thinking about things, about the meaning of things, not the value of things; storytelling is a seach engine; it is a form of disguise and dialogue; stories are a way of finding what the questions are, not giving answers"
BS: "use storytelling to communicate and opportunity…and a possibility"
WM: "if somebody knows something is true, they will take an action….; all stories told are fictionalised (edited, changed) but truth is not the same as ‘facts’ "
AS: "always interested in the story behind the work, the personal story….again, not about a ‘factual’ truth, but one with emotional resonance; always thinking: ‘what journey do you want to take people on?’
BS: "It’s the passion behind the words that gets it sold"
CM: how to "move from telling a story to becoming a story"
JO: (quoting Hannah Arendt): "the first political act is to speak, so stories matter"
WM: "the problem of making heroes in stories so large…that people don’t associate with them"
BS: "you don’t have to be anointed to do this work….but have an awareness and an obligation to act upon it"
JO: "there is a real problem: the risk of heroisation"; views "responsibility as the ability to respond", not in terms of obligation
WM:….and "the story is how you understand that responsibility"
AS:….and getting responses: "continually wanting to invite someone in…and giving them space to do so"
BS: using "art as a language, a vocabulary to communicate: a balance sheet doesn’t get it done"
WM: "a lot of stories fail; most work, most art, is a failure"
BS: "we have no special privilege to be raised up or celebrated: it’s about how I celebrate others"
AS: important to "get rid of the heroics"; humour has an important role
KB: [great anecdote about how his father-in-law worked on the Burma railway and said that ‘you survived if you kept your sense of humour….the Dutch perished’]
WM: "winning is a notion that doesn’t belong in this kind of work"
JO: "what we do matters, and you can only do if you live….and I’m going to die living"
[responding to questions now]
WM: "the mistake of wanting to talk about the hero…best to understand the point of view opposite from you, [which gives] much more chance of resolving the issue"
CM: no perfect solution; "carrying the burden of having to fix it will paralyse you"
JO: "don’t get trapped in these utopian narratives….these are lies; but do engage as a human being and as a citizen"
WM (on measuring impact of stories): "as soon as someone says ‘I can measure that’, you’re in trouble"; "fiction is always closer to truth than non-fiction"
KB, quoting JO: "stories: we find ourselves in themm make ourselves in them, choose ourselves in them….we’d better choose them well"
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There was lots more here, and lots to pick out: about heroisation and the risk of utopian narratives (which I’d connect to various other discussions about transparency, authenticity, superhero myths and so on), about the power of stories and passion to further what you do, about the relationship between truth and facts, about responsibility (response-ability), about humour and enjoyment, about stories as journeys (of questions), and about humanity.
The above might seem a lot of words, a lot of sentiment, but it was absolutely compelling and relevant. For me, James Orbinski was an extraordinary communicator, and his words carried great weight, whilst Walter Mosley seemed to slice through to the key parts of the topic. I hope that, from some of the above (and maybe watching the video via the link at the start of this post), you might find what Walter Mosley called "the nuggets, the glimmers of hope" to keep telling your story.
Wednesday round-up link fest: Craig, CIC, Catalyst
Am between a long morning meeting and a long afternoon meeting, so just thought I’d pack in the round-up of links of interest to social entrepreneurs and the wider movement:
– Nice profile of Craig Dearden-Phillips in today’s Society Guardian; I have huge respect for Craig and what he’s achieved, and the interview demonstrates his clear and open approach. SSE is also endorsing his new book, Your Chance to Change the World: the no-fibbing guide to social entrepreneurship. The launch is next week, so I’ll have an update then.
– Another one of the social enterprise ambassadors, Peter Holbrook, is also widely regarded as someone who walks the walk, and he’s put up another great blog post on why "Food is a four-letter word"; click on ‘Blogs’ from the main website
– And yet more of them: congratulations to Dai Powell and Steve Sears of HCT and ECT respectively; they’ve combined successfully with the ingeniously-named E&HCT to win a transport contract at the Olympics.
– Social Firms UK have put out a template for a share-based version of the CIC structure
– New social investment website, powered by Rod Schwartz / Catalyst: SocialInvestments.com; see also the Good Deals conference, which looks like being a great event in this area
– David Wilcox asks: "Are big innovations possible within large non-profits?"
– Social Innovation Conversations podcast: Chip Heath on how to write a good mission (more interesting than it sounds….)
– And, for humour’s sake, here’s a piece from the Onion on a philanthropist wanting to give youngsters the opportunities he never had….in pole-vaulting
North by SouthWest (by East): SSE continues to grow
More on these stories soon, but just a quick note to say that the first Liverpool cohort have graduated from the Liverpool SSE at Blackburne House; they are going to have a bigger graduation event when the cultural entrepreneurs programme graduates in July, but our CEO Alastair Wilson was at the event last Friday, and justly congratulated everyone involved. Big congratulations from the rest of us, too: not only to all the students (now Fellows), but also to the Liverpool SSE team: Sylvia, Lisa, Jo, Claire, Angela et al. Hope to post up some photos soon, along with full details of the projects and individuals.
Also, as the more eagle-eyed will have gathered from this news item, Cornwall SSE is approaching. Again, more concrete news and details on this soon, but we’re obviously delighted at the continuing expansion of SSE into areas where it’s needed most.
And the East Midlands SSE continues to deliver programmes in three different parts of the region, and goes from strength to strength under Fergus Brazel.
And (!) two new cohorts start in London this week, delivering tailored support to another 40+ social entrepreneurs in the capital.
All that, and the Shine unconference: I’m exhausted just posting about it :0)
