(Slightly less) Patient Opinion

Posted on May 18, 2007 by sse

Interesting article from Paul Hodgkin, SSE Fellow and founder of Patient Opinion, in Wednesday’s Society Guardian entitled "Conversation Peace". On the face of it, this is an interesting diversion into how new technology might have ramifications for the NHS (video footage of mixed wards, unclean areas, bed shortages on YouTube etc.), but it is also the story of how the NHS is giving mixed messages about independence.

On the one hand, the NHS is being encouraged to commission and work with social enterprises to deliver services, and substantial sums of money have been made available for this. So, on the one hand, the NHS is being encouraged to devolve services to social enterprises and the volutnary sector. On the other hand, in the case of Patient Opinion, it has decided to develop its own solution in-house (NHS Choices), albeit with a slightly broader remit. And in an area where, as Paul points out, trust is absolutely paramount:

"Running Patient Opinion has convinced us that the state or public
sector providers themselves are likely to be poor hosts for these
conversations. Citizens are likely to instinctively distrust government
websites, suspecting them – rightly or wrongly – of spin. They may also
be reluctant to give email addresses to a feedback platform owned by
the NHS when they may be users of its services in the future. And, of
course, health abounds with controversies, be it hospital closures or
herceptin rationing.

In our view, the NHS will find it easier to
handle such firestorms if they are hosted on a platform that is clearly
independent of the main players."

Now obviously, innovation is welcome and new models may bring different benefits. Patient Opinion will also have the benefit of years of operation, building its credibility and refining its model, whilst the new site has to build that from scratch. But NHS Voices may well, as the article points out, bring interesting new slants, open data to be used, interesting ways of gathering collective experiences and so on.

Still, even if this NHS IT project goes smoothly in development, there seems (admittedly from a distant standpoint) to be something of a divergence here between rhetoric and reality. Others have voiced concerns over health/social enterprise with regard to a) lack of social enterprises able to deliver; b) need for sufficient support and c) opening up commissioning to private sector (if not the first time, then after 3 years). There’s some validity to these, although there are good, well-informed people at the DoH working through the issues, but my concern is more of a cultural one: will the NHS really let go?

Third Sector Leadership event: nuggets of leadership gold

Posted on May 17, 2007 by sse

The Third Sector Leadership Centre’s inaugural big event took place this week at Vinopolis in South London, and there were nuggets of gold to be had. Given that social entrepreneurs are often instantly leaders as well, and often the next generation of third sector leaders, I thought I’d try and capture a few brief highlights from some of the speakers and presentations:

– Digby Jones, recently DG of the CBI, started us off with the keynote, and he had some good leadership advice, including:

lead by example (if it’s uncomfortable, do it first)
ensure people take their holidays
put the hours in, but…
…if it can wait till tomorrow, go home tonight
problems at work often stem from problems at home
communicate at all times: foster a culture of openness and honesty
look out for others: "good leaders are unselfish people"
have a sense of humour
remember QED: Quality (of organisation, brand, the work), Environment (workplace, politics) and Dosh (has to be right; "if there’s room in the budget, give it to them not you…then tell them you have")

Inevitably, he also banged on about the need to educate people about risk, about the low levels of literacy and numeracy, and that there are winners and losers. To quote directly, "If they can’t do things, let’s put an exocet up their chuff". And he ended with another pearl of wisdom: "It’s very diffficult to give a bollocking to a cheerful person"

[In theory, this led on to a "big debate" but actually we just had a series of speakers (something of a shame for those of us expecting/hoping for sparks to fly)….]

Stuart Etherington of NCVO started with a generous tribute to Stephen Bubb of ACEVO for having the original idea, before moving on to what was distinct about leadership in the third sector, namely governance, measurement, more/more diverse stakeholders, combining delivery and policy, and multiple funding streams.

Shaks Ghosh, ex of Crisis and now at the controversial Private Equity Foundation, talked about leadership being about:

reaching down into communities, and understanding how to lead within communities
the challenge of remembering where we came from, and retaining that contact with the grassroots
fearlessness (in pushing boundaries, grasping opportunities…and saying no)
good management, as well as energy and passion

Stephen Bubb, chief exec of ACEVO, reciprocated the tribute from NCVO’s boss (who said they didn’t get on? ;0) and gave his insights:

best leadership lessons are learned on the job
"tipping point" leadership: you don’t always need everyone with you…sometimes you are ahead of them, seeking opportunities and reading trends
whingeing: a CEO should never do it, but point out the way forward (there was a swipe here at whingers in the sector, methinks)
"You don’t cross a chasm one step at a time" (from Lloyd George)

Finally, Campbell Robb, the Director General of the Office of the Third Sector, shared his insights (the first of which was not to speak fifth, as Digby Jones walked out as he started….!), starting with an anecdote in which he referred to an exercise on a Harvard programme about the power of silence. Having chatted to his partner, she asked if NCVO had "sent you to Harvard to find out you talk too much", before adding that she could have done that much more cheaply. The lesson from this was to look to those who know you. Others included:

keep mission and values at heart
have empathy and humility (and a willingness to learn at all times)
create space for fearlessness

Add all of those up and some sort of perfect leader may emerge…and more still came out under questioning. Campbell Robb had a neat summation of the independence issue (govt: "why don’t you do what we pay for?"; sector: "why don’t you pay for what we do?"), while Stuart Etherington talked of the "uniqueness of managing people who don’t have to be there" (volunteers). Stephen Bubb called for boldness over paying for the best people, and being professional and passionate (and that the two are possible in tandem).

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The sessions I was in were varied: the first was (in title) about leadership in local communities, but was really an introduction to an evaluation/planning tool, rather grandly titled Weavers Triangle. It’s basically a triangle with Overall aim at the top, Aims/Outcomes at the middle level, and Activities/Outputs at the bottom. Like this:

It was quite interesting, but caused lively debate as there was inconsistency in the way it was described at different times.The flaw for me is that there is no sense of "needs" in that equation: what unmet needs are trying to be met? As Ben from Bassac said to me afterwards, though, it’s just a tool…and people can do what they will with it.

The second session I went to was "leading a social enterprise". This was obviously more directly SSE’s field, so no great revelations, although it was interesting to gauge the cultural barriers from some voluntary sector organisations to trading and earning income. The Adventure Capital Fund gave a presentation about their work (which was very dry; some case studies would really have brought this alive) in terms of mixed loans and grants, and seeking a blended return + the type of support they provide during the length of their involvement.

There was also a social entrepreneur, Kevin from Pecan, an organisation in Peckham which had been revitalised through nimbleness and new innovations. He was a much more engaging speaker (almost all questions went to him), and covered important issues like risk, internal skills, shift in cultures, and the need to communicate the social impact of enterprise activities. He also gave a real sense of this being a people-driven change, rather than simply adopting a model or structure which would solve all problems.

[btw, it was great to see an SSE Fellow and current student in that session as well….]

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Other stuff: some decent networking, an interesting whistlestop session on integrative leadership (which I’ll come back to another time, methinks), and a final plenary which didn’t do much for me but others seemed to enjoy. There was one great quote from Susan Digby (or Susan Digby Jones as she was called in the programme!), founder of the Voices Foundation who said, in response to a question about leadership/gender, that she’d always been able to get any man to do anything for her! Her advice included:

learn on the job
absolute blind faith in the mission
strong support systems (at home and work)
display passion + work hard
work on the ground: it feeds and sustains the motivation

Final note to Tracy Beasley, Director of the TSLC (and congrats to her and her team on the event being a real success), who left us with the thought that "there can be no change if there is no learning", which certainly underpins SSE‘s work and has done since inception.

Edge Upstarts winners event 07

Posted on May 17, 2007 by sse

SSE attended the Edge Upstarts awards the other evening at St James’ Palace, no less. Having arrived slilghtly late, I found myself walking directly behind the royal party (our host was the Duke of Kent, President of Edge) into the venue, and it was a close-run thing not to walk straight up on the stage behind them. Thankfully, I settled in the audience and listened as the winners were announced (photos etc. available via this link).

No great surprises, to be frank…Tom Savage won young social entrepreneur of the year, Belu Water won social enterprise of the year, and Sital Punja (of Sari UK) won social entrepreneur of the year. Best speech came from social enterprise trainee of the year, Craig Watson ("Thank you, London!") who revealed to me later that this was the first time he’d ever been to the capital….and we agreed that receeiving a prize from a duke in a palace might not happen every time.

As ever, the networking is what it’s all about, and the organisers had done well to keep the awards/speeches section to a minimum. Some of those with left-leaning, grassroots backgrounds raised an eyebrow at the level of bowing and scraping, but the Duke’s speech was actually pretty good: he (or his researcher) had done his homework on the background to some of the award-winners, and he was frank in admitting his lack of knowledge of the movement up to that point. Another convert.

Other speakers included Geoffrey Robinson, who just about got through his MC duties (there seemed to be a degree of relief when handing over…), Ed Miliband (who had a nice line about Geoffrey knowing his father, bolstering his youthful credentials…), and Edge CEO Andy Powell. I confess the latter’s speech didn’t really resonate with me, and the problem with hosting an event in such rarefied surroundings is that it can seem rather stuffy and undynamic in contrast to the very movement we are there to celebrate and recognise.

On the flipside, there is also a sense in which being in such a place does make people feel ‘special’ in some way, as evidenced by Craig above. So I can see why it was chosen. Good networking areas in the palace, too, after the main section, chatting to Alan (Strachan, partner of one of the nominees Servane Mouazan from Ogunte), Cliff Prior from UnLtd, Simon Tucker from the Young Foundation, the lovely Louise Coward from OTS, and MT Rainey, founder of the mentoring website Horse’s Mouth (which Edge Supports) and is now open for use in beta..

Having called for celebration and recognition recently, the Edge awards are an important part of the social enterprise and entrepreneurshp ecology… and long may they continue.

Social entrepreneur round-up May 2007

Posted on May 10, 2007 by sse

Long overdue round-up of recent news and links of interest:

– the Third Sector awaits the imminent reshuffle with Gordon Brown succeeding Tony Blair and, most likely, Ed Miliband moving from his current post….though no-one seems to know where (not even the legendarily well-connected Stephen Bubb, who I asked last night)

– the Schwab Foundation, who run "Social Entrepreneur of the Year" competitions across the world (US, India etc.) appear to have paired up with the Independent and Boston Consulting Group to launch here: see Calling all social visionaries here; I wonder how the Edge Upstarts Awards (who announced their finalists and will announce winners this evening) and Enterprising Solutions and the other ceremonies will feel about another award scheme on the patch? Given that the article above misspells "entrepreneur" in its headline, possibly not very worried….

– And, while we’re on the subject, the Skoll Centre in Oxford has launched (or re-launched) its business plan competition as the 21st Century Challenge: "to encourage bold and innovative business ideas that will help to solve
the major social and environmental challenges of the twenty-first
century".

– Social Edge, the Skoll-funded portal of US/international social entrepreneurs, has launched some video and audio podcasts. Global X, whose blog is profoundly irritating or intensely amusing depending on who you speak to, is in charge of video interviews… ;US-centric, but there are some nuggets here….

– Whilst we’re covering all things Skoll-related, there’s an interesting take on the recent World Forum: all the way from New Zealand

– How can I not link to an article entitled "Digging into social enterprise: the mud beneath the yellow brick road"? It doesn’t really deliver on the title, but some interesting bits and pieces on earned income, sustainability and the balance of economic with social aims

– An article in the NY Times about businesses which "try to make money and save the world"; worth reading, and the first time in a while that I’ve read the label "fourth sector", which was once predicted to become a more established term….

– Closer to home, this month’s Social Enterprise Magazine features an article by Barbara Phillips on scaling , which refers to our own Long Tail of Social Entrepreneurship theory….(article not online yet, but available in our reception if you’re passing by… ;0) )

– Finally, seamlessly linking to the long tail comes this marvellous video on that very subject. Spoof movie trailer on how old media is being undone by the power of new technology. Or something.

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