A third language and an unforgettable experience

Posted on January 22, 2010 by sse

Just three weeks ago, I was stuck at Heathrow waiting for my lost baggage to arrive from Chicago. Now I am reflecting on how fast my time here at the SSE has passed.

As promised two days ago, I will discuss the student-facilitated workshop from yesterday. But as I do so, I believe it would be useful to also discuss what I have learned during my time here.

Considering that my supervisors from college will be reading this, I will clarify that my focus has not been entirely on the understanding and learning the UK English language. But it has been important inside and outside of the office nonetheless. Examples of my new language include something about “taking a Mickey out on me” which has to do with giving someone a hard time, “bloke” which is some sort of a man, “mate” which does not necessarily refer to any sort of act other than friendship, and “nip to the loo” which is some strange way to excuse oneself for the restroom. With the amount of slang here, I am nearing the point of adding UK English as my third language next to French and good ol’ Canadian (now half-American) English.

My learning has stretched much further than UK English jargon (as my supervisors will be grateful to know). At the SSE specifically, I have been able to make advances within my computer knowledge, making me much more efficient at producing mass media. I have also been taught how to use Twitter… however I am embarrassed to announce that I only have one lone follower: the SSE’s Nick Temple.

Away from the computer, I have been able to observe the work of the SSE programme itself, learning how they use the action learning methodology to train these students to become social entrepreneurs. This action learning methodology finds its roots in the inspiration and guidance from “been there, done that” witnesses who have proved themselves within the social entrepreneurial world. The students then follow-up with reflection periods and take what they learn and apply it to their own projects. Collectively, the SSE experience transforms both ideas and ideals into actions through this proven model.

More personally, I have really been able to identify the structural and administrative dynamics within the SSE and use it to brainstorm and reflect on my own social entrepreneurial ideas. There has been a definite opportunity to further develop my own strategic plans, and focus on areas of my programs that I may have ignored prior to this journey.

With that, I cannot reiterate how great this experience has been. I am extremely grateful for my college (St. Olaf College, MN), the CEL, the SSE, and, most importantly, my parents back home in Canada for supporting this venture.

To all social entrepreneurs: keep up the great work, keep on truckin', and never give up.

Cheers.

“Busy” does it at the SSE

Posted on January 20, 2010 by sse

Over half way through our internship here at the SSE, and Matt and I just made the swap, sending me to work with the Policy & Communications branch of the SSE alongside our site supervisor Nick Temple and sending Matt to the back office to work with the Programmes team.

Although the first couple days of transition have been a relative cesspool of work from both areas of the SSE, they have been rewarding nonetheless. Currently in Programmes, I have more or less taken ownership of the keeping track of the attendance list for the Working with Young People learning session. This learning session will be bringing Director of London at London Youth Rosie Ferguson and twenty or so practitioners, SSE students, and SSE fellows together to discuss the ins and outs of working with our younger generation. The event takes place next Tuesday 26 January 2010 here at the London SSE in Bethnal Green. Within the Policy & Communications field, I have been researching and recording important political networks for the respective franchises of the SSE.

The productivity of the employees here at the SSE head office continues to amaze me. With application deadlines and graduations approaching, the Programmes team (otherwise known as the “Back Office”) has been working diligently with a final recruiting push as well as confirming speakers, guest lists, and attendees for the upcoming festivities. In the front office, the work and deadlines do not subside. Grant proposals, funding requests, and reports seem to be a major focus. Administratively, Chief Executive Alastair Wilson, Network Director Suzanne Creasey, and Sustainability Officer Owusu Akoto have been in and out of the office attending meetings throughout the UK.

My interest continues to grow within the SSE programme and how they work with their students. In lieu of this interest, tomorrow I will have the opportunity to attend a learning session of the London SSE Weekly Programme that will be self-facilitated by the group itself. Topics for the learning session include Secondary Networking, Making Links, and How to Work Collectively to Sustain Ourselves as Social Entrepreneurs. Check back soon for an update on the session itself!

There are other tasks for me to complete other than blogging, so cheers from the SSE.

Applications for the London SSE Programme are due on 15 Feburary 2010. Contact Cynthia Quek at [email protected] for more details or visit www.sse.org.uk.

Connected: why different networks are crucial for social entrepreneurs

Posted on January 20, 2010 by sse

Was fascinated reading an article in the paper this weekend, entitled "Are your friends making you fat", which is all about research that demonstrates the influence of friends in your network on how you live and work. Like all the best books of this type, Connected seems at its heart to be based on a very obvious idea: that social networks affect our behaviour more powerfully than we tend to acknowledge. Be that in becoming obese, taking up (or quitting) smoking, or what we wear.

For me, the article became more interesting when it started to talk about how the success of projects or initiatives might depend on different types of networks. For example, the article discusses the success of a broadway musical:

Christakis tells the story of a friend of his, Brian Uzzi, who has used
the impact of social networks to analyse the success or otherwise of
Broadway musicals. "He finds that if the key players – the director,
costume designer, sound person, producer, etc – all worked together
before, and everyone knows everyone else, then the show is a flop. He
also finds that if you put together a group of people, who have never
worked together before, the show is also a flop. But if you put
together a group of people some of whom have worked together and some
who haven't, then the show is a runaway critical success with enormous
financial rewards."

This got me thinking about what I often say in presentations about SSE and why we attempt to put together a diverse group of social entrepreneurs in a cohort, and the importance of the network they develop in terms of resource, opportunity, support and experience. It's also worth reflecting on this when thinking about the type of organisation you build and the mix of skills + trust that is needed.

Later on in the piece, the researcher (Nicholas Christakis) discusses this in a different evolutionary context:

"If you want to hunt a mastodon," Christakis says, "it's really good if
all your friends know each other because you can work closely together
to kill it. But if you want to find a mastodon, it's much
better if your friends don't know each other – because they'll all have
the same information. If you don't know your friend's friend, the
chances are he will be able to tap more distant regions of the network."

I think this is potentially fascinating from a social entrepreneur's point of view, and demonstrates why networks can be so important to success.

For example, in the early stages of researching and establishing a new organisation (or 'finding a mastodon' in this context), a social entrepreneur needs information, expertise, inspiration, support and knowledge from a variety of sources. That's when the cohort of like-minded, supportive people who don't know each other beforehand can come into play, along with the networks of witnesses and staff they come into contact with at SSE.

Then, when it's about running the organisation, and building and mobilising a community of support behind it (or 'killing the mastodon'), it is those who share the same mission + are part of the same group or team who can play a key role in making that happen. The ability and confidence of the social entrepreneur to build that community + team around them, and to 'bring people with them' on the journey is then pivotal.

Get both of those networks right, and those mastodons won't have a chance there'll be plenty more successful entrepreneurs and organisations to be influenced by.

Russell L. Ackoff and the F-Laws of business

Posted on January 18, 2010 by sse

Since I recommended Peter Day’s World of Business in my top 10 podcasts for social entrepreneurs, it’s only become more relevant. In the past few weeks, the programme has covered the Salvation Army (once described by Peter Drucker as the most effective organisation in the world, in any sector), Project Alcatraz (or how a Venezuelan businessman became a social entrepreneur) and, most interestingly of all for me, the thoughts and learnings of the late Russell Ackoff, a management and business thinker.

Ackoff speaks much sense about a whole range of topics related to top business and management, but I was particularly interested (given our work here at SSE) in his emphasis on learning. He’s strong on the difference between teaching and learning (something which we still struggle at times to get across). He emphasises that an ability and willingness to learn are the keys to a successful organisation, and that one can only learn from doing something wrong (or making a mistake). Further, the best opportunities for learning come in the face of adversity or difficult times: perhaps we should reframe 2010 as “a great year of learning for the third sector”. More seriously, this chimes exactly with our belief in learning-by-doing.

I particularly like his distinction between errors of commission and errors of omission. The former consist of doing something that should not have been done; the latter consist of not doing something that should have been done. Ackoff contends that errors of omission are much more serious, because they cannot be corrected or retrieved…they are lost opportunities; and that organisations fail more often because of what they do not do, rather than what they do. But this is not often reflected in practice, because it is only errors of commission (i.e. what has been done wrongly) that are recorded and noted, which tends to make people averse to risk and less prone to challenging the status quo. Which makes an entrepreneurial ethic all the more important in establishing, leading and working within an organisation.

I’ve added three Russell Ackoff books to the SSE bookshop:

Management f-Laws: how organisations really work