Have just returned from the annual SSE residential in Dartington, an extraordinarily beautiful place which has many ties to our history, as Michael Young spent many of his formative years there, honed his entrepreneurial skills, and remained involved for many years afterwards. Dartington also has under its auspices several different enterprises on site (see the home page above under Departments), including Research in Practice and the Schumacher College, which makes it a unique place for social entrepreneurs to network, learn information, and get inspiration and encouragement.
The students from various SSE schools in the network also went to the Eden Project for a witness session from Tim Smit, and a visit round the project itself. Inspirational stuff from the entertaining and charismatic Mr Smit, drawing out lessons from his successes (and failures) that are applicable no matter the size of the enterprise involved. The Tinkerbell Theory (if you get enough people to believe in something, it will happen) is a favourite, as is the "accept every third inivitation" rule: building a network outside your normal world….and allowing serendipity to find you.
Vaughan Lindsay, the CEO of Dartington Hall, also spoke about strategy to the current SSE cohorts, and had much to communicate around strategic thinking, the importance of a unifying vision, and how to turn around an ailing or troubled organisation. He also had interesting things to say about how organisations which never have to be entrepreneurial themselves (which was the case at Dartington when the Elmhirsts were throwing money at it: $1 billion in today’s terms; or an economic atom bomb, as Vaughan described it) becoming unfocused, less driven and wasteful.
All good stuff and, most importantly, the different social entrepreneurs from across the country coming together to discuss, inspire, share, and build closer relationships for the future.
As I’ve been away, a few things to mention in a round-up, too:
– UnLtd are going away on an International Learning Journey; two SSE Fellows, Michelle Baharier and Nathalie McDermott are amongst the awardees heading away, along with some external people and 4 UnLtd staff……hope they’re offsetting the carbon ;0) UnLtd’s own Richard Alderson will be leading the blogging as they go….
– Social Enterprise London has some new guides
– There is a free health-related create a social enterprise event on December 1st in Manchester
– An interesting podcast on the social entrepreneurship landscape in the US, but of relevance to us all (via Social Innovation Conversations)
– Also from the US, an update about what will be an interesting article (by Jim Fruchterman and Jed Emerson amongst others), entitled "Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Risk-Taking Expansion Capital for Social Enterprise"
– Finally, Steve Bridger recommends non-profits have a ‘buzz director’; am changing the business cards now….
