Category Archives: Social Innovation

Talk about a resolution…

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Happy New Year readers / subscribers / social entrepreneurs. Hope you had a nice festive period: I was delighted to find that this blog had had its busiest traffic day in a long time while it was on leave; not sure what that says, but welcome to all newcomers.

It’s traditional, of course, to start the new year with a whole host of lists and resolutions, and the blogosphere is no different. You might want to start with the mighty Merlin Mann over at 43folders who has posts about Fresh Starts and Modest Changes and then read about 9 great tools to help you achieve your goals. Or, if you want to be real about the new year resolution shtick, how about 5 hard questions to ask before starting a new project, followed closely by choosing one of these Free Tools to Manage New Year’s Resolutions. Being S.M.A.R.T. about those resolutions is the key, apparently….

There will be those reclining, wishing to be told what to expect in the year ahead. Here, I might point you to Lucy Bernholz or McKinsey’s  8 Business (Technology) Trends to Watch. And for those still wanting food for thought, you might enjoy the EDGE’s annual question to the great thinkers of the world (this year: "What have you changed your mind about, and why?") and John Thackara’s reflection on approaches to sustainability.

A few other things to catch up with over the Xmas break:

– Tom Savage on how social enterprise doesn’t have a monopoly on doing good (and how it is difficult to invest in). I missed this last year, but is worth a read, if only to ponder how one reverses through a glass ceiling. More seriously, it does raise some interesting points, in relation to educational background, barriers to investment, and the need for greater "remuneration".  Given that Al Harris is largely considered the driving force behind Blue Ventures, it will be interesting to note the progress of Tom’s Bright Green Talent recruitment agency….certainly seems to fill a niche at a good time.

– The government launched a new initiative called Spark (igniting social enterprise to prevent homelessness), which is:

"an innovative project developed by Communities
and Local Government, The TREES Group, Big Issue Invest (part of The
Big Issue group) and Eastside Consulting to build and inspire social
enterprise to prevent homelessness"

It will aim to scale up existing enterprises, support the growth of enterprises within existing organisations and encourage the sharing of skills and resources across sectors.

– A full list of third sector-ites on the new year’s day honours list to follow, but here’s some North-Eastern social entrepreneurs who made it on….

– Many SSE students and Fellows are driven by faith or spiritual beliefs of some kind. There’s a discussion about the relationship between spirituality and social entrepreneurship on Social Edge.

– And last, but by no means least, proof that SSE reaches beyond these shores….to the Sydney Morning Herald, no less: Calling all rebels: it’s your time

My resolution? Eat that frog.

 

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Social entrepreneur and social innovation blogs

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An organisation doing PR for a big event in our world asked me recently for a list of blogs related to this field / movement, as they were having trouble deciding who / what to contact. I put together a list of what I think the most influential / readable / interesting / relevant blogs are, and then thought that it was quite a useful list, so here it is, broken down with no real reasoning into US / UK / Other; there’s lots of other feeds I subscribe to, but tried to pick the most directly relevant blogs; please add any others in the comments:

US-based
– Social Edge: www.socialedge.org
– Social Enterprise Reporter: http://www.sereporter.com/seblog
– Stanford Social Innovation Review: http://www.ssireview.org/opinion/
– Philanthropy 2173: http://philanthropy.blogspot.com/
 
There’s a few others that are tangentially relevant
(Tactical Philanthropy etc) with a very good blogroll here: http://philanthropy.com/giveandtake/
 
UK-based
– me, obviously, here and on www.sse.org.uk
[I also blog at the www.GlobalIdeasBlog.com and at
Innovation Exchange: http://innovation-exchange.org/]
– Rod Schwartz et al at Catalyst Fund: http://www.catfund.com/blog
– Todd Hannula at Social Catalyst: http://www.socialcatalyst.co.uk/
– NESTA (various): http://blogs.nesta.org.uk/
 
[tangentially Intelligent
Giving: http://www.intelligentgiving.com/blog and
David Wilcox are relevant also: http://www.designingforcivilsociety.org/ ]
 
Other thoughts
– Doors of Perception: http://www.doorsofperception.com/

I’d also add that, on blogging + web 2.0 / third sector, you have to read:
– Beth’s Blog
– Have Fun, Do Good
– nfp 2.0
– Podnosh

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Innovation triptych: Exchange, Awards, Habits

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1) One of the side benefits of working at SSE is that you get invited to be involved in some interesting projects, discussions and (potentially) partnerships. A lot of recent chatter has been around innovation, as we’ve tracked over some time in various posts (see the Social Innovation post archives), and SSE finds itself in the unusual position of being involved in two ‘innovation exchanges’; one, the Social Innovation Exchange, is a global initiative powered by the Young Foundation (website currently under re-construction, but sign up here in the interim) which aims to collect, connect, network and disseminate social innovations, innovators and innovating organisations.

The other, on which I’m also a guest blogger, is a government-funded Innovation Exchange, run by the Innovation Unit, Headshift and ACEVO. Its approach involves offline and online networks (involving the supply and demand side, and the investors…) and a programme to support fledgling innovative projects on particular themes. [Read a much more coherent explanation on the site]. One of these is ‘Excluded Young People’ and I’ve been blogging a bit about that (see my posts here; log in required; excuse dreadful photo) and drawing on the work of SSE students and Fellows. The site is starting to get going, and is worth checking out.

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2) At a slight tangent, SSE was also judging the CAF Companies and Communities Awards the other week, in the Innovation category (there’s the link). The discussions with my fellow judges were interesting, particularly as we wrestled with ‘innovation’ in this context (not novelty, as is sometimes the case) and how much emphasis should be placed on track record and impact measurement in comparison. What is certain is that there is much significant activity going on in this area, where private meets non-profit, and that it goes far beyond ‘charity of the year’ or ‘greenwash‘ CSR. The shortlist demonstrated that genuine, long-term partnerships can make a big difference to both parties.

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3) Finally, I stumbled across a post today about the seven habits of highly innovative people, and was struck how many of them apply equally to (social) entrepreneurs….So, if you’re persistent, uninhibited, risk-taking, like to escape, write things down, find patterns (and create combinations), and curious, you tick all the boxes. Or think outside them.

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Monday round-up to start your Enterprise Week

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Yes, gird your loins people, it’s Enterprise Week, with Social Enterprise Day taking place on Thursday. And what better way to start the week than with the usual SSE round-up:

– Final word for now on SSE student Sabrina on Secret Millionaire; other Fellows (thanks Dave and Catherine) point out that you can get to the episode via Channel 4’s On Demand section, though it takes 15 mins or so to set up and register with C4.

– Rob Greenland pointed me to Mike Chitty’s post about the Benefits of Slow Learning. For all those that think  one-day workshops are enough:

"I think that very few managers would be able to absorb all of this
content in one day and then to apply it successfully. It looks like it
has been put together more for the convenience of the trainer than the
learner…..[…]…Learning something, putting it into practice and becoming comfortable
with it is important before trying to learn and implement the next thing".

Rob G. relates this to much current practice in our field of entrepreneur support:

"Intervene, at a time that suits the support agency, and look for a
quick response. VAT registration, high-growth businesses, five staff
employed in twelve months, that kind of thing. Instead of a more
patient approach, which is less resource intensive, lets the
entrepreneur develop at the pace that’s right for them, and produces a
long-lasting impact."

Amen to that….

–  As part of Social Enterprise Day, the Youth Commission for Social Enterprise is being launched this week (featuring SSE student Satwinder Singh). Meanwhile, in a Global Young Social Entrepreneurs’ Competition, SSE Fellow Nathalie McDermott is one of the chosen 100. (Current Ambassador Matt Kepple is another). Check out the full global list.

– I mentioned the 6 practices of high impact non-profits the other day. Adrian from UnLtd points out that a couple of related audio versions are available via Social Innovation Conversations here and here.

– Would you like to go to the University of the Third Sector? I’ll wait till the student union is established…

– On to Enterprise Week, here’s a selection of stuff happening:

– And finally, Social Firms are behind a song, nay, a rap to promote Social Enterprise Day. See Single Released to Social Enterprise Day to download the single on Thursday. The SSE blog has heard a sneak preview of the song (and you can read the lyrics via the link above) but no longer feels young enough to comment with any authority on the quality.

However, it does raise the thought in my head of a kind of Anfield Rap of Social Enterprise, with, say, Tim Smit freestyling over some dubstep, before a full-on rap battle between John Bird and Tim Campbell; with a Minister as MC, perhaps……

Have a great week: we’ll try and keep track of media throughout the week on the blog.

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Innovation Exchange launch

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SSE was just at the Innovation Exchange launch (website launches for real on Friday) which was at NESTA. NESTA have decided to stump up £200k development cash for the InnovEx programme as well, which was announced at the event by their chief exec Jonathan Kestenbaum.

He was followed by Glenys Thornton, who talked of "relating ambition to the lived experience" and said many a thank you, as befitted her role as chair of the exchange.

Next up was Valerie Hannon, Director of the Innovation Unit (who, along with ACEVO and Headshift, are the three constituent partners). She explained the nuts and bolts of the approach and how it would work…namely 2 Innovation Networks (to start with) around particular themes (living independently and excluded young people) followed by 2 Next Practice Programmes to further develop ideas / projects. With a mix of investment, development, advice, challenge etc. One key point is the emphasis on the supply as well as the demand side (aka commissioners and funders). The two themes were selected because they were a) high up in public priorities b) had high innovation potential in the 3rd sector and c) had the potential for investment.

We then heard from 4 individual innovators.

Julie Dent talked about her work within and without the NHS (including, memorably, kimono-style gowns to ensure "old men’s bottoms" aren’t on full display). Her tips for success included the question of ownership and that more money may not be the answer.

Colin Crooks, of Green Works, discussed how they’d addressed market failure and how "accidental networking" had helped them achieve what they had. in classic entrepreneurial style, he also put a call out to invest in a new strand of work….

Hilary Simon, of the Southwark Pensioners Centre, emphasised the need for long-term planning and sustainability, and how a people-centred approach could help develop services from the bottom-up.

Then Neil McIntosh of CfBT explored the difficulties of remaining innovative whilst selling services to government. The answer? Being true to your mission (and, crucially, having the resources to allow you to stay true, scale up, be bold, and do research). He also had a direct message for government to get their people moving in the right direction…

Which led neatly on to Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, who I found quite engaging (first time I’d seen him speak) and sound. He had a nice line about having spent the weekend delivering 6,000 leaflets, "somewhat unnecessarily as it turned out" to open, and then continued from there. Nothing revelatory, but detailed various policies and programmes (social investment bank, 3 yr contracts, full cost recovery) and drew attention to the 3rd sector’s history of innovation, which he put down to its independence of mind, value-driven purpose, and dogged optimism. He ended by saying that 3rd sector orgs could now choose to be a campaigner, a deliverer or an innovator….or a combination of all three.

It’s an exciting initiative, but everyone was keenly aware that everything seems exciting at this point…the devil will be in the detail of the delivery. It was a good turnout, with a good mix of people (government, funders, support agencies, second tier policy networks, think tanks etc), so join the website on Friday (no doubt a link will appear on the blog) and watch the space….

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