Category Archives: Social Innovation

Back in the game: a returning news and info round-up

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Hello everyone: a big welcome back from the SSE blog. We’ll start back in traditional fashion with a round-up of everything that’s been going on in the world of social entrepreneurship and enterprise in the past few weeks.

– For the geeky web 2.0ers amongst you, How Sociable will tell you how well your brand is represented on the social web. What more could a blogger want…. (thanks to Beth for this)

– Can you smell a rat? No, but they can smell a landmine apparently. And now they can smell the money: £500,000 worth of it for this rodent-loving social entrepreneur.

– Are you a sneaky rat yourself? Try this online ethical test for your moral DNA…

– Patrick Butler had an interesting piece in yesterday Society Guardian about Jamie Oliver / school dinners….but more generally about lone heroes bringing about social change (or not). Well worth a read, particularly for the complexities of measuring and attributing success and the need for catalysts.

– I totally identified with this post by Mike Chitty:

"Enterprise is not about business and entrepreneurship.
It is not about premises, finances, business plans and swots.
It is a process for human development.
It is a way of exploring:

  • who I am,
  • what my potentials are/might be, and
  • the kind of future that I could create.

It is way of living – of becoming.
Enterprise can be a catalyst, a framework, for the emergence of identity."

– CICs are back in the news (stay awake at the back), with two CIC CEOs setting up a CIC association to provide support and representation to all those CICs out there. There’s a fairly equivocal statement from the Coalition in response, but given their recent call for more promotion of the structure, they must surely see this as a good thing. Certainly, the meagrely-resourced regulator does….

– This year’s FOOTSEY event in Yorkshire looks like being even bigger and better than last year’s, which I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ll be trying to get back up to God’s country for this one as well, so see you there….

– Someone mentioned £300m being taken from the RDA regeneration budgets to fund the new housing initiative to me today. Will try and find a link soon enough: unclear what the ramifications may be region-by-region

– Good to see Social Enterprise Ambassador, SSE expert witness and all round good guy Craig Dearden-Phillips nominated in the most admired chief exec category in the Third Sector awards. And to see him having an entertaining debate with the publisher of his own book….

– Also, much SSE news forthcoming: a new programme in the East Midlands starting in October; a new SSE in Cornwall starting formally soon; and a new publication to be launched next week. I know your breath is bated now; more soon.

– Finally, the hot question of the week: are you a changer, a contributor, or a coaster?

Till next time….

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Innovation brokers: necessary intermediaries?

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Honest_brokers_final_page
The other week I attended an interesting and thought-provoking day at NESTA about social innovation, with many of the major players in the field (NESTA, Innovation Unit, Young Foundation, etc) in attendance. On the same day, the Innovation Unit had launched a report, called ‘Honest Brokers: brokering innovation in public services’. [see here for more and to download the pdf]

Matthew Horne, who wrote the report, spoke about it briefly on the day, and I’ve since read the whole thing. The general gist is that social innovation is important, and that innovation in other fields (technology etc) has many intermediaries to help it come to scale and grow (such as hubs, incubators, labs, accelerators and so forth). As Horne writes,

"Innovation brokers help to mobilise innovations, identify opportunities that the current system undervalues and they broker relationships between disparate parts of the system…. In particular, they broker relationships between ‘innovation creators’, ‘innovation seekers’ (such as commissioner of services), investors and policy makers."

He goes on to recommend that the government seeks to create propitious market conditions for these intermediaries working in the social/public sector. And create these conditions by promoting innovation, regulating to encourage it and investing/using money to leverage in other investments. The pamphlet is more specific about where and how to do this, so I’d recommend a read.

Some cynics on the day drew a parallel with the old (false) maxim that "Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach"; i.e., "Those who can, innovate; those who can’t, broker". Others felt that it was no great surprise to find an innovation intermediary organisation writing a report that recommended greater support and resourcing of innovation intermediary organisations.

There might be the odd grain of truth there, but there’s many worthwhile points of learning in the report. For example, it makes the clear case that "the innovation imperative is also an economic imperative", because the current centrally-driven approaches are not solving the problems we have, and are becoming increasingly unaffordable. I also liked the stuff on how and why innovation doesn’t work in the public sector / social spehere: "monopolistic sectors…tend not to be very innovative. Sectors with lots of very small players tend to be good at incremental innovation. Sectors with many small players and a few large players tend to be better at more radical innovation". Which very much very much put me in mind of SSE’s long tail argument.

Also, what if we started to view SSE as an innovation intermediary? In the list of services such organisations provide (expert consulting, experience sharing, brokering, diagnosis + problem definition, benchmarking, change agency, influencing policy….), I found myself putting a tick by many of them, to differing extents, for SSE. Further to this, the innovation research reaffirms SSE’s beliefs in diverse networks and in the need for a safe trusted space; as Horne writes:

"Innovation-rich sectors tend to be highly networked, with a high number of random connections between individuals and organisations and a high level of social, cultural and professional diversity within these social networks…..[this] explains the important role that brokers play in estaboishing and maintaining such networks and relationships….

Building relationships between innovators in different organisations and creating rules that make it safe to share, be open about problems and potential solutions is important"

Which again reminded me strongly of NEF’s findings about SSE students and Fellows and the benefits they gain from networks of support, resource and opportunity, and from a safe space to test out and discuss their ideas. Indeed, just as we have been saying to people that social entrepreneurship is about transforming ‘beneficiaries’ into leaders of change, so this report calls for "the next era of innovation in public services…to focus on the participation of the service users themselves " and, finally, for "systems that give the public tools to innovate for themselves".

My only caveat comes from an example we heard on the day, from the DOTT team (who are considered an innovation intermediary). Horne writes that innovation does not come from centralised organisations searching "for innovations and then impos[ing] them on others". Yet the Dott 07 example of Low Carb Lane, in which they introduced low-energy innovations on a street in Northumberland, demonstrated that intermediaries can also impose ideas on others. Most of the residents were more worried about crime, the burnt-out garage at the end of the street and so on, not on issues of climate change. The fact they had no ownership over the project also meant it was unlikely to be sustained.

Which led me to my final conundrum, one that all innovation intermediaries should be considering: how can we match the large-scale problems identified by research and evidence (chronic illness, ageing population, climate change) with the concerns and wishes of those at the grassroots  (which vary region to region, street to street). I think SSE’s approach, of supporting and empowering those often coming from the problem they are aiming to solve, and then networking them effectively and building their capacity to make change, can play a significant role in this. Thinking of ourselves as an innovation intermediary might help push this forward.

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Innovation Edge 2: overall thoughts + Sir Bob

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The rest of Innovation Edge was….OK. Great turnout, great venue, but caught between a few stools I think: neither a trade fair of new innovations, nor a genuinely interactive forum, nor a traditional conference (keynotes + seminars). Networking was good, though not enough time for it….and the expert seminars (at least the ones I attended / heard about) were average at best: meandering was the word.

Gordon Brown gave an engaging, concise, warm speech (without notes…with jokes), but the highlight for me was definitely Bob Geldof. [you can hear audio etc of lots of the speakers here]

It sounded very much like he’d been reading John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan’s book,The Power of Unreasonable People, as he used the same George Bernard Shaw quote (unreasonable people shape the world around them… etc) to frame his address. Without notes, he was passionate, coherent, fluent, intelligent and engaging: really impressive. A few excerpts that stood out for me (make of these what you will):

– "Desperation is the father of necessity, just as necessity is the mother of invention"
– [on Britain being more risk averse]: "We so fear failure that nobody dares try anymore….we need to celebrate the attempt at trying"
– "in a world of hyper-democracy, the notion of leadership comes to the self….decisions will increasingly be made locally"
– "co-operation and interdependence must be the way"
– "we need our social entrepreneurs to consider [ideas of a different world], to be innovative and progressive"

He then ended with a quotation from W H Murray, which he said should be written on the chests of social entrepreneurs, politicians and changemakers in the world; certainly a powerful call to arms, to the doers of the world:

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and
creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills
countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely
commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events
issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of
unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man
could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for
one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!
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Innovation Edge: some live blogging from opening plenary

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Am at Innovation Edge, NESTA’s big innovation event / conference at the Royal Festival Hall. Sitting in on the plenary session, so will blog a few highlights as we go. Highlights to come? Bob Geldof, Tim Berners-Lee, Gordon Brown and lots of other interesting people. Chair and chief exec of NESTA to kick us off with some opening thoughts…..

[NESTA chair] Chris Powell: key themes are that this is a growing movement, + a broader view of innovation than before…importance in global context re. problems / challenges / UK:world…

– innovation as iterative and incremental process…
– need to embed innovation / make change systemic
– relationship to government (procurement, DIUS, DCMS etc) / demand

(slightly boring this: basically stating why NESTA is needed…..)

[film interlude about innovation…which I think is meant to be funnier than it is….a few sniggers in the audience]

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Jonathan Kestenbaum: (detailing progress since last event 18 months ago…seed funding, public service innovation, new tech funding, source of authority and expertise….); key point is that they have built dozens of partnerships, which have been crucial.

– NESTA has learned 3 things:

    – NESTA at best when taking risks; + importance of risk-takers
    – extraordinary power of partnerships and collaborations (innovation coming from creative combinations)
    – huge national appetite for innovative solutions + "not an elite activity"

[now going to film about NESTA’s work / stories; quite the production budget they have… ;0) lots of people saying nice things: Geoff Mulgan, David King, Richard Lambert etc…but also some neat case studies]

Final bit emphasises ‘misson-driven’ nature of NESTA, + praises staff etc. Quotes Robert Kennedy on the future belonging to those with "passion, reason and courage"…

[another film! with Andrew Marr, no less; from his modern history of Britain programme, I think] ———————————————————————————————————————————-

Now Jonathan Freedland interviewing Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Live by videolink from Bristol…unfortunately slightly out of sync.

T B-L: my boss "didn’t exactly say yes, but didn’t say no either"; importance of long leash + generalising specific solutions they have found…."give people space…don’t micromanage";

"if you tell them what you want, you’re giving them the old ideas…not enabling them to come up with new ones"

[quotes Einstein?]: "if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research"…..importance of not restricting with outcomes + measuring return on investment….

"I hope that the internet will be ‘responsible’ as it grows" alongside experimenting with "new forms of society, science, democracy etc"

[question about incivility online]: blogs, wikis etc are ‘social machines’ and are new, so people are finding their way with these new tools of interaction; views these as "growing pains"….

[question about current project: Web Science] thinking of the web as "humanity connected" rather than connections between computers / web pages….; need for ‘cognitive science’ of the web: "we have a duty to understand the web"

[question about web being fragile] As much about "will it be a force for good?"…in the realm of scientific / drug information…etc

[question about innovation : collaboration] hopes innovation will be "collective, rather than individual"; ‘common language’ gets built up between groups and teams; web can make these collaborative spaces "transparent"; need for collaboration across disciplines to solve the big problems. "That’s why I made the web" (good sentence to be able to be say!)

And break!

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Concept and practice: Charlie Leadbeater and Peter Holbrook

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I’m never at my finest on Mondays, but today was a really stimulating and interesting one which revolved around two very different individuals: one more conceptual, and one very practical. [apologies for length of post]

First up was Charlie Leadbeater at the Hub for breakfast (two coffees necessary before I could form sentences, needless to say), talking about the ideas and issues which inform and underly his book, We-Think. Leadbeater has been an innovator and ideas pioneer for many years (in 1997, for example, he wrote ‘The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur’ at the same time as the SSE was being founded). We-Think is about the rise of mass, creative collaboration, and how this is changing society, employment, and traditional systems.

Some interesting tidbits I took from his talk this morning were the five themes in the book:

– the move from marginal to mainstream can happen much more quickly these days
– creativity is a social and collaborative process
– the world is cloud / swamp-like; organisations are box-like….
– a different approach to ownership and control is emerging (sharing animates the economy….)
– these are old systems re-emerging in new incarnations (peer-to-peer, the commons etc.)

He also posed two key questions about this movement: How do you make money from it? (the financial q) and Can we be trusted with this stuff? (the political q). The discussion was interesting, particularly for me around how to make best use of a distinctive piece of intellectual property (don’t keep it in a darkened room…think counter-intuitively), about  the importance of relationships (could we see SSE through a lens of creating relationships that motivate, support, trade and inspire?) and the three principles of (self) governance in this area, which again seemed very much related to what we do:

– the need for these connected networked communities to have leadership that leads by values/purpose and tends to come from within that community
– the community needs motivation to contribute and left options to decide why and how they will do so
– peer-to-peer becomes much more important for accountability, review, resources, credibility and so on

Much food for thought.

—————————————————————————–

I was then straight off, via a swift clear-up of my desk (we’ve moved around in the office), to visit Sunlight Development Trust in Gillingham. Peter Holbrook, who founded the trust (the building was an old Sunlight laundry factory that they got the funding to renovate), is a social enterprise ambassador, and it’s been a pleasure to meet and work with him on that programme.

Sunlight is an inspiring place, and is growing really fast: a network of cafes is stretching through the Medway Towns in Kent, and, most recently, they won the contract to provide all the catering in the new Medway Council building: so there is a social enterprise serving up all the lunches, coffees etc in the heart of the local authority. The original Gillingham site is also piloting a range of other initiatives, including a music studio, a radio station, parenting workshops, community gardening and so on…..

It’s hugely impressive and a good kick up the arse for those who become occasionally jaded and cynical (this is my arse I’m kicking) about what these types of organisation can achieve. Whilst Peter and I agree that it is about the people, leadership, quality of service, transparency of operation etc that brings success, the CIC model clearly has brought Sunlight benefits; with freer governance, but also the badging / recognition that it brings.

Peter himself is one of those genuinely inspiring blokes; not only because of his energy and enthusiasm, but also because he is fired up and passionate about Sunlight being the best it can be, and about making a difference in what is a hard, tough business. It is a professional outfit, but also remains passionate and personal(ised)…which is a great achievement. Though he made me feel like he’d done more that morning than I had done in the past two weeks, I left inspired: take the concepts and thoughts, and start to deliver.

Charlie Leadbeater referred to a headteacher friend of his who labelled himself a ‘pragmatopian’, in that he had kept his utopian ideal of the power of education, but had had to do inspite of (and weaving through) the national curriculum, Keystages, league tables etc. It’s a horrible neologism, but I think Peter is one too: pragmatic and entrepreneurial, but with values written through everything he does.

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