Leaders of all ages

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The blog has been a little quiet of late as I've been travelling around, establishing some sort of weekly record of combined air and rail miles over the last week or so (Belfast, Beijing, Penzance and Nottingham). Highlights have included meeting the first cohort of students at SSE Cornwall (they survived my evaluation session successfully), hearing Nigel Kershaw talk in Stormont about how he first met our CEO Alastair Wilson at SSE ("this snotty, spotty young Scot rambled on to me….and now he's the boss!") and meeting the SSEI alumni, and hearing about the expansion of the Skills 4 Social Entrepreneurs taster programme to four tier 2 Chinese cities.

In between all of that (and there's much else to catch up on in a forthcoming round-up), I hosted a London Business School delegation of international business / government leaders, along with two SSE Fellows: Kiran Nihalani (a recent SSE Fellow) who runs Unspent Convictions CIC, and Andy Walker, who runs Southside Young Leaders Academy. We always like to showcase Fellows with different projects from different backgrounds and, in the case of Andy and Kiran, different genders and ages as well. It made for a fascinating session: Kiran's focused passion and energy borne out of her frustration with the work she had been doing and the status quo; Andy's renewed vigour and commitment at having found a new passion after a career of work. I'd urge you to check both their organisations out, and contact them; in a sense, both are working with young people excluded or marginalised from society (or at risk of being so), be that young boys aged 8 causing trouble in class, or young offenders not being given the chance to apply their resourcefulness in positive ways.

A particular hit with the delegation was the video from Andy's project, which hears from some of the boys his organisations works with; check it out:

International social entrepreneurship

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GIBideas Our focus of late at SSE has been pretty relentlessly on our existing and planned activities in the UK; following the government investment in the national network back in February, our Network team have been working hard with our regional partners to get everything in place for the expanded delivery: staff and student recruitment, match funding, agreements with partners, marketing materials, etc etc And the fruits of those labours can be seen in the list of regional schools down the side of the website, which now features Devon, Hampshire and Yorkshire (NB – so new, they don't all have full details up yet!). Hugely exciting and even more so as we recruit students and start the programmes later in the year.

And that UK work and track record over the last decade and more has given us a robust replicable package to work with and created a great deal of interest in the methodology abroad. As regular blog readers will know, our SSE programme in Sydney is our first international pilot, and it has been very rewarding for all over here to see significant time and effort pay off with the first group of Antipodean social entrepreneurs gaining support and development. And to get practically involved: I'm Skype-ing the programme manager over there about an evaluation session tomorrow morning, for example. And we have learned a lot this side in the process, both for our ongoing, current UK work, and for any further international SSEs.

One thing I think is most interesting about our franchise system (I never thought I'd start a sentence with that) is that it is rigorous enough to deliver consistency / quality assurance, but also has enough flexibility to be tailored to different local, regional or national contexts. So what excites us here is learning and adopting new innovations and improvements from our international (and UK) partners, and sharing them back round the franchise. In this way, I hope that, whilst gaining maximum impact from our central expertise and experience, we are not doing so in a neo-colonial type way (UK knows best etc), but in a mutually-beneficial one. Then we can avoid the worst of what Rod Schwartz has been highlighting in his Social Edge debate: Are the only innovations in social entrepreneurship Anglo-Saxon?

And it's exciting to see how social entrepreneurship is spreading into different contexts and more mainstream institutions. Take today's announcement of the British Council planning to boost 10,000 social entrepreneurs worldwide, focusing particularly on East Asia, China and south-east Europe. I'm delighted because we've been working with BC in various guises, including helping on the design of a pilot skills for social entrepreneurs programme in Beijing, and they've now got buy-in centrally to push the work on. Which can only be good news for those of us who think that social entrepreneurship is part of the solution, regardless of your background or which country you're in.

Thursday round-up: CEOs, Clore, Kevin and Kiva

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Kevin 07 It's been a little while since the last round-up, so here goes:

– First up the big, breaking news is that Jonathan Bland is stepping down as CEO of the Social Enterprise Coalition, moving to Finland with his (Finnish) wife. Whilst, inevitably, there have been disagreements and criticisms of the Coalition in the last 6 years, as with all membership bodies, it (and social enterprise) are certainly in a markedly different place to where they were starting out. Needless to say, there is much buzz and e-mails about who is likely to succeed him.

– The Clore Social Leadership Programme has launched; it's an interesting (if slightly unclear because very bespoke) offering, modelled on the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme…aimed primarily at potential leaders in the third sector, with 5 years experience of some sort…but that can include trustees, employees of existing orgs, volunteers etc. SSE endorses the approach (action learning sets, mentoring, duration etc), and will watch with interest…

– Great article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a current SSE Australia student's project: congrats on the feature Jenni; and congrats to the other SSE students (Frances Jamieson  and Kristina Karasulas) featured in the photo top left, meeting PM Kevin Rudd and pitching their projects to him.

– In other SSE-related news, Intelligent Giving (started by SSE Fellow Dave Pitchford) has appointed a new man in charge, Richard Marsh, formerly of the Impact Coalition. A good appointment, methinks. Speaking of which, check out the posts we're recruiting for on our homepage

– One of the many highlights of Shine 09 was meeting up with Charlotte from La Ruche, a Paris-based organisation that we've been working with on another project. Check out the site: it's a Hub-type initiative, but with the added bonus of being in the French capital….

– New ideas have to create value, otherwise it's unnovation not innovation; so says the neologising Umair Haque

– Enjoyed these 5 myths of entrepreneurship

– There's a new Guinness Philanthropy Fund for social entrepreneurs in Ireland, who will be ably assisted by our good friends over at Social Entrepreneurs Ireland. I'll drink to that, etc.

– Great round-up of social enterprise and social finance organisations in Canada by the amazing Tonya Surman.

– 38degrees wants to be the UK's MoveOn. The right people are involved to make it happen….

– [email protected] has a great post about Kiva which links to an article discussing their decisions about which legal structure to choose (amongst other interesting stuff); for comparison, check out this more critical view of Kiva's work (and micro-lending more generally) on Social Edge

– I can't remember if I linked to this before, but Paul Light is required (academic) reading on social entrepreneurship; check out his latest piece, Social Entrepreneurship revisited

– I should also have mentioned this already: much hyped and buzzed on twitter and the like, the Social Entrepreneur API mashes up the databases of Skoll, Ashoka and Civic Ventures and the like. Again, Nat has the best overview. I think it's a really interesting idea, although I worry that this (again) will channel more resources (of all types) to those who need it less. Wonder what a mashed-up UnLtd/SSE/Ashoka/CAN database API might look like over here (and what it would actually be used for….)?

Till next time……

Passion is important for social entrepreneurs, but what sort of passion?

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One of the things people talk about social entrepreneurs needing is passion. Although it's never entirely clear what is meant by that: something to do with being able to see it through the hard times (can't give it up because you feel so strongly about it), something to do with how you communicate what you do (and why it's needed), something about it coming from personal experience (sometimes), something about loving it….etc.etc

Stanford Social Innovation Review points to a forthcoming research article about understanding 'passion' a bit more in the entrepreneurial context. It differentiates between 'affective' passion (surface passion: facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice), 'cognitive passion' (revealed in your preparation, thoughtfulness, logic etc) and 'behavioral passion' (how have you demonstrated your commitment: investing own money, time; taken personal risk / responsibility etc). Their take on it is that 'affective passion' is not particularly successful at attracting funding and investment or gaining support. Rather it is the 'cognitive' and 'behavioral' passions which are more likely to do so.

Now the cynics may say that this is just a jazzy way of saying: you should really do your preparation and analysis and/or (in the case of the behavioral stuff) we want to see your commitment demonstrated. But I think there's something interesting here for social entrepreneurs, in that passion is not just about rousing, inspiring speeches…or moving people with the intensity of their story. It's also about turning up on time to meetings, preparing thoroughly, consistent commitment, being rigorous in approach to measurement and analysis, and so on. Indeed, for many, these are things they find difficult, so will only do if they are really passionate (in all the above meanings) about the organisation they are establishing and leading.

Benjamin Franklin said that "If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins"; what this research might say in addition, is that passion can be shown through rational thought and actions, not just emotional ones.

What the expenses scandal means for social entrepreneurs

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It was interesting to read today that the CEO of Barnardo's is going to publish his (and his senior management team's) expenses, on the back of the MP's expenses scandal. [NB – if you're an international / non-UK reader and this hasn't made your news, check out Wikipedia's current take (or any UK newspaper's website, frankly)] It's interesting, because it's the first I've read of the scandal having a direct impact in this sector. But there are real implications (and lessons), positive and negative, for social entrepreneurs and the broader third sector.

Firstly, it is about legitimacy, which is at the core of the social entrepreneur's journey, particularly in the earlier stages. They are not appointed to a job, nor elected to one, so have to earn (and learn) their legitimacy through their actions, through involving their community (+ stakeholders), and through learning and recognition from others. Like MPs, they are trusted to spend money and make decisions on how that money is spent, so transparency and value for money are also absolutely key. This row has only served to underline how important transparency and value for money are in the modern age (and especially the current climate); and it's shown how swiflty legitimacy can be lost through inappropriate actions.

What has also become clear from the MPs expenses row is that a set of rules are not enough to hardwire an ethical approach into being.The MPs soon realised that operating "within the rules" was not enough, and that it was also about operating in the "spirit" of those rules that was important. And, no matter how improved they are made, and how less flawed, and how much more scrutiny there is, a true change will also require a true change in the spirit of how the MPs approach their expenses. In the public and third sector alike, rules and regulations are important, as are transparency and measurement (value), but so is the spirit and motivation that drives the way in which things are done. What it boils down to, again, is that rules and regulations and legal boundaries only take you so far: it is the people, and their motivations and skills, which make it a success or a failure. This is as true in the social enterprise and charity world as in the world of politics.

Finally, it's interesting to note that, despite what Barnardo's has to do, scrutiny and accountability-wise, for its funders and regulators (eg. Charity Commission) and trustees, its CEO still identifies the need to do more. And I think what that signifies, after the collapse of trust in one set of institutions (our financial ones) and now the collapse of trust in another (the political world), is that the bar is effectively raised for all organisations in terms of transparency and honesty. But this is especially the case for organisations in the third sector, including those started and run by social entrepreneurs…where trust and legitimacy is so crucial to their work being effective and impactful.