Changethinking

Archive for the ‘management skills’ Category

Starting a new project? Starting a social business? Trying to get the enterprise element bootstrapped in your social enterprise?

When you are starting energy and enthusiasm are great to get you going. Your drive and commitment to your project will carry you a long way.

Then may come the sleepless nights as you worry about that bid, that meeting or that service delivery that might fail. Does that sound familiar?

Relax, other people feel just like that too. That crisp, curt, been there done that corporate presentation – just an embedded position to mask fear. The doomsayer, ‘wouldn’t do that now’ voice in the crowd – offering you ten reasons why not to do something, just a carapace to protect against hesitancy.

Over the years as our work has developed so has a natural philosophy of project development. They are approaches to our work. We call them SMP elementals…

1. Will what we do benefit others more than ourselves? (the general…)

2. Will there be an aggregate direct benefit to more people than on our project team? (the specific…)

3. In the doing, can we freely share some knowledge we already have? (the pro-bono…)

4. We need to invoice to continue the work, but will that paper totem represent our philosophy – did they get it whilst we were in motion? (the business…)

5. Does it feel right? (the personal…)

For me the last elemental is the most important. Early in my life journey I spent much time pursuing goals that always left me conflicted with our elementals. Even today we come across suspicion, clashing philosophies and indifference in reaction to social business ideas.

It is important to recognise this and to still keep going, in order to make your project live.

A recent deprecation of working in our sector overheard recently ‘…the liberal, perhaps Guardian reading, charity do-gooder voice you can hear…’ shows that there are still those out there who don’t get the concept of social entrepreneurship.

If, on reflection, you can vision a business model or a delivery system for your idea that uses business skills and ethical distribution strategies but which still means having fun and being effective, but which ‘feels right’, then your social enterprise concept is perfect by the lights of our SMP elementals.

This reflection, by Tim Smith – a partner at SMP, was spurred by viewing If I would have known just one thing. This eBook was created by Shane Mac and contains a series of thirty articles by business entrepreneurs about what they would have liked to have known on their life journey. Read more…

If you are just starting to get your project off the ground then Mac’s book is a great primer for framing your own resolution and developing clear thinking about your goals and your ability to deliver.

Doherty, Foster, Mason et al have produced a great primer for the person intent on mastering the management of social enterprise.

Published in 2009 the book Management for Social Enterprise contains a wide ranging and detailed analysis of many aspects of successful social enterprise management.

It combines not only operational advice, but also gives pointers across some of the ethical issues, corprorate tensions and community reactions that an emergent social enterprise can deliver.

There is also a strong section on financial management of social enterprises, which although created by academics scores well in terms of readability for the lay person. We recommend it.

You can find other books on social business on our SmithMartin ethical business book page…read more here.

Nathaniel Whittemore has just published an interesting reflection on the role of business practices in social entrepreneurship. His work appears on the change.org site.

The context of his article was a critique of the management consultancy McKinsey & Co. and their recent debate on whether the language of business is relevant in our sector.

His argument is summarised here…

…talking about “the language and practice of business” and assuming that is a monolith is sort of like talking about “the language and practice of nonprofits” and trying to lump community development initiatives, affordable housing, humanitarian relief, and undergraduate education all together. In other words, it just doesn’t work.

Running our own small business and trying to help others in a diverse range of communities of interest to start social businesses clearly places us well out of the orbit of McKinsey. However, the argument proposed in the change.org piece rings loud and clear to us.

Highly complex and detailed management reporting or business plans, and the knowledge of how to produce them, is clearly an important constituent in delivering effective change in a social business. It goes also to establishing credence and mission based objectives for any organisation.

However, at ground zero of delivery in a local community all strategic analysis and esoteric conceptualising is subservient to the immediacy of solving the current problem, the now of small things.

Not to cope with this aspect of a social business start-up will handicap its development from the earliest stage. We would argue that what makes for the most successfully entrepreneurial organisation is the embrace of theory and methodology BUT coupled to passion, drive and social reformation.

One of our partners, in describing our partnership philosophy, says that we are social radicals but fiscal conservatives.

Not sure that every team member would recognise the model as we believe state spending is an integral part of the enduring social contract, but a great truncation of a sophisticated and socially passionate set of drivers for any group of people who want to effect change – by interacting with diverse communities of interest and power.

As Whittemore has it…

…entrepreneurs in general tend to want every single tool they can get in their toolbox. They don’t want to limit themselves to only one approach simply because that’s what has been done before’.

This rings true to us – across the roundabout, under the bypass and into the community centre.

We have been reading our positive psychology manuals this week. We have a number of projects undertaking governance change and developing a positive culture, flat organisations without ego driven collateral damage and still have a leadership presence…never the most straightforward of transitions.

Simplistic  mantras and web lists can be a glib exercise, but from all cliche always emerges a hard nugget of truth.

So, about notions of behaviour and presence when leading and group of people? Do leaders emerge fully formed from the womb? We think not. The best ones learn from their experiences and determine their modes of behaviour from that experience.

Bullies move forward without reflection and their egotism and hard headedness can achieve results, or rather a result emerges, but perhaps not the one that the concensus would deem most appropriate.

In the Third Sector accrued collateral from experiences and developing relationships should be honesty, reflective action in line with the ethos of the organisation and positive outcomes in tune with the social master plan.

Here’s a list…

1. Be Open
2. Be Appreciative
3. Be Curious
4. Be Kind
5. Be Real – no false pretenses of positivity

We would add a number 6.

6. Do something unexpected.

That could be anything from buying the doughnuts on a Friday for the whole team, telling people – without asking – what music you’re currently listening to, or being the first up on the stage at karaoke nights.

This is not spilling your ego onto others, its inviting them into your mental landscape. Surprising and effective.

When  you ask the team to do the difficult thing, or undertake the more unexpected project plan…they’re more likely to come with you to storm the barricades. You see!

Our list from 1 to 5 came from a presentation by Dr. Barbara Fredrickson in an article for Positive Psychology News by Elaine O’Brian. Read more here.

Everybody in our organisation can be a better leader, whatever task they undertake.