The School for Social Entrepreneurs

Interns, enterns and the ripple effect

One side-effect of the recession / rising unemployment might potentially be a rise in the number of graduates seeking work experience, as fewer will be going straight into work. Whether this begins to correspond to a rise in internships at different organisations will be interesting to see. Interns have been on my mind of late, since Jamie Veitch's excellent blog post over at New Start: "Interns: make tea for free, get a job (maybe)". The crux of his argument is as follows:

"It always struck me as ironic that an organisation devoted to social inclusion should perpetuate a system whereby only those with the means to work for free could gain the experience they needed to get a proper job in the sector."

I would pretty much agree with this. From an organisational point of view, though, as I commented on the post, the flipside is that if you hold rigorously to this value set (around social inclusion) you can actually lose out on fresh thinking, additional capacity etc etc. in comparison with other agencies in the field.For an organisation like SSE, with a core staff team of around 10, one person can make a substantial impact. The person who's set up the interesting Enternships site (Rajeeb Dey) clearly agrees.

We've dipped our toe in the water, as regular readers of the blog will know, with an intern-ing relationship with a college in Minnesota, St Olaf....particularly with their Center for Experiential Learning, because it shared a focus on action learning, entrepreneurship and social innovation. For the last two Januarys, we've had an intern from St Olaf (Thor and then Hannah), and I think it's been a mutually beneficial experience in terms of learning, contribution to SSE, and development (on both sides). Both utilised the university's travel fund to make it happen.

As the person managing them internally, it's been great to maintain the relationship afterwards and to continue conversations about where they are heading job and career-wise. Both have influenced the development of things back at St Olaf, and also kept in contact throughout. Thor is coming back to work for us this summer for 3 months (and we're paying him this time...), whilst Hannah is applying to work with a large US non-profit financial institution, Thrivent Financial. Both of which I'm delighted about, and happy to support with references or advice or whatever.

Are we helping perpetuate disadvantage by taking internships in this way? I don't think we are in this case, and there is also the broader point that, as Matt Stevenson-Dodd has written recently, this movement also needs to attract the high educational achievers. But we similarly can't be complacent about using processes that reinforce advantage and inequality. Perhaps there is room for a supported internship scheme, or sponsored internship bursaries, in this sector to ensure that doesn't happen.

Human bandwidth

Human bandwidth is a new term for me, which somebody used in conversation yesterday. They meant it specifically in relation to being able to deal with the amount of information that flows into our inboxes, TV sets, radio stations, newsfeeds.....but I think it's a useful, more general way of thinking about our own personal capacity to do things, or process them. Or, as this post puts it, "what can you eliminate from your routine?"

Which, given that there seems to be an increasing trend for deadlines around the Christmas period, resonates strongly with me at the moment.

Longer posts to follow when bandwidth increases.....

Clearing your head, and getting headspace

This great, rambling (in a good way) post from Sam Conniff, one of the Social Enterprise Ambassadors got me thinking about how a de-junking process can both bring things to light (that document halfway down the pile with URGENT! scrawled on it), spark ideas, and help clear the decks for a new beginning. The irony of this is that I am perennially awful at doing this, so my desk usually looks like an explosion in an origami factory. When I do clear it, it's inevitably more beneficial psychologically / mentally than in any improved administrative efficiency.

[my desk at its neatest; large piles to left and right obscured in photo]

Anyway, Sam's post is entitled "So I spent the day today clearing seven years of shit out of my office", but you could also end that with "....out of my head", and there's some great (and very funny) stuff in there:

- "now we have the case studies, the client base and proof of the business and social benefits of our approach, seven years ago we just had some really crazy folding, flapping cardboard props we’d produced in a moment of madness"

- "whilst there was no mention of ‘Social Enterprise’ in any of the old papers I was going through, the ideals, the ambitions and the emphasis of everything we were trying to achieve was clearly all heading towards the place we know are in"

- "to start a charity [the Livity Trust] that opened it’s doors with £50k in the bank from the UK music industry to fund disadvantaged kids to take on work placements at independent record labels was yet another seven year lesson that being ‘flexible’ makes business sense"

When I wrote "SSE will co-ordinate the Ambassador blogs" in our project proposal as one of the partners in this scheme, this is exactly what I hoped would be the result. Unfettered, direct, passionate, insightful communication from someone who wasn't much known in this world a year ago. And for Sam (who I'll ask in a few weeks time), I hope it's been equally beneficial: as an archive, a place to communicate freely, and as a way of clearing headspace.

And for me, I'm inspired...and off to tidy the desk.

Eco-friendly office printing

Inspired by Greenpeace's new EfficienCity, I have been trying to cut down on my printing in the office; although we do all the stuff you'd expect (double -sided, re-use of one-sided, recycling cartridges), my big problem was with widows and orphans...the unwanted few lines + images which cause you to print another page.

Delightfully, I can recommend GreenPrint World, a free bit of software (endorsed by a whole range of US eco non-profits) which you select as your default printer. It basically introduces on extra stage between pressing Print and the printer starting to whirr; at this stage it offers you the option of cutting off extraneous pages, removing images (great for website ads) and removing unnecessary text. Best of all, it keeps a running total of how many pages you've saved, and how much money this has saved you/your organisation. You can use it in your office if it's not for 'commercial' purposes, and use it at home as well.

Takes a bit of getting used to, but very useable once you get going. Their special font, on the other hand, I'm not quite as sold on....but you can't have everything.

Why SMART goals are MT

No matter what type of organisation you work for or lead, the acronym SMART will most likely have crossed your path several times by now. For me, it’s popped up in government tenders (“demonstrate how your deliverables are SMART for your programme of work”), funding applications (“your project outcomes should be SMART”) and several times within SSE, be that operationally or strategically.

So what does it stand for? Well, this is where the problems start, as there are a few variations. The most widely accepted seems to be:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time-based

But the A can also be for Attainable, the R can be Relevant or Results-oriented, and the T can also be Tangible, depending on which management bible or “how to act SMART” guide you read.

While investigating effective goal-setting in one-to-ones, I ran across the Manager Tools podcast, and these posts about goal-setting and why SMART is anything but. This made much sense to me, and chimed with some stuff I’d previously thought about this widely-used tool. Their objections include:

1)  You don’t need Specific, because if your goal/target is measurable, it must be specific (enough) anyway. Let’s get rid of the S.

2) Achievable and Realistic are virtually the same. If you make the R Results-oriented, that’s pretty much there in Measurable. And who’s going to set, or be allowed to set by their line manager/colleague, a goal that isn’t Relevant? That’s the R gone.

3) The same applies to Achievable / Attainable. If someone is setting a Measurable goal or objective, and they’re putting a deadline on it (Time-bound), then why would they make it unachievable? It’s in no-one’s interests to do so, either the person who has to achieve the goal, or the line manager who wants the organisation to achieve the goal. And so, A is gone.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us MT, people. And full of clarity and focus. As long as we use Time-based (or Time-bound, which I prefer). Tangible makes little sense to me: a) because how can you touch your goal / achievement and b) because how can you have a goal that isn’t Time-based (i.e. without a deadline)?

So it’s Measurable and Time-based. And if you select a Measurable and Time-based goal, you’ll find it is pretty SMART as well. That’s because MT is the heart of SMART.

Intern-ment

Whilst reading about Derek Conway and the other MPs paying their own family for internships and work experience (even the Third Sector got briefly drawn in), I got thinking about how this related to the use of interns by third sector organisations, particularly in the fields of policy and research. As regular readers of this blog will know, SSE recently had an intern over from St Olaf College in Minnesota, which was pretty much an unqualified success. Using volunteers in this way can clearly make a substantial difference to an organisation like SSE whose capacity is still relatively small, if growing. And (I think) it can be a genuine win-win, with significant personal development, learning and contacts/networks for the intern in question.

The problem, which we have debated a fair bit internally, is how to ensure that this doesn’t run counter to our other principles: namely, the need for diversity in the third sector, the need for entrants and new leaders to come up from the grassroots as well as from the 'grad-routes'. For, inevitably, for someone to take a full-time three-month position at an organisation in (usually) London, unpaid with (possibly) some expenses, they have to have support from elsewhere. This is usually parental, either in the form of direct monetary support, or in the form of free rent & board. Or they are in university full-time and can afford not to work during some of their holidays. Generally (and this is a generalisation), these means of support skew the potential intake to those with a more privileged or well-off background.

So how can we ensure internships go to a real cross-section, to the best people regardless of background? Clearly, bursaries and sponsorship is one way: some universities arrange placements and support expenses, such as identifying cheaper accommodation or directly paying expenses. In Thor’s case, this meant that he could afford to not do his restaurant manager job for a month in the holidays, and come to SSE.

But how to also extend these opportunities further out? Our neighbours Operation Black Vote recently won an award for an interesting shadowing scheme which focuses on political internships / work experience, precisely to avoid the old-boy networks we see continuing in those establishments;  these might provide a useful model; or something along the lines of this scheme, Leaders Together. Maybe there is a case for something similar in the third sector: funded internships that take the burden off the organisation and the individual to find the money to make it possible, and allow for a broader, more diverse intern network. Happy to hear of any such initiatives or ideas: there could be a social enterprise in this....

Pre-Christmas social entrepreneurship round-up

Almost the last blog of the year, methinks, so a round-up of all the news and views from the past couple of weeks in the world of social enterprise and entrepreneurship....and general affiliated stuff. Long overdue, through a combination of ill health, deadlines and travel, so here goes:

- I was at SSE Liverpool last Thursday, and it was great to see the progress the students have made, and that the SSE itself is making, under the guidance of Sylvia Pearson and Claire Dove at Blackburne House. And, of course, I must report the news that Claire is the new Chair of the Social Enterprise Coalition: great news, and a real signal of intent from SEC.

- 5 tips for socially responsible start-ups includes "Don't let your mission cloud your vision", although being the Xmas season, there's probably a few other things clouding the vision right now...

- Rod Schwartz has some interesting reflections from Catalyst's latest conference for Social Business CEOs

- Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but Barack Obama called for a "social entrepreneur agency to make sure that small non-profits have the same kind of support that we give small businesses" in a recent speech; see you in Washington

- Bill Drayton of Ashoka is named one of America's top 25 leaders, along with Oprah, of course

- Stifle that yawn: the quest to be the new Facebook / MySpace / LinkedIn / social network of this sector/movement continues; see this article on Razoo, this article on MyCharityPage (the sector's Facebook apparently, although if the site was up and running, it might be easier to judge...) and UnLtdWorld, which is now opening up; reviews to follow in the New Year.

- Jeff Trexler is always readable, wherever he's blogging, and his post on Social Enterprise and the Recency Illusion is well worth your time: "What is new...is not so much the underlying structure as our awareness of the metaphor itself". Quite.

- Rob Greenland has kicked up a debate about bottom-up (in communities) vs. top-down (outside of communities) regeneration via a post on Ernesto Sirolli. Check out the comments....

- The Council for Social Action met for the first time....

And finally, for all those working with a miserable colleague this winter (i.e. anyone working with me this past week), check out Work Happy: 25 tips to improve your mood when people around you are miserable

Death by PowerPoint

I was at a conference a while back where I sat through so many dreadful PowerPoint presentations, that I considered setting up a PowerPoint training social enterprise on the side. Not that mine are paragons of presentational virtue, but these were the lowest of the low. My recipe for death by powerpoint is achieved as follows:

- give out a handout of your presentation at the start (so everyone reads it before you start)
- include lots of text on every slide (so people read it and don't listen to you...unless they're still reading the handout)
- read the text out word for word (the text that the audience have just read on the handout and/or on the slide before you started speaking)

Then stir in some additional ingredients (sound effects, animations, unreadable fonts, background images) and leave to simmer for absolutely ages....as the person has not rehearsed and has no idea that they won't be able to do 54 slides in 30 minutes.

Ok, rant over. But presentations are an important part of social entrepreneurs' work these days (indeed, lots of people's...), and it's worth addressing this. Powerpoint is not a teleprompter or a data dump (or a support mechanism for you being nervous), but a means to an end: to allow you to communicate and, yes, sell what you do with passion. If it's getting in the way of you communicating, engaging, involving, enthusing, attracting attention for you/your organisation, then you shouldn't use it (or start to use it differently). Many of the most powerful presentations at SSE graduation events have been by those who simply spoke without any slides, and, despite advice to the contrary, the less successful ones often use more features of PowerPoint than I knew existed. [for those present, the one that machine-gunned the letters across the slide will remain with them forever]

If you have written on the slide the words you want to say out loud, you can probably remove them and replace with a one word heading. If you haven't thought about how it's structured (and how it looks to someone from the outside), then you need to. If you haven't rehearsed it, it almost certainly will take longer than you think it currently does. If you've used all the colours of the rainbow (my personal weakness), you should pick 2 or 3 and stick to them. If you love ClipArt, get over it and use some proper photos. If you love bullet points (another personal weakness), go "beyond bullets". If you love "those curly fonts", change them to Arial or Helvetica or something readable from a distance.

There's a bunch of resources on how to avoid "evil" or "really bad" powerpoints (people get quite passionate about this stuff) in the SSE bookmarks / current reading. Feel free to send in your own, and any horror stories to share in the comments....

This presentation, by contrast, is absolute genius:

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Swearing reduces stress and builds the team

I'm a sucker for oddball bits of research that somehow get funded and then make their way through to the real world (check out previous Ig Nobel winners for some gems like "Sword Swallowing and its Side Effects" and "Why woodpeckers don't get headaches"). Last week, a marvellous bit of leadership / workplace-related research came to light, with the title of "Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable".

Basically, the research says that letting people swear can both reduce stress and also improve a sense of solidarity in the workplace. As this news item reported, the study stated that:

"Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner. Swearing was [seen] as a social phenomenon to reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness, or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress"

Obviously, this isn't encouraged in front of customers (or, one might add, trustees / directors). As the Guardian adds somewhat needlessly, "But great care is needed. Swearing that is discriminatory is out. Employers have a duty of care so that staff have a reasonable working environment."

Needless to say, the SSE office is blasphemy and expletive-free.

Preventing entrepreneur burnout

It seems appropriate to write about avoiding burnout whilst working from home (sorry, 'telecommuting') due to a heavy cold that has now done the rounds of the office. I was reminded of the perennial subject by this extensive post by Britt Bravo, entitled Do-Gooder Burnout: How Do You Beat the Burn?. It reports that most young entrants to the third sector leave because of a) low pay and b) burnout. I think something similar could be found with social entrepreneurs (a leadership subset of those new entrants), though it might be phrased as a) no pay and b) overstretching. These relate directly to the entrepreneurial characteristics we seek in our students: risk and responsibility; on our current programmes, there are people who have given up secure jobs, and even sold homes to do what they believe in.

What this means, though, is that looking after themselves is absolutely crucial: to refer back to the leadership advice from the event last week: problems at work often relate to ones at home, and support networks are key. This is written through what SSE does like a stick of rock: indeed, the first act on joining the programme is to meet 15-20 people going through the same thing. Action learning sets, tutors and mentors all provide routes to seek support and advice as well...and the personal no less than the organisational.

Interestingly, much of Britt's post focuses on what the individual can do in terms of direct actions (learn to say no, learn to let go, do-delegate-or-dump, etc), a lot of which is worth reading. It does also mention "intensive self-care" and encourages "nonprofit selfishness" time....but seems to miss out that developing support networks at work and home should be central for any entrepreneur. Sometimes it can seem like a mantra, but no one person (despite the 'heroic individual' myths) can do everything alone, nor be everything to everyone. Talk to people; share problems; eat well; turn off e-mail in the mornings; and cut down your to-do list to the three you can do today. ;0)

Now having ignored all of those, it's back to work....