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Archives for March 2010

People in Policy Land

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Until people in policy-land stop implying that there are things called communities which can be called on to voice an opinion and take uncontested collective action that will be acceptable to the state, we’re going to see neither genuine empowerment nor meaningful co-delivery

Kevin Harris

Good stuff – and one of the reasons why I believe that the development of community is contingent on the development of people and their self interest.  Once individuals are clear on what matters, and what they are going to do in pursuit of it, then community starts to emerge as people associate in pursuit of shared interests and exchange.

Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. ‘Tis profitable for us both that I shou’d labour with you today, and that you shou’d aid me tomorrow. I have no kindness for you, and know that you have as little for me. I will not, therefore, take any pains on your account; and should I labour with you on my account, I know I shou’d be disappointed, and that I shou’d in vain depend upon your gratitude. Here then I leave you to labour alone: You treat me in the same manner. The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests for want of mutual confidence and security.

David Hume 1711-1776

An Enterprise Escalator? No Thanks! Give Me a Sherpa Instead

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Kevin Horne is the CEO of Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Services (NWES) ‘one of the leading business support organisations’ in the UK.  NWES is a members of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies and Kevin has written a piece drawing attention to the NFEA’s Enterprise Manifesto.

Kevin goes on to describe the ‘Enterprise Escalator’ which provides a ‘comprehensive customer journey’, comprising:

  • Outreach and awareness raising.
  • Pre-start advice.
  • Start-up training.
  • One to one support.
  • Access to finance.
  • Mentoring.
  • Networking.

On the surface, good sensible stuff.  But it perpetuates a myth.  The ‘escalator’ implies that, if start up is right for me, I just have to get on and I will effortlessly ascend to the next level.  It is a false promise.  It is the enterprise fairytale.  Real world is less ‘escalator’ and more ‘snakes and ladders’.  Less gentle trip to the shopping centre and more laying siege to the mountain.  It is life making work.

And what if it is not right for me?  Kevin rightly suggest that we need to signpost to other services – but will any of those really help?  I have seen too many people with aspiration and potential be sent back to the job centre because the job of helping them find their enterprising feet will just take too long.  It won’t fit with the neatly packaged funded services that look to provide a start up fast track.

Perhaps we should offer an enterprise sherpa service.  Someone who has managed the ascent before – but who has also, on occasion, failed.  Someone who recognises that this is a risky endeavour and needs to be carefully managed if it is not to cause damage.  Someone who can recognise when the time is right to push for the summit and when the time is right to do more training and preparation at low levels.

If we are to engage people in communities then we have to engage them ‘where they are at’.  Some will already have made it to base camp and are hungrily eyeing the peak.  It might not quite be an escalator but we can certainly pass them the oxygen, clip them onto the fixed ropes and wish them luck.

But many remain in the valleys and seldom look to the cloud covered tops.

We have to personalise our services and we have to recognise that many are not yet close to being  ready to start a business – now is not the time to launch an assault for the summit – but instead to weigh up the pros and cons of even considering a short trek.

Different people are at different places.

Some will be highly motivated but with few skills.  Others will have skills (that they often don’t recognise) but little or no motivation.  Some will have neither motivation nor skill. A precious few will have both.

The real ‘enterprise’ challenge is to engage those who have already decided that the ‘labour market’ is not for them and to encourage them to reconsider what they can do with their lives.  It is about reconnecting them to their aspirations, helping them to find belief and confidence and finding ways in which they can unstick their lives and make progress.  It is about helping them to see that their is an enterprise journey that might be right for them.  Can we cost effectively extend our sherpa service to engage and inspire them?  What are the costs of not doing so?  This should be the realm of the enterprise coach.

It is often a protracted job that requires a long term, strong, supportive, challenging, trusting and non-judgemental relationship.  It is not about the ‘Enterprise Fairytale’ and fast start ups.  It is about the hard work of developing people and helping them to find ways to dare to move forward again.

I wonder if Enterprise Agencies have the skill and commitment to required to develop an enterprise based service that will really start where many people are at?

Self Interest as the Starting Point for Community

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In my community development work I am, on occasion, criticised for putting individual self interest right ‘up front and centre’.  I honestly believe that until individuals are clear on what they REALLY want, in which direction progress lies for them they cannot effectively learn to associate and community cannot be built.

Robert M. Pirsig in his classic Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance which I first read 25 years ago and have recently re-read says this:

I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not to talk about relationships of a political nature, which is inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another, or with programs full of things for other people to do.  I think that kind of approach starts it at the end and presumes that the end is the beginning.  Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right.  The social values are right only if the individuals values are right.  The place to improve the world is first on one’s own heart and head and hands and then work outward from there.  Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind.  I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle.  I think that what I have to say has more lasting value.

This then is the focus of my work on working with individuals as the starting point of a process of community development.  Clarifying self interest. Pursuing ‘good work’ with head, heart and hands. Then, and only then working on association and mutuality in pursuit of collectively negotiated self interest.

Good communities are a product of good people.  And good people are a product of their own good work.

Enterprise Show 2010

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Enterprise Show Poster in Leeds

Enterprise Show is on its way to town again.

Wasn’t it this couple, on this setee who featured in last years adverts for the Enterprise Show?

I wonder if they will ever start….

And  ‘We’ve got all you need to know in ONE day‘ ….

You show me an entrepreneur who says they learned all they need to know in ONE DAY and I will show you a liar.

Now where is that number for advertising standards…

Networking or Notworking?

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‘Business’ networking seems to have stalled somewhat in this part of the world at least.

The referral networks like BNI merrily do their stuff and, judging by the sheer number of imitations that spring up, must be making money and providing value.  But there is more to business development than referrals and sales.

Then there are the publicly funded networks that seem to be ever more reliant on celebrity entrepreneurs telling their story to large groups, usually with limited Q&A sessions where perhaps 5% of the audience get involved.  The audience is usually entertained, sometimes informed and often well fed by the taxpayer.  The host organisation collects lots of ticks in the ‘business assists’ box and we move on.  Personally I enjoy them – but from a business development perspective I am not convinced about their practical value.

Last night at the Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre in Halifax (a superb facility with PLENTY of space for new or growing businesses – no surprise that occupancy seems to be an issue) I’d guess over 100 people gathered to hear local girl ‘done good’ Linda Barker (Changing Rooms, I’m a Celebrity…) tell her story.  She was fine. It made a pleasant change to have someone spontaneous and not ‘over rehearsed’ in her delivery.  Linda was. I thought, natural, engaging and clearly pleased to be on home turf.  The room was full.  Vernon, our Business Link host, managed proceedings well and the sandwiches were excellent.  He never missed a chance to promote Business Link.  I did notice that Linda got her business advice from a ‘full blown Harvard MBA’ with a solid background in venture capital – rather than Business Link London.

This was the 10th event in the region in 10 days to mark ‘Creative, Digital and Cultural Week’ or something like that!  That could be seen as a wonderful boost of knowledge and opportunities to a key sector, or (but only an old cynic would think this way) a push to get the numbers up and on track with targets.  Either way it does feel a bit like the London Bus syndrome…

Personally, I think the time is right to move networking to the next level.  As Henry Ford once said ‘Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Instead of passive ‘learning’ from celebrity anecdote, followed by polite but generally superficial conversations over sandwiches and cake we should invoke more powerful and inclusive methodologies for learning and building commitment to real business change.  I have some partly formed ideas of how this might be done…

We should use ‘networking’ to start getting local businesses to ‘showcase’ themselves and their challenges and to seek support, advice and guidance from their peers.  Perhaps in the course of an evening a 2 or 3 businesses could make a brief presentation on the ‘who, what, how and why’ of their business.  But they should also have to present a challenge or opportunity that they are currently facing and their analysis of the way forward.  Perhaps a live or recently completed assignment that presented challenges?  Other networkers could then be asked (perhaps in small groups) to review the issue from different perspectives, to ask what else might be done, how else might the challenge be addressed?

From a diverse group are bound to come diverse solutions.  But diversity is another challenge I would throw down to event organisers.  We need to get the digital, cultural  and creative types working with the money people, the marketers and manufacturers – instead of hiving off networking tribes by Standard Industrial Classification codes.  The Law of Requisite Variety is one of my favourites!  But I know the Regional Economic Strategy wants ‘clusters’….

The best ideas and insights would get surfaced for the benefit of the whole group.  Last weeks ‘bettakulture‘ event at Temple Works in Leeds might provide some clues.

I would also have a web 2.0 infrastructure to support networking between meet ups – personally I would not build another ‘web portal’ (sorry Ha), but would use existing platforms including twitter, facebook, ning groups, blogs etc. We really do not need to spend money on web design – just learn how to collectively exploit what is already out there.

Such processes would demonstrate the benefits of networking and collaboration around problem solving.  It would also allow patterns of emerging problems and opportunities to be identified and addressed.  More participants would actually get to meet each other and contribute.  Significant value could be created.  Of course it would mean that we need to get our grey cells into gear instead of gawping at a celebrity from the passivity of our conference chairs…but isn’t that the point of business?

Of course it is likely that numbers might drop off considerably.  Whereas 100 plus turn up to hear a celebrity speak we might get only a dozen who are really seeking to collaborate and add value to their business – but frankly the only people that will worry are those with boxes to tick.  Many will not come near networking events as they are currently constituted because they consider them an entertainment rather than an education.  And, as they say, ‘other forms of entertainment are available’.

So let  us not worry too much about quantity but instead focus on quality – and let’s design some networking processes that deliver real value.  People will soon get on board when word of mouth gets out that there is something interesting going on.

If we want to learn the ‘real life’ stories of celebrity entrepreneurs there are always other ways and means!

In all things balance.  I am not suggesting we should not have any more celebrity gigs (just imagine the damage that would do to the mushrooming professional speakers circuit) – but let us offer clear progression routes so that those who are looking to get down to business development with and for our peers are able to do so.

What do you think?

Oh!  I forgot to mention Linda is twitterer – @ReallyLinda  But she follows nobody!  Perhaps her Harvard MBA needs to look at her SM strategy?