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Our lovely government, specifically Department of Business Innovation and Skills has put together a new ‘coaching for high growth programme’ that handled with care, by the right SME, might even be helpful.
Well worth having a look at the coaching for high growth programme….
This was at the heart of the debate of the Inner South Leeds Area Committee meeting recently.
In short, our residents die too early, our streets are full of fast food take-aways, our air is polluted by the motorway and we need a new sports centre.
What should we do about it?
We will put health at the heart of local government and tackle it…
This is classic Visions of the Anointed Stuff!
I can be pretty sure that if I knocked on 1000 doors in south Leeds and asked ‘what keeps you awake at night’, or ‘what is it that really stops you from living the way you would want?’, not many would say,’Well, if only I could live as long as those folk in leafy north Leeds, or even those exotic southerners in Kensington and Chelsea!’ (K&C has the highest life expectancy of any local authority in the UK I believe).
These are the concerns of the health professionals and the public health statisticians. They are not the everyday concerns of local residents. And, if we want to do meaningful development work we have to start with these everyday concerns. Of course if we wish to build service empires around the ‘healthy living’ agenda…
We also know that the real determinants of longevity are, at root, not based in health, but poverty. Raise disposable incomes, raise educational attainment, help people build lives of meaning and dignity and they will live longer. This hints at the need for a more systemic understanding of quality of life in the city and more person centred approaches to development rather than just getting funding for some more smoking cessation and cancer screening services. We need to work with potentials and aspirations not just problems.
One councillor got close to the mark when he said we must put more effort into the education of children and young families. But this must be education of a very particular kind. An education that is not led by a curriculum but by the very real concerns of local people. An education that is not driven through the traditional mechanisms of schooling and assessment but on the streets. And what about the rest? How do we offer them real opportunities for change – IF that is what they want?
The outrage at the number of fast food shops in South Leeds is understandable. Lots of fast food, bookmakers, pawn shops and off-licences no doubt, because these are the legal, affordable ‘pleasures’ of the poor. No doubt there are plenty of illegal ones too. These are not the causes of poverty and early mortality – but the symptoms. These are the industries that have learned to profit from the poor. Danone and Grameen are learning how to do the same but supplying yogurt rather than alcohol. Perhaps they offer us some clues? Closing down the bookies, off-licences and credit shops would be like excising chicken pox with a knife. Its just going to leave nasty scars and not deter the pox. The fast food outlets and the bookies did not make people poor and susceptible to an early death. They are there because people are poor and unhealthy! Planning restrictions on peoples pleasures are not the way forward.
Nor will building sports centres or ventilating the motorway help. The challenge of regeneration is primarily one of psychology rather than physiology and infrastructure. Until individuals and communities change the way they see themselves, as full of potential and possibility rather than full of problems (obesity, cancer, addiction, unwanted pregnancies etc) then we can build all the facilities we like and they will not be used by the people we most want to help.
Instead of using twin track Leeds statistics to argue for further investment in infrastructure, sports centres, swimming pools, clinics and whatever other ‘solutions’ our respective empires can offer, we should use this opportunity to shut up, listen carefully and respond with all our might to local residents who want to make a difference in their own lives and the lives of those who they love.
Get that ball rolling and things might just start to change.
“What I want is someone who will do what I tell them to.”
“What I want is someone who works cheap.”
“What I want is someone who shows up on time and doesn’t give me a hard time.”
So if this is what the boss really wants, how come the stars in the company don’t follow these three rules?
From Seth Godin’s Linchpin
This is the title of an interesting post by Adrian Ashton over at Social Enterprise.
Adrian cites major problems with both pay and prospects with 60% of those working in the sector expecting to leave it within the next 5 years.
there are various strategies and policies around how social enterprise is going to save the world, but in all the hype and excitement we must be careful to remember that it can only do so if our people feel valued in doing so and we can retain them for the journey.
So social enterprises must join the ‘War for Talent‘.
At the heart of talent acquisition and retention is a single, simple question. What is our winning Employee Value Proposition (EVP)? What value can we offer employees that means they will join us, stay and develop their impact?
And this is where the social enterprise sector has a potential significant advantage over many for profits. But an advantage that many social enterprises squander.
A social enterprise can offer meaning, purpose, authenticity (the chance to do what I am ‘meant’ to be doing, to express who I really am through my contribution – to do ‘good’ work) and impact. It is not about pursuing profits but pursuing social justice. About building a better world. Make sure that you build this into your EVP and there will be no problem retaining top people – even if you are not paying top dollar.
But I see many social enterprises lose sight of their purpose. They become more interested in writing finding applications than in the pursuit of social justice. They will do whatever the funders ask them to – even if this makes them dependent and compliant. Working in the best interests of the funder rather than in the best interests of those whom they are meant to serve.
If social enterprise is to have a future then managers and leaders in the sector must learn how to:
They need to become Progressive Managers.
We all have days, sometimes weeks, months even years when our enthusiasm and love for life is not as high as we want it to be. Don’t we?
We all suffer bouts of ‘passion depletion’.
In my world ‘passion’ is not just about enthusiasm, love and enjoyment. It is also a measure of suffering – as in ‘the passion of Christ’.
It is a measure of how much suffering we are prepared to put up with to pursue that which we love. It is linked to the question ‘Are you willing to pay the price for the success that you desire?’ What will you put up with, put at risk in order to pursue your dream? How many hours of practice, research, writing, planning and thinking?
In this formulation ‘passion depletion’ (now meaning a reduction in the amount of suffering you are prepared to put up with in order to pursue your goals) is a sign that you are falling out of love with your original goal. Perhaps there is something else that you would rather suffer for?
It maybe a very positive sign that ‘new doors’ are opening.
I know that this formulation about suffering is not popular, but for me it does reflect more of the truth of day to day life and professional and private practice. It provides me with a useful benchmark against which to gauge my life choices.
When some of your team seem to have ‘passion depletion’ it might be telling you, and them, something important.
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