This was one of the key points from the Enterprising Places Network event run by Enterprise UK in West Yorkshire yesterday:<\/p>\n
And, yes, bears do sometimes go to the\u00a0toilet\u00a0in the woods.<\/p>\n
Contrary to the\u00a0blog<\/a> and tweeting from the workshop (done in real time by a rep from the Enterprise UK PR company) for me at least the Enterprising Places Network event was ultimately a\u00a0disappointment.<\/p>\n Our hosts at the Cottingley Cornerstone Centre were friendly and and the lunch was substantial – but the acoustics in the room were terrible. \u00a0I hate to think what it is like when the centre is full of children.<\/p>\n But the problems for me were the ‘case studies’.<\/p>\n After introductions and context setting, Wakefield District Housing kicked us off with Chief Executive Kevin Dodd talking about the\u00a0importance\u00a0of carrots and sticks (I\u00a0think\u00a0he called them incentives) to encourage people to be more enterprising. \u00a0 And by more enterprising it seemed he meant\u00a0mainly getting back into the labour market. \u00a0Indeed this theme about job creation and routes into employment kept recurring. \u00a0There is more to an enterprise culture than tackling worklessness. \u00a0If\u00a0someone’s\u00a0behaviour is motivated\u00a0primarily\u00a0by the way that\u00a0bureaucrats arrange carrots and\u00a0sticks\u00a0it cannot be described as enterprising. \u00a0Compliant, yes. \u00a0Enterprising, no. \u00a0\u00a0So\u00a0think\u00a0long and hard. \u00a0Do we want our tenants to be compliant fodder for employers or enterprising?<\/p>\n We then heard a little about what\u00a0Wakefield\u00a0District Housing is actually\u00a0doing to promote enterprise. \u00a0This consisted mainly of sending young people on Outward Bound Courses and providing mentoring in Wakefield secondary schools. \u00a0 \u00a0I worked for Outward Bound for a couple of years and have much time for them. \u00a0They develop many things, teamwork, leadership, followership – but I am not certain about enterprise. \u00a0I would need to be convinced.<\/p>\n And I am not clear how mentoring programmes help\u00a0individuals\u00a0to become more enterprising. \u00a0Especially when mentors encourage young people to take their eye off of their dreams and start to\u00a0think\u00a0seriously about Plan B. \u00a0‘I know you\u00a0want\u00a0to be bassist in a rock band but really, don’t you\u00a0think\u00a0you\u00a0should\u00a0apply to study plumbing at the\u00a0local\u00a0FE college?’ \u00a0 ‘We need to be realistic with our aspirations’. \u00a0I personally think this shows a weak understanding of how people hold and transform their dreams and ideals without being told what is\u00a0realistic\u00a0by ‘authority’ figures. \u00a0It is not our job to decide what is possible….<\/p>\n The main reason schools\u00a0welcome\u00a0Mentors is because they\u00a0can\u00a0provide a little bit of additional 121 support to help pupils at school. \u00a0It is not about making them more enterprising. It is about improving school performance. \u00a0 Too often enterprise is snuck in on the back of ‘improving educational attainment’ or ‘improving attendance’ ie providing\u00a0incremental\u00a0support to the mainstream pedagogy,\u00a0curriculum\u00a0and assessment, when in fact it offers radically ‘different\u00a0keys’ to ‘different kingdoms’ for an increasingly large group of pupils that mainstream education fails to serve\u00a0well.<\/p>\n But what was most puzzling to me was why a social landlord in particular would engage in such activities. \u00a0In what way does this build on the relationship between landlord and tenant? \u00a0 \u00a0Mentoring in schools is a fine way of\u00a0delivering\u00a0corporate\u00a0social\u00a0responsibility. \u00a0Personal development too is extremely worthwhile. \u00a0But neither of these builds on the unique relationship between landlord and tenant that I had hoped the workshop might explore.<\/p>\n Next up it was Connaught with a re-hash of last years Strictly Come Business<\/a> competition. \u00a0 Now I have problems with most types of ‘Enterprise’ competition and especially with those that base themselves on the Dragon’s Den format<\/a>. \u00a0Dragon’s Den is \u00a0not a competition. \u00a0If investors\u00a0believe\u00a0a business offers a return, they invest. \u00a0You don’t have to ‘win’. \u00a0You just have to be investment ready. \u00a0 \u00a0In my opinion most winners of Dragon’s Den style enteprise competitions are not yet investment ready. \u00a0The journey to investment readiness can take years.<\/p>\n Does this competition format provide a serious and\u00a0sustained\u00a0methodology for creating an enterprise culture? \u00a0Or is it an easily costed and managed process that ticks the enterprise boxes?<\/p>\n If we put a leaflet through a door that\u00a0says\u00a0‘Do You Have A Big Community Idea?’ most people will say ‘No!’. \u00a0The leaflet goes in the bin and those that might benefit most from our help to think in \u00a0more enterprising ways are lost. \u00a0At best we find a small minority who are already\u00a0thinking\u00a0‘enterprise’ and give them a leg up. \u00a0This kind of\u00a0enterprise\u00a0skimming provides the sweet illusion of instant results but in\u00a0reality\u00a0changes little. \u00a0Indeed I think this kind of\u00a0approach\u00a0makes many of the 10\u00a0Commonest\u00a0Mistakes in Encouraging an Enterprise Culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n Networking over lunch, provided by\u00a0local\u00a0social enterprise Daisies, was fine and the presentations after\u00a0lunch\u00a0were good. \u00a0I especially enjoyed finding out more about CREATE<\/a> and how they operated. \u00a0Competing\u00a0on the basis of quality products and services rather than on the\u00a0moral\u00a0high grounds of SE seems like a winning and novel concept!<\/p>\n And a final\u00a0talk\u00a0through the\u00a0development\u00a0of Cottingley Cornerstone<\/a> by our hostess for the day just re-affirmed how bloody hard this social enterprise game can be. \u00a0On a shoe string and continually seeking funding – but only that which fits with their mission and objectives. \u00a0Fingers crossed it stays that way.<\/p>\n My only problem with the afternoon sessions was that they seemed only\u00a0loosely, if at all, connected to the theme of enterprise and social landlords.<\/p>\n So my main take aways from the day:<\/p>\n So, as I said on my\u00a0evaluation,\u00a0the day was good in parts – although I \u00a0think\u00a0we failed as a group to really get under the skin of the role of the social landlord in supporting an\u00a0enterprise\u00a0culture.<\/p>\n\n