end of another affair...

So – it lasted 6 years, we stood by each through good times and uncertain (contract) times, I got them international recognition and extra project incomes, protected them from project and government office auditors, and it now ends…

Some of you will know that my first contract when I became freelance was with a local enterprise agency – and yesterday, that working relationship came to an end.

Naturally it’s a little sad from the sake of my bank account, but more so for the opportunities I had with them, the projects I ended up running, and the sheer variety of people it allowed me to come into contact with and support along their journey of realizing their ambitions of creating their own enterprise. It’s also sad because this split in our relationship is not the result of us falling out with each other, but because the way in which funding to support people wanting to set themselves up in business is changing – business advisors are increasingly seen as a ‘luxury’ that can’t be justified in the context of publicly funded support. And that’s what makes me more concerned – a lot of people I’ve supported over these 6 years through the enterprise agency needed encouragement and motivation, not just a fact sheet or to sit through group presentations; with the loss of the personal business advisor, I fear that many people won’t have the opportunity to have their self-doubt challenged and so not take that first step into realizing their long-held ambitions of changing the world through launching their own enterprise…

That won’t stop me trying to support them – there are still other enterprise support programmes running that I’m involved with (Making Local Food Work, the Co-operative Enterprise Hub, Unltd Connect, ...) but the value of a local business advisor with local knowledge supporting someone who wants to set up a local business is surely a key ingredient of any strong community and economy. And I’ll miss it...

It’s good to talk (and drink, and argue...)

So – this week saw the inaugural co-operative enterprise hub conference. For those of you who don’t know, the co-operative group (you know, one of the worlds’ largest co-ops), funds a national programme to support co-operative businesses to be able to access specialist consultancy and training and stuff and there’s nothing else in Europe like it! (see link here)

Anyways – they held their first national conference in Leeds recently, and I not only had the pleasure of being invited, but also of leading one of the sessions.

As a freelancer, things like conferences are always a difficult choice – I’m not usually paid to attend them, they mean that I can’t be earning money elsewhere and it takes me away from my family – but in this instance, it was pretty much a no-brainer for a change: the opportunity to hang out with my peers (other co-operative enterprise consultants and trainers) for 2 days, share stories, reflect on experiences and ideas and challenge each others’ views and approaches is something that I’ll always jump at the chance of (especially when there’s a conference bar involved...)

So thank you to the enterprise hub for the opportunity to spend 2 days of my life in a most worthwhile way (and to everyone who ran around 'behind the scenes', making sure the rooms were all set up properly and everyone ended up when and where they were supposed to be) – and I'm already looking forward to next year!

time for me to bare all... (again!)

so - its that time of the year when things go a little quiet (2 weeks of bank holidays'll do that!), and I try and reflect on what I've managed to achieve over the last year (professionally speaking...).

For those of you who've followed me for a while, you'll know that my principle tool for doing this is a social accounting approach - and having still not found a model or toolkit for sole traders out there, have used my d-i-y version again, and as before, added an extra indicator - this time around how much business I do with co-ops, social enterprises and charities. After all, if I'm serious about supporting such businesses, I should really be putting my money where my mouth is - right?

So - here there are; for those of you who enjoy statistics, enjoy - for those of you who don't, look away now...

Why charities should look to private business for inspiration...

As much as it pains me to disagree with her, (and at the risk of upsetting my 666th follower on twitter - for she has that dubious honour), I find myself at odds with Deborah Allcock Tyler's view of looking to the private sector for models and ideas in her column of Third Sector Magazine on 12th April 2011 (préci’d = charities are better at what they do than private business is as what it does, so we shouldn’t bother to see what we might learn from them that might benefit us) - surely we should be open to cross sector discussions, especially when some of their management practices put ours to shame (take a closer look at McDonalds), they have happier employees who are less likely to take them to tribunals than us, and have a workforce who are valued better by their employers based on more of ours expecting to leave our sector in 5 years than theirs...


just as there are some 'bad charities', and these are the exception to the norm, there are some 'bad businesses' who are the exception - it’s just a shame that they're mostly in the finance industry...


And surely, we’re both faced with similar challenges: dealing with recession, government expecting us to do more to strengthen society, managing costs, supporting our people – why does there seem to be such an engrained cultural resistance to exploring and addressing these together in the third sector/civil society?

Is co-production the key to a more equal and equitable society?

OK – so, some background first:
Its increasingly argued (and accepted) that the root cause of the causes of most of the ills in our society are due to inequality (http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/).

Separate to this is the increasing interest in the delivery of public services through what’s called ‘co-production’ – the concept that as the recipient of services, it’s better to do ‘with us’ than ‘to us’; after all, surely as a patient we know best what treatments or care packages we’ll be more likely to engage with? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coproduction_of_public_services_by_service_users_and_communities


Last week I participated in one of the co-production road shows that Nesta are running (http://www.nesta.org.uk/events/previous_events). As well as being a nice opportunity to reflect on some of the work and thinking I’ve been doing around this over the last year or so, it was also a nice opportunity to catch up with someone I’d not seen for 7 years since moving away from Cambridge! http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/andrew-church/13/497/8

Anyways – in one of the sessions the idea was floated that coproduction = equality. After mulling this over for a bit, I think I agree. For Coproduction to truly work, all parties involved need to be able to respect each others’ experience and knowledge as being equally valid to their own, and also positively reciprocate to manifest that respect and build the trust that’s needed in such a relationship/dialogue.

I then started to think that the coproduction arrangement would also be more equitable in that it has to ensure fair and appropriate access for everyone to be able to engage with it, depending on their circumstances – after all, in a society as diverse as ours, one size won’t fit all, so it’s only just that people be treated equitably according to their need.

So – on the face of it, coproduction isn’t just about creating a 'revolution' in public service delivery and better empowering us, the recipient of public services, it’s also directly contributing to tacking the inequalities that affect us through starting to shift our collective mindsets through our starting to view those around us being as equally important to us in determining what the best courses of action should be.

Sounds great so far, but wait… most public services are increasingly sub-contracted to private companies to deliver – and they’re likely to be very resistant to the idea of coproduction as a delivery model owing to the costs to them that it will involve. But surely with commissioning moving more to an outcomes based model, coproduction can only be a good thing for them as pilot studies show that coproduction generates better outcomes? (and if they need further convincing, apparently Nesta are already working on the business case for it as well…)


So – coproduction: not just a better way to deliver public services, but a model that contributes to our becoming a more equal and equitable society!


Of course, the co-operative movement has been using this approach already for a few centuries; maybe I’ll write a companion piece to this on that angle next...


(and special acknowledgement in this blog to http://twitter.com/RuthRosselson for encouraging me to write this up)

three part management course: lesson 3 - getting dumped on

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field.
While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realise how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out!!

He lay there, all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy.

A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Management Lesson 3:
a) not everyone who sh*ts on you in your enemy,
b) not everyone who gets you out of sh*t is your friend,
c) and when you're in deep sh*t, its best to keep your mouth shut!

three part management course: lesson 2 - getting to the top

A turkey was chatting with a bull: "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" the bull replied. "They're packed with nutrients." the turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally, after a fourth night, there he was, proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson 2: bullsh*t might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there