The day I became a hashtag on twitter…

You may already know that I’m on twitter; you may know that I occasionally tweet ‘live’ from events I’m at; and you may even know that a few months back someone did a survey that identified me as one of the top500 influencers of social enterprise in the world based on what I do on twitter.

But what you probably don’t know if that earlier this week, I became a ‘#’ (hashtag) on twitter.

Hashtags are funny things - they let you easily find other tweets of similar subject matter, and also to help place the content of a tweet in some kind of context. They range from the celebrity, to campaigns, to movements, and even the ridiculous.

And the list of them has just been added to with one that’s all about me! And while many people know I have a gift for self-publicity, on this occasion I can’t claim the credit for it: it was someone else who, unprompted, began this new tag. I’d just finished having a chat with them about some ideas around the LiM tool that allows small enterprises to more easily and better identify and report on their social impact and value, and they tweeted about it, adding the hash tag #chattoadrian

A couple of other people picked up on this and retweeted the tag pretty quickly, meaning its moved from one persons random idea to something that others think is genuinely useful and helpful.

What does this mean for me in practical terms? Well, I’m realistic enough to know that I’ll never trend on twitter, but it is a way that people can more easily see who I’ve been speaking with and what they thought of me. And I like that - I’ve always been open about trying to be transparent and accountable in how I work and offer my support and services, and this new hash tag means that its even easier for people to say and see just how good (or otherwise) I’ve been. It’ll keep me on my toes more, and that can surely only be a good thing in the long run.

So - thank you Graham Gardiner for making a new rod for my back, and contributing to my notoriety!

Olympic-free haven...

Lots of people seem to be using the Olympics at the moment as allegory and parallel to illustrate various ideas and arguments.

Not me.

I'd like to think that there are some places where you can still escape from all the hullabaloo and drama and hearing people arguing about who should have won what.

So I'm going to keep my blog an Olympic-free zone (even though the Olympian values are strikingly similar to those of co-ops...)

'nuff said.

See you again when its all over.

the delusions of senior management (...and why it harms all of us)

At a recent seminar I attended, I noticed that the more senior a persons’ role is, the more likely they are not to have brought a notepad/pen, etc. with them - yet they know they're coming to an event where they’ll be exposed to learning, and so be wanting to keep notes for their reference later. 

Perhaps this is because that due to the seniority of their role, they assume that others will have taken care of such ’basic’ administrative needs for them (a self-delusion of how important they think they are)?

And this concerns me - this obvious erosion of a person not taking responsibility for themselves is surely at odds with their responsibility for the performance and well-being of others under them? If they can’t be trusted to make sure they’ve a notepad and pen when going to an event where they know they’ll need them, then how can we have faith in their competency to manage significant budgets or large numbers of other people?

There are, thankfully, exceptions I’ve seen to this - people who’ve been on leadership programmes with the likes of Common Purpose, people in co-operatives (where one of the defining values is ‘self-responsibility’), and people in faith-based organisations, where there is a commonality of theological teaching around proving you can be trusted in the small things before being allowed to take on the larger responsibilities…

So perhaps we need to challenge people in authority more; not over the public failings that cost people’s livelihoods, but before they can get to that stage - check that your boss carries a notepad and pen with them when out and about…

On being a 'Guru'...

People often refer to me on occasion as being a ‘Guru’ in different contexts - seeking to express their appreciation for my knowledge and skills in relation to social franchising, social and co-operative enterprise, governance, social impact reporting,… - and I’m always nervous if they do so publicly.

Not because I don’t think I’m ‘worthy’ of recognition, but because of the risk that I might start to believe my own hype - which leads to complacency and arrogance. Which leads to people I work with not getting the standard of support they need, and so not benefiting as they should do.

I find myself having to manage a difficult tension - presenting this hype as part of my expert abilities in order to win commissions of work, but at the same time needing to make sure that I remain humble enough to work alongside clients in ways that they’re comfortable with and that are appropriate, recognising where I might need to change my approach or invest in new skills.

There’s also a risk to my professional relationships within networks and with my peers - there are plenty of self-proclaimed ’Gurus’ out there, who through ignorance end up offering a poor quality of service and support that leaves clients in a worse position that when they started. As a result, people are often sceptical of ‘Gurus’, and I’m concerned that I’ll be tarred with the same brush.

The key lesson in all this is not to take a persons’ word for how great they are in their field of expertise - ask for examples and testimonials. If you’re not able to ask for such things (for whatever reason), then you can do things like look at their websites, or recommendations on their LinkedIn profile.

Don’t believe what you’re told at face value - you’re relying on the ‘expert’ to support you to resolve an issue or problem you don’t feel able to yourself, and its you who’ll be left to live with whatever they introduce or implement on your behalf - they can walk away afterwards, but you can’t.

How I (nearly) made a client faint - and why they gave me a fruit basket afterwards

As some readers of my blog will know, a lot of what I do is supporting people and communities to realise their visions by creating new co-operative, social, or private enterprises. And I do this through various means – training courses, consultancy, beer mentoring, etc...

Recently, I’ve been working with a number of south Asian women who want to use their skills to improve the well being of families in deprived communities, but also want to work in ways that ensure people’s dignity is paramount in that process as well. They were ‘awarded’ 4 days of my life through the co-operative enterprise hub to help them to pursue and realise this, and through that time I’ve helped them develop their business model, financial plan, marketing and also to incorporate themselves as a worker co-operative. And it’s this last part that caused their ‘excitement’ – they were so sure that they would have made a mistake on their submission to companies house (they structured their worker co-op in a guarantee company form, in case you’re wondering), that when their company certificate arrived in the post, they were overcome with excitement... they told me that one of their number almost fainted! (although I’m not sure I can take all the credit for that, as it turns out that the person also had a cold at the time...)

 

Anyways – they were so impressed with how I’ve supported and encouraged them over these few days, that at my last session with them this morning, they produced a fruit basket as a traditional means of expressing their thanks for all I’ve done with them over the last couple of months. And I’m very touched – normally, at the end of supporting an individual or group, there’s the awkward handshake and assurances about keeping in touch, but this felt really nice – so  thank you Access Alpha Ltd of Burnley, and may the universe reciprocate your generosity many times over.

(NB – i’m also partial to cake, beer and donughts in case any other clients I’m supporting are thinking of finding ways to thank me...)

a square peg in a round hole...

Earlier this week I took the opportunity to spend a morning hanging out with fellow graduates of Common Purpose programmes in the North West (Common Purpose is an international charity that encourages people to develop leadership skills so that they can have more impact and generally make the work a more groovy and lovelier place for everyone).

 

 Having blagged my way onto two Common Purpose programmes over the years (renew NW and Local Links), I’m of the view that I don’t readily confirm to their (or most other peoples’) view of what a ‘leader’ is – everyone who usually participates in their programmes are employees and have responsibilities for other staff – I work as a freelancer and am usually the person being controlled by lots of other people...

But that’s OK because whilst immersing myself into the Common Purpose world hasn’t helped me to develop and enhance my leadership skills (on reflection I’ve felt that what they’ve encouraged people to embrace I already have quite a lot of already), it has and does give me some great opportunities to not only meet fantastic people, but also critically reflect on my own working practices and philosophies from perspectives and contexts I would have otherwise missed. As a freelancer, most of my ‘natural’ networking opportunities are with fellow sole traders and consultant-types - Common Purpose is very good at bringing a disparate group of people together to openly talk about the various challenges we face and how we can manage and resolve our fears in how we might best address them.

Common Purpose advocates and encourages you to take responsibility for ideas that would normally be seen to be outside of your role. I’ve always done that – but being part of the Common Purpose tribe has meant that I’ve been able to better reflect on how when I’ve done so I’ve been developing my own leadership, influencing and supporting skills and intelligences – its led me to realise that I’m very often a square peg in a round hole, but that this is usually a good thing to be.

my latest social accounts – more impact, but not all positive...?

So, it’s that time of year again when I publish my summary ‘social accounts’. There are various reasons why I choose to be so transparent and open in my performance in respect of the values that I try and conduct my business and work by, and I’ve listed them before. (If you’re curious as to what they are – you can read about them in previous posts here).

And year on year, they show that I’ve gotten better at managing my environmental impact and also in strengthening the resilience of my local economy. But what they also suggest is that my ‘performance’ as a trainer seems to have struggled in comparison to previous years (although it’s still a high satisfaction rating) – this prompted me to dig a little deeper into this apparent variance and has meant that for the first time, I’ve included a brief commentary to the findings that offers some additional insight into what lies behind the figures.

This expansion to the presentation of these ‘accounts’ I prepare has prompted me to revisit the overall structure of how I monitor and report on my impacts. As a small business/sole trader offering a range of consultancy and support services both to and through a wide variety of groups (see my portfolio), I needed to create a template that was easy to use, didn’t require a lot of resource (‘cos I don’t have a lot to spare!), and would allow me to reflect on my values in a tangible and meaningful way. The expansion of this to begin to include narrative commentary to some of the findings means that I’m wondering afresh if there are also ways in which I might begin to consider how the methodologies of established social impact standards such as SROI and SAA (which are not designed with sole traders in mind!) might be able to be applied to a small business/sole trader who trades across a wide range of customer groups and impacts on not only local groups, but also national policy and legislation.

I’d welcome any comments people might care to offer... meanwhile, you can see the latest set of my social accounts on the last page of my ‘blag sheet’ here.