Late Arrival - Leading Social Enterprise: Arrival Education's blog page

The northern rite-of-passage

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:09:00 +0000

This blog will resonate with some and not with others and it certainly isn't meant to offend those who love the North, for the North made me too, this is about my limitations and childlike perceptions from a different time.

It’s about the important journey that takes some out of the North.

There was a saying from my home town (Penrith, Cumbria) when I was young that went:

“Anyone with any get up and go has got up and gone.”

I know this might offend those that staid and made the North work, but for me that was the issue, there was no work, no future, no ambitions, no glamour and no one like me, or so I thought.

Mind you, I had a powerful, shame driven urge to leave. School and my youth in general, were not enjoyable experiences. My youth was full of rage and awkward embarrassment. I was all pale skin, muscles and red weathered cheeks, with downward glances full of intensity and meaning; overwhelmed by everything - girls, school, learning, parents and fighting.

Cumbria is both bleak and beautiful, just like its people; they seemed to me, as tough as hell, farmers mostly, not easy to read, often coarse, stern, cold, prone to rage and drunken fighting. They spoke in rough guttural tones – ‘nowt, reet, eh, cuddy’. The lads I knew, played good rugby (direct like the Boks) and were men by 14; all hairy chest and face, with bull necks, who liked a pagga (a knuckle fight) and a pint or two. It was normal to sink 15 pints of beer of a Friday or Saturday and have a fight if you didn’t pull/cop off.

I was an outsider when I was a young man. I wrote on my red Flip of Hollywood canvas bag with tan leather straps ‘Anti fashion’ it was a statement, a bit like listening to The Smiths; I wore a crescent and sickle badge to school once, not out of any real political beliefs, just that it kind of looked cool. I was asked to take it off as some felt it 'offensive'. I felt trapped in this repressive, hunched, suffocating, ignorant place, which I called home. I couldn’t wait to get out. To get away from my parents, from the slate grey weather, from the dead end land of ill fitting clothes, tattoos, racism and the undercurrent of constant ignorant aggression.

I’m sure the more integrated and normal lads thought I was a wanker and to be honest, perhaps I was? In hindsight, they were mostly good honest lads. I went to the local grammar school, where we had the most amazingly terrifying games teacher; he was the hardest man you could ever meet, his name was Pete Kremmer – even the name is a little terrifying still. He would shout at you, a lot. He was 6’ 3”, with constant stubble that looked like razors would break on it. I both loved him and feared him; I thought him a brute. He definitely had an impact on me. He died young, sadly.

I guess things were more intense in my mind than they really were in reality. I was very internal looking, insecure and narcissistic My saving grace was I could look after myself and I was big enough not to be picked on. I had my fair share of fights, enough to make people pause. I played in the rugby team and for the local colts team too, so I was left alone, but neither was I considered ‘one of the boys’. They probably picked up my superior attitude, which was my way of keeping people at bay, as I was unsure about it all, I didn't know where I stood and was confused about what I wanted and how to achieve it.

You can see me in pictures from the time, with my chin in the air, arrogant. But what they didn’t realise is that arrogance was my way of saving myself. I struggled to make sense of me, my life, the future, education, sex and most definitely my parents, who are lovely people but both rather odd and most definitely overwhelmed by life. I felt that I didn’t really excel at much (except being creative) and I wasn’t given the skills to make sense and build from where I was at, so I drifted, drowning a little more each month.

Then my parents separated and left to my own devices and overwhelmed by life, I dropped out of school and started work. I hated the world for that.

At the same time I had discovered drama. I was picked up by the Youth Theatre scene – Cumbria, Manchester and National Youth Theatre. I got myself back into study via a local vocational drama course. It wasn’t very good. But that launched me into drama school and then on to London (the drama centre)and I was out and away. Mission accomplished, never to return.

My rites-of-passage journey from Penrith to London was complete, I was free. What I hadn’t grasped was who I was, what I really felt and what would make me confident and happy; I had a poor sense of self, muddled. But at least I had escaped the grim Northern life, my cotton-brained parents and the bleakness of it all.

Like so many before me, and so many after, I was attracted by streets paved with gold, which I fantasised would be better and rescue me from the Northern towns.

I was right in the end, they did.

What I wasn’t right about, was it was me that needed to change.

2012

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 21:07:00 +0000

Every year about this time, I write this kind of kooky little reflective piece about the previous twelve months in an attempt to capture the good, the bad and the insights from the annual experience of running a social purpose business.

You know in all honesty, I think I write it as much for my own benefit, as for those that might read it. This is because Christmas tends to be my only downtime (switching off is not one of my strengths) and it’s in the rest that I have the space to reflect on how the year has changed me, what it has taught me, as much as I have shaped it.

This year, I think we will look back as a pivotal year for Arrival Education, it certainly feels like a year of transition, as well as assimilation - personal and professional.

I can’t claim to be particularly mature; in fact, I grew up quite a shy boy really, which is in contrast with my physical person, which is sadly looking every bit the manly middle aged man I am. I do try to fight back time, I exercise as often as I can but I know there can only be one winner in the battle against time. I'm a late / slow developer.

This is the year Arrival and I grew up.

You know how when you don’t really believe in yourself or your abilities and you over-compensate as a result? And then finally, something happens – an experience, a comment or an insight - and then you do, finally believe. Something makes sense and you finally move on, put something down that held you back.

We've always had a vision about what we would like to do and achieve and we would tell people about that; the trouble is, somehow they weren't quite convinced or we weren't quite convincing.

It’s as if there was some sort of reservations about us or our capacity or if we could actually deliver on the picture we were painting? Perhaps we were being too cautious; and although people were full of praise, we weren't able to go the whole way with them; it seemed as though the last yard were to allude us.

Don’t get me wrong, we have done well, it’s just that we didn't score those home runs regularly enough. You need those if you are going to punch your way out of being a start up.

But then something changed. People started to believe in us and I can’t tell you why, all I know is they do and it feels different, really different.

That journey of discovery was reflected in the ways schools related to us.

We started without a track record or tangible evidence or results that we could deliver what we said we could – I guess that’s the challenge of every start up. Perhaps from their perspective it looked like a work-in-progress or maybe we were trying too hard – something intangible stopped them or us going all the way? Doubts perhaps?

Now we have the results of our programme to back up the vision and everything has shifted.

I get calls from schools now who wish to book our services. That never happened before. In fact, we have nearly booked out for the entire year already and that puts us in a very strong position.

Why is this?

We are at the stage where we have a really solid outfit, a strong core in our proposition and communication and in the team. All of this came about from a very focused attitude to figuring things out and a desire to never stop enquiring about how we can improve everything we do. You have to have the right people in the team to build that culture, then it takes a good year to get people up to the point where they can add real value. Before then, they are learning. Our team is pretty good now.

I also think it is down to the fact that I no longer have to sell what we do; we have the graduates of the programme do that, which is a very powerful tangible sales tool. Results speak louder than any words right?

But what I really think it’s down to is the intangible thing called - confidence.

I don’t know about other people but I obtain my confidence in a resolute committed ethic of hard work. I don’t really trust easy wins, they feel too much like gifts and I don’t understand freebies or how I got them or how to repeat the act, so I'm cautious of easy wins.

I read recently of a failed businessman who took his life after he lost everything. Why did he take his life? Perhaps he couldn't stand being poor? I wonder if he had rode a wave of luck that gave him his wealth? If it were hard won, no doubt he would have understood how to do it again. Perhaps, in his heart of hearts, he knew that he had just been lucky. There are a lot of mediocre people who have obtained wealth on a rising tide, be it the stocks or in property who in more challenging times would have struggled.

I'm not knocking mother luck here, I’ll take it every time I can but luck isn't a sound business proposition it's just luck and you can’t build and risk all on luck!

To repeat success, you have to understand how you achieved it and that takes a focused commitment and a lot of hard work.

We have got to the point now where through graft, we know our onions and our results speak.

We used to look outside of ourselves for advice and confidence. We don’t do that any more, we don’t need to. We know we are good, sure we make mistakes, who doesn't but we certainly don’t need other people to tell us what we already know.

By God – I say this through gritted teeth - we wasted a lot of time and energy listening to others and their opinions, all well meant.

What this year taught us was was this:

Keep things simple and if we do that and don’t stray too far from that mantra we might flourish. We are good at two things at Arrival:

Developing people and selling our ability to develop people.

That's enough. This was the year we finally put our marker in the ground and understood the value of who we are and what we do and have done to this point.

Last thought for 2012.

Perhaps you can only perceive that worth, when you truly get your own value?

Areas for development

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:56:00 +0000

I recently engaged with the brilliant YSC (which applies psychology to help organisations to achieve success by releasing the power of their people) in order to start the process of developing my current capacity and skills from that of a start up entrepreneur, to becoming a CEO capable of moving Arrival Education to the next level.

The question in every business leaders mind is – am I capable? Do I have it in me?

Some people love the start up phase and don’t like the structural discipline of an established process driven environment, happier to sell and start again, than be bogged down in planning and management delegation.

Others love the immediate nature of front line delivery, which can be more adrenaline fuelled and exhilarating! Whereas, the bigger the organisation, the further way from front line delivery your typically get.

The skills sets required for the business leader of £1M are markedly different from those of a £10M or £100M turnover organisation, obviously. Just as the management, communication and development requirements for a team of 10 are different from that of 25, 60 or 120.

I know I have a fairly good profile for the start up entrepreneur – driven, focused, resilient, target motivated and with a developed capacity to deal with high levels stress and anxiety and I’m OK at sales too.

But it is worth reflecting on 'what got me to here, might not get me to there'. In fact, it might be a limiter, a blocker to the organisations future growth and success.

So then, YSC have started the process of helping me first collate my strengths and areas for development and then map the required areas needed for success and start the gap analysis.

I have completed a Frio-b and strength finder (Myers Briggs), as well as a feedback report where - clients (corporate and school), students, peers, staff and board level support, all fed back their current reflections on my strengths and areas to develop or become aware of.

That was very useful full stop. Nothing I didn't expect, but useful none-the-less. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

As we grow over the next year and get some bandwidth into the management team, (Investment allowing or continued growth), as well build the organisation, I know things will change and I know I have to change with them AND if I can’t or don’t, then I need to replace myself.

Corporate Partners

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:37:00 +0000

I was recently approached by Jessica Maybanks, who is fundraising and development Manager @ Eikon, which is based in Surrey.

She wanted to pick my mind about how we went about signing up corporate partners.

I thought it would be a useful and worthy discussion to share with all of you. Here are Jessica’s questions. If you have any other questions not covered here, then just add them and when I have a moment, I will endeavour to answer them.

What sort of sustainability do the corporate relationships you seek provide?

That has changed with time.

When we first started, we were signing up corporates for brand and credibility. It’s only when you start, do you have visibility over time-scales and budgets etc. Over the last four years, it has been our corporate partners that have helped us bridge our costs and afforded us the time to pilot our model. For that I will be ever grateful. However, for those people who have never worked in the corporate space, there is a language and an expectation to do things in particular ways. If you are not cogent with those, you will struggle.

What is the average life-span of contracts?

I can give you a clearer indication with schools than businesses. What I would say, is we have tended to invest in the business that invested more into us. As a result, you tend to lose the smaller clients, who are also less profitable.

As a market norm, corporates tend to freshen things up every 3 years or so. Certainly, that seems to be a cycle most of the larger CSR budgets work toward. Our relationships tend to be annualised; less risk for them, more opportunity for us. But that is OK, as people in corporates are much more comfortable with the sales process. Most businesses have to sell, it would be odd if they were thrown when they were sold to.

How did you go about identifying initial partners and is there a “type” of company who is more interested in the concept than others (i.e. is the programme more popular with local businesses, nationals or multinationals)?

I would say that you need to be a national brand with national reach, if you are going to work with a really large national or international business. It’s highly unlikely that if you are a small charity or social enterprise that a large corp. will work with you, if they are trying to push a national activity and using it for PR purposes, unless you have punched your brand into people’s consciousness that is. Besides, those large brands are constantly courted. I would be very surprised in Barclay's charity or community engagement team doesn't get approached at least once a day by some organisation or other who wants their money, sorry resource.

Most organisations will have a young person in need or educational focus, some environmental, after that, you might struggle to hit everyone you call with your niche interest. Don’t take it personally if not every organisation wants to save donkeys, even if individuals within the organisation might.

I know it is harder if you are not near a significant range of business that you can service; we are fortunate to be based here in London. But London is competitive and not all the streets are paved with gold.

You need to be careful if you have only one (or are reliant upon one) client; even if they give you a million a year, soon, sooner than you think, you will be dropped for someone else. You need to manage your risk and have a healthy pipeline. A new head of CSR or CEO will be a lion with the cubs, it's not personal. But you need to be on top of your accounts, to understand the lay of the lands and internal changes. This, of course, can be an opportunity. Most large corporates will have 3 community or charity partners, and they do get refreshed, especially if they haven't been producing results or the business are having to trim budgets.

4. We often find cold calling businesses unproductive, regardless of our ask. How did you approach potential partners (what method did you find most effective)?

Cold calling never works in my opinion.

There are loads of books on sales. Perhaps I could write a book on it especially for the SocEnt space? Would you buy it? You need to know people and build relationships that are genuine, then you can obtain referrals BUT only if they like you will they give them. I already had contacts from when I worked in the City. I was nice to people, so people took my calls. It helps to be nice.

5. As you take payments, rather than donations for the work you carry out - do you ever feel that the quality and content of services for young people is compromised by the needs and wants of the corporate client?

Just the opposite; the last thing the young people on our programmes want to be is charity cases! We have always taken a business critical approach to schools and to the students. How would a senior exec from Goldman’s expect this service? That is the same service I try to deliver to the participants, regardless of whether they perceive our attention to detail. I want them to have expectations for themselves and others.

I like the fact the corporates have expectations of service and that they get upset if we don’t meet those expectations. It means they give a damn and are invested in us.

It’s when they don’t care and aren't in communication that the alarm bells go off. Without naming names here, a particular business paid us but then never did a thing with us; this was due to the fact that the central contact there was useless and didn't engage with us over the year; and they paid a significant amount of money too. Strange. We tried so many times to get meetings in the diary and to get things rolling but the key contact was overwhelmed by their lack of capacity and hid. What are you going to do? We tried, but of course...no renewal.

How do you measure social impact, and how much are you involved in measuring impact on employees/corporates?

That changes for company to company. With us, its pretty obvious we are making a difference because the kids of the programme are genuine and I have no fear what anyone asks them, because I know the difference we have made, on the whole. There are dozens of engagements with the young people we work with and the corporates, better to be real.

However, we track quite a lot internally. They may make requests for SI, so we build that into the pricing or charge an additional fee. We also know a number of social impact specialists that we can pull in if its a big deal.

I hope that helps?

And if you do have any further questions, please do not hesitate in asking.

The BIG one

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 17:25:00 +0000

There are some key benchmarks, milestones in the survival and growth journey of a business, including:

The day you decide to leap into setting up your own business
Your first business card
The day your website goes live
Your first business meeting
Your first client
Your first pay cheque
Your first desk and phone
Your first hire

But there is none, absolutely none that comes close to the BIG one. I'm talking about El Gordo, the milestone of all milestones.

The first year you achieve over £1M in business. This year is that year for us.

For a social enterprise like ours, what that means is, working with more young people as we move toward working with 1,000 young people a year.

Of course, it means new headaches, such as managing growth, so you don’t fall over or that the quality, delivery and impact isn't lost.

What I think we are particularly proud of, is the fact we bootstrapped it; we didn't take any external investment and we did it in a new market, with a new model that is changing the way people work and develop young people, in an incredibly challenging economic period.

It took some blood, sweat and tears. But already we're thinking about the next target and what that will take.

Pillars of a Civil Society

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:51:00 +0000

I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of remarkable, even extraordinary people on my journey to become a social entrepreneur. These are the people who have really impressed or impacted my journey, either by giving me their trust and support, or by working with or investing in us.

Here are just a few of those friends, champions and inspirational leaders. They're all genuinely great people too, and if you were to kindly reach out to them, I’m sure they would be as warm to you as they have been to me. Here's my list:

Oli Barrett

This man needs no introduction. The most connected and networked person in the county probably, certainly of his generation. With a real passion for making a difference, he loves supporting great social organisations and businesses to communicate what they do to the wider world.

He is currently filling his time with StartUp Britain; additionally, he co runs the fantastic Co-Sponsorship Agency, as well as travelling the world with Web Mission, Clean and Cool mission as well as Future Health Mission. Read his opinions here

Liam Black

Again, his name won’t be new to you. He is the Paul Weller of the Social Enterprise community. This man is THE GODFATHER of the UK SocEnt scene; a no nonsense and passionate Tysefew, with a biog crammed with goodies. Including, his tireless efforts to support and champion the work of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Professor Muhammed Yunus and (currently under fire) Grameen Bank.

You can connect with him via his superb network business; Wavelength, which connects and shares intelligence betwixt leaders of social enterprise/charities and enlightened businesses and their leaders; who wish to learn from and engage with the latest best practice and thinking in the space. Who else?

Add to that, CEO of FRC and Chief Exec of Jamie Oliver’s 15 and you get the picture.

Tessy Britton

Tessy is a loving colossus of the social enterprise space. She captures good people and things and shares it with the world via Thriving and more recently with Social Spaces. You might have bumped into her at the RSA or found her rooting out amazing things at Lambeth Council.

Tessy is brilliant at understanding underlying human behaviour, both individual and social. She uses all that experience to help groups and communities to change. A friend to Ken Robinson, she is a magpie of goodness.

Gaynor Coley/Tim Smit

Gaynor and Tim are the brilliant and unstoppable double act that created and delivered to us the inspirational Eden Project, amongst other things.

They have changed the face of the environmental debate (FULL STOP), as well as the physical landscape of Cornwall. Incredible talents in equal measure, a pair of exceptional human beings, who have transformed what is possible.

Steve Moore

Steve is a phenomenal networker and committed supporter of people, ideas and connections.

Steve is the current CEO of The Big Society Network; who’s ambition is to foster service innovations and sustainable delivery models to impact the broader, bigger society.

I think those are also Steve’s personal aims too. Perfect fit.

A big Belfast lad, who has travelled the world to lead and connect others; be it - SOLOTEC, the Learning and Skills Council, Microsoft, the RSA, the BBC, PWC, Department for Education and Skills, Enterprise UK, NESTA and UnLtd; Steve has also been the curate on near one hundred conferences and festivals. Unstoppable.

Geoff Mulgan

Geoff is a powerhouse personified.

Since leaving Government, he has set about the next stage of his life with the same driven intellectually rigorous result orientated approach.

Be it with The Young Foundation or NESTA, he has set about producing significant results. With his brain - the size of a small country - he brings tremendous focus, but he is also generous, supportive and kind, as well as being demanding and committed (of course).

Cliff Prior

Cliff is the CEO of Unltd, but he also spreads his gentle kind of love around too, be it at Big Society Capital and Big Local Trust.

UnLtd is the foundation for social entrepreneurs, which unleash – upon the world - the talents of inspirational and committed people, who want transform communities and society. Unltd help over 1,000 social entrepreneurs each and every year; offering the world's largest and most diverse programme of its kind. Cool.

Matthew Taylor

Matthew is the CEO of the RSA, and is a personal inspiration of mine. Always generous and supportive, he actively supported the RSA’s SocEnt group, which has subsequently blossomed into their most active and engaged fellowship network; for those interested, an incredible network and resource in the SocEnt space. Get involved and become a fellow. Why not drop me a note and I’ll introduce you.

Like Geoff, Matthew an intellectual giant, who came from government to make a difference in the broader society; but you probably knew that from all his articles and opinion he contributes to the debate on the betterment and enlightenment of society, as a whole. Read his opinion here.

That’s my list. I’d love to hear who you would put on your 'Civil Pillars' or not help me add to mine?

Who have you met that needs a mention? Let me know.

A Level playing field

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:28:00 +0000

Tomorrow is A Level results day. For some, it will be a day of joy, and for others, tears of disappointment.

However, for us, it’s a very special day at ArrivalEducation, as it represents four years of herculean effort and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Tomorrow, a bunch of young people we have been working with for the last four years, receive their A Level results.

I feel like a father to many of them, and I for one, will be crying tears of pride, whatever results they achieve.

Those students have been working closely with us in our core programme, Success for Life, which develops influential young people from challenging communities in partnership with schools and businesses over four years.

The first students and the first to graduate that four year programme will be awarded their A Levels tomorrow.

It’s nothing short of a miracle.

It’s a miracle because many of those young adults, were failing at school, many were about to be excluded and were achieving such poor results at GCSE, they were un-gradable. We had quite a few U’s and many E grades, as they began their four year journey with us.

The programme is very intensive, however, it doesn’t focus on academics; the grade improvements we receive are a by-product of their development only, but very significant none-the-less. We achieve a 2.5 average grade improvement over the first 2 years of the programme alone.

Not all things are equal

There is such a bias in the system and the field seems totally uneven and unfair. The challenges that the students we work have to overcome and navigate, compared to those from privileged backgrounds is like very dusty chalk compared with a rather tasty soft French cheese. There is no intelligence difference; it’s just that the dice are loaded against them.

Typical challenges that our students have to overcome before they even think about their education:

Will their parents be home tonight?
Will there be any food to eat?
Will their parents be rowing tonight? Or worse?
Are they going to be abused tonight?
No one earns money at home.
Who do they need to avoid on the streets? Will they get beat up?
Parents don’t write or speak English.
Parents had a poor experience of school themselves and left without grades, and almost certainly didn't have any higher education.
Their mums were very young when they had them
Their parents may have anti-social issues, such as addictions or aggression.
Will they be bullied, beat up or have their phone jacked (stolen) again today?

All of this creates a hard-boiled, sprung loaded, emotionally overwhelmed and charged life experience. They are constantly upset and angry, and as a result, the last thing on their mind is taking in what the teacher is saying.

In the face of all that, these students will be achieving a very decent set of results. Some will be going to University and some will be coming to work for us.We will adore them either way.

I'm so proud of them and what they and we have achieved. It just proves that with the right support the impossible is possible.

All of this was possible with the support of some amazing partners along the way. Teachers, schools, funders, businesses and business professionals. We hope it marks the change in how we approach education and talent development.

Investment readiness

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:36:00 +0000

In business chit-chat, people often ask me what we’re up to; you know how they do, sometimes out of genuine interest often, but mostly out of politeness, well… ho-hum… silence can be a little awkward after all. *cough politely*

These days though, what I tend to say - with the weary grey pallor of a very tired entrepreneur - “We have been going through an investment round.”

It’s a little like polite dinner conversation for those in the know. Well, you aren’t anyone until you got your first round of investment right?

However, unless people are interested in investment related conversations, or have been through the process themselves, it can seem like gobbledygook and also quite tedious. Cue reader disinterest. Oh, I totally understand.

Over the last year (I’m sorry I have just been corrected 15 months) or so, we have been getting Arrival Education into a fit state for external investment; in our case, social investment, which is a little different from the typical investor focus; in so much as the investors expect to see social impact and don’t expect massive returns on their investment, although they do expect to see their money back.

Over the last few years, the UK has created an environment where Social Investment is a very real prospect for socially focused start ups.

We have been working with UnLtd, via their Big Venture Challenge programme, in order to get ourselves investor ready.

For me, the greatest benefit from this process is that it forces you to get your business model really clear. You can’t just turn up asking for investment loans, without a bullet proof strategy and a market need to back it up.

It has been a fantastic process on one hand, but in another, it’s been absolutely exhausting. Nothing quite prepares one for the additional workload. I know, I know, I thought I knew. It’s like having another job (on top of your already impossibly demanding one) and takes up at least a day and a half a week of your and the management team’s time, or it has for us, at least.

To make the process even more challenging than it already is, whilst getting yourself investment ready, you also have to drive the business forward successfully (read commercial numbers); otherwise, it looks like you don’t have a business or a market for your services.

What investors want to see is: real money being paid for real services that is priced well (read profit) and delivered successfully with a genuine market need (read people actually want your shit). They want to see growth; and (AND) they want to see how they will get their money back, plus their percentage.

And of course, there are no guarantees that all of your best efforts will be successful and (it seems unthinkable) your time may have been wasted, when you could have been delivering or selling. And even (tears through laughter here) if you were to be successful in securing the investment funds, it is likely to be debt (in the social enterprise space), so you best spend it wisely and pay it all back. Our space isn’t like tech, where if you blow up, it’s chalked down as experience, investors are cautious.

So, there you are dear entrepreneur, staring at the ceiling, fuelled by investor anxiety and coffee, wondering to yourself is it all worth it?

Additionally, your mum won’t understand what you are going through. How can she? She will of course, just like all your friends, who are sensible and have salaried jobs. Tell you that you are terribly brave (read crazy), and perhaps you should do something sensible (quit). There, there.

The best you can hope from your friends and family is a little sympathetic understanding. No one can truly understand what you are going through except those that went through it too.

Meanwhile, the stress belly grows, more fresh grey hairs appear and the hairline recedes.

It’s not for everyone. But it is the best thing I have ever done.

I would be happy to answer any questions you have about social investment or the process, and if you have a successful social enterprise and are looking for external investment let me know, as the investor community is looking for you, I'll point you to the right people and sources.

I also recommend that you apply for UnLtd’s next BVC or any other quality investment ready programme. I believe the Young Foundation is launching one too. But if you think you have what it takes to get into the arena, then do, it's a blast (read exhausting).

When time flies, be a spider

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:00:00 +0000

The focus of this blog, the knowledge I want you to leave with, is about how and where you spend your time, if you are to increase your chances of success as a social enterprise.

As you can imagine, as a founder and co-owner (a nod to Emily) of a social enterprise that has managed growth every year we have been in trading, I have learnt many lessons.

I've made mistakes (many) both in my decision making, both around where to spend my time (and with whom) and what I focus on, but also how I communicated to others or related to people in the process of building a social enterprise.

Looking back, I wish I had trusted my instincts more, but that takes confidence, and when you start out your confidence isn't grounded in experience.

However, in defence of my pig headed attitude (I have been accused of being too narrow in my assumptions and focus) to compensate this; I attempt to investigate other people’s ideas, as I may have a cognitive bias (I'm interested in the subject), which limits new thoughts and opportunities.

That said I had far too many exploratory meetings in the first couple of years. We all do. Most came to nothing. But you have to kiss a few frogs.

It’s a hard balance to strike – opportunity meetings vs. meetings that turn into concrete resource/funding/clients. A balancing act you must get right, if you are to survive and flourish.

Sometimes, I should have been less preoccupied in wanting to be right or get a point across, and as a result, perhaps my reputation has been dinted for it. I have that awkward rough northern habit of speaking my mind occasionally (I learnt this from my mother, who can be very direct, although means well), a habit marginally softened by over twenty years living in the south amongst other middle class people.

Many people have piled into the social enterprise space, believing it to be the land of opportunities, only to find that surviving, never mind flourishing, is a tall order.

The market, as well as the general economy is in dire straits, and with little good news on the horizon, signs of retraction have emerged. The utopian is turning into the dystopian. When it comes to social enterprise, white hot has turned into …

For instance, I haven’t heard a buzz about a new social enterprise for a little while – please correct me if you have, as people are always asking me about social enterprises that can be steered toward investment.

Where is the wave of new social entrepreneurs that were supposed to come behind us?

This might be why.

I used to think we came into the market at the wrong time, just when all those big pots of money were drying up, the days under the previous administration of large, generous and porous government contracts and funding. Now, I think we came on to the market at just the right time.

You see, we arrived in the social enterprise space with little experience, little real knowledge or contacts to support certain success. We managed to fund the last 5 years by boot strapping Arrival Education with the generous support of businesses and foundations – NESTA, The Young Foundation, UnLtd - and the commercial support of schools and local authorities, with a little bit of consultancy thrown in for good measure. Basically, other people paid for our learning journey; as we moved from start up to stabilisation (a five year journey by the way), to the point where we have genuine confidence in our capacity to deliver quality work. That is called a reputation. This is demonstrated in our renewal levels, which are very solid.

I don’t think those corporate funds are there anymore. It’s hard to obtain corporate giving (CSR). Their budgets are contracting and like a shrinking pool, they are heavily fished (you will be one of at least 250 organisations who have pitched them for funding on average this year). For instance, we have a corporate partner that has, in essence, cut 2 of their 5 community partners this year; we survived the cull, thankfully.

Furthermore, schools only want to work with those organisations that have a track record of delivering really impactful work, it often comes via referrals for us. Schools won’t just throw money at programmes anymore; you have to have a genuine reputation for high quality work AND we subsidise the price to boot, in order to make sign up possible.

The ladder for a period of experimentation and failure has been pulled up.

So my great frustration - here comes the point of the article - is with organisations who want us to present our work and write proposals (which take half a day or so to write) but don’t have a genuine appetite, authority or the budgets to work with us, but still get us to do so. This can consume so much time for a start up social enterprise, as it could be the thing that kills a fledging social business.

Additionally, we need to move the debate on, so organisations focus on quality and impact, not whether the organisation is a Ltd, CiC (Community Interest Company) or Charity, these are just labels and have nothing to do with end user experience or value.

Read the next paragraph carefully if you are a budding social entpreneur.

The difference betwixt you (the social entrepreneur) and them (the person representing the organisation), is they have a salary and are supposed to have market intelligence about players in the space, you (the social entrepreneur) have to obtain money to survive, if you don’t, your enterprise dies, and when that happens, so does your ability to make a difference. For them, it’s a coffee meeting and a chat, for you, its life or death.

If you are going to make it, you need to watch your time like a hawk, for it is the most important thing you have. Probe, be bold and ask the questions you are likely avoiding, which are:

Do you really want to work with us?

Can you afford it/ do you have budgets available?

Who else are you speaking with?

When might you come to a decision and what does that process look like?

When can we start?

And are you the decision maker in this?

You do not have the luxury to avoid those questions any more, you need to fly straight away.

Being and the modern delusion of having

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:58:00 +0000

Central to our work here at Arrival Education is the notion of a successful way of being, as opposed to a successful way of doing or having.

A successful way of being is not at first an easy concept to communicate and is even harder to inculcate within any change programme, but that is exactly what we are attempting to guarantee with our central programme, success for life.

For multiple reasons, people don’t fully grasp or understand what it is and why it’s important. When people talk of success, they talk of achievements (or having things) and when they think of strategies to obtain those things, they think of doing things better or smarter in order to achieve the thing they have set themselves on achieving or having. Once achieved, they are under the illusion they will then be happy.

Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with material possessions, ultimately though, there isn’t any happiness in having them either. People don’t say they want to be surrounded by things at their death bed, but to be surrounded by those they have loved and have loved them in return. Our beloved toys we once put stock in, have long since been thrown away and replaced with grown up toys. The question people ask themselves when they meet their maker is unlikely to be ‘would I have been happier if I had owned better toys, cars or houses?’

Neither do people list their favoured possession on their grave stone. What they write, if they are sincerely genuine, is how they touched and made a mark upon the world and others.

However, people hate being vulnerable and in a mad attempt to feel secure, they try to conquer their anxieties. In an insane attempt to avoid the unavoidable they invent rules and try to win at them; so they might avoid the cruel and inevitable nature of life.

These include:

Social status

Certain roles seem to have more kudos than others, people like the notion of hierarchy, as long as they sit on top of it. People like order and history. For instance, in our society, if I were a professor, a Lord, a Dr. or Lawyer etc, I might have some sense of legitimacy of importance; it’s assumed I’m important. I could ‘lord it’ over others, speak down to them etc. Mothers the world over, quietly pray their daughters will marry a handsome Dr or Lawyer do they not?

Wealth

Another modern mechanism that we believe will stave off unhappiness is wealth. If we were to become wealthy, we believe we will become cushioned from the world. If we ‘make it’ we are free from the nasty humdrum of human burden. We will fly above the riff raff, untouched by the poor!

If we were to obtain material riches, we would be successful, powerful and we could purchase things or experiences that communicate our new power over fate.

Modern society is very much geared around a belief that money equates to happiness or power; the advertisements prick our anxieties in the following way ‘if you buy this you become happy/sexy/attractive/important/have social status/be unique’ where in actual fact, this is profoundly untrue and all the evidence suggests that past a certain level, no more happiness can be acquired by wealth, it flat lines once needs have been met. No money can ever protect a man from who he is and how he feels, and no money staves off death, failure and rejection and no money can buy meaning, truth and integrity. But it does pay for high walls and castles, where the wealthy go and hide, avoiding others who might be there to 'steal' their success. How sad and lonely once you think about it. I have some very rich friends who have these incredible antenna tuned in for people who only want money from them. What a burden, especially if their wealth was ill gotten or too easily achieved.

Fame

Our current fixation with being famous is very ugly.

People now want fame for not doing much either, just for being famous, or getting their kit off, or being attractive, as if that were enough! I know many famous people, and I can’t see that it helps them come to terms with any underlying anxiety they had about themselves. In fact, I think it becomes an incredible burden that traps, confuses and disfigures what is genuine and important in them. They loose perspective and often have an unattractive and obtuse inflated sense of self which masks a paranoia that fame will one day leave them without reason, just as it arrived.

I know of no person in public office, or in the public eye in general who remains unscarred or normal after achieving any significant levels of fame. Yet people hunger for it? Why? What do they imagine it will give them? Do they feel so low in themselves that if the world appears to think they are important, they might believe they actually are? If someone needs the office or needs to look outside of themselves for a sense of worth, you know they are already looking in the wrong place.

Thus the following illusion is created.

That if you DO things in the right way, you will be able to HAVE things that you dream of and then you will BE happy/successful. And we are all doing it. Where in actual fact, if you want a live of genuine meaning and importance, first you have to figure out how to BE happy, enough, worthy, successful and then the DO and HAVE will look after themselves, or they won’t matter so much.

Thus men believe they need to be wealthy and important to attract a good looking girl and girls believe they have to be good looking to attract a wealthy and successful man! But sadly divorce and levels of recorded unhappiness keep on rising.

But we all seem to have this massive scare in our hearts where love should be, but instead it is the shadow of want, inadequacy or lack. Then we spend our lives trying to fill our heart with things, relationships and experiences, believing that they would quieten our pain, our anxiety. We all want to make it, but what does that mean? Are billionaires happier than other people? Of course they aren’t. It’s all a crazy illusion and we all pay for it with our happiness and contentment. Hungrily climbing over shifting bodies to reach the top of the pile that is always shifting.

Stop for peats sake. Stop running around looking for things outside of yourself and learn to love yourself, then life will change. Or keep on doing what you are doing ... time is ticking either way.

Here are peoples 5 greatest regrets on their death bed. Interesting aren’t they:

1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Being vulnerable

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:32:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I wrote something; this is partly because I have a tendency, a desire to share only good news, rather than the mundane, or challenging stuff that makes me look less than able. And I don’t really have any fanfare news right now.

I hate looking like I’m not winning. I was trained to win; that is what I try to do, and every sportsperson knows what I’m talking about. And I am more committed than most, when it comes to winning.

Over the last month or so, I’ve been developing new programme content on the importance being vulnerable. Dear reader, being vulnerable is not a quality that comes easy to me. We call it ‘a vocabulary for the heart’ here at Arrival Education.

Anyone who knows our work knows we go deep and we travel there quite swiftly, but it has taken many years of facilitation to get to that point and to do so in an appropriate, delicate way that also holds the participant’s capacity and confidence, whilst having them investigate their own sadness, anxiety or fear openly.

The turnkey to creating significant and long-lasting change in young people is as follows:

Trust

Without trust you have nothing, and many of the young souls we work with have or are currently being ill-treated in various ways. They are brutalised by their life experiences; disappearing fathers, abusive uncles, poor and broken homes, full of rage and fear and in order to survive those experiences they normalise their experiences and toughen up. It’s desperate. Put into the mix their dysfunctional peer groups and communities and it can become very toxic. Change is hard. Why be vulnerable, when you just get hurt again? Ater a while you stop. We all would.

The route to building trust is through a couple of things, the first is to create authentic and real relationships.

Relationships

Without sound, safe and healthy relationships you can’t have trust, and without trust, people won’t open up and share their underlying feelings and without that, they will defend, act out or pretend.

They will invest in their mask and pretence, rather than changing the underlying beliefs and attitudes they cling onto about themselves, such as being worthless, stupid or whatever. There is no change without acceptance first; I mean, if you are just surviving your life, you are not really going to care about geography are you?

You also need to create an environment that is not critical or judgemental, as people tend to clam up pretty quickly if they feel unsafe.

A journey

You need to create a structured long-term experience that leads to tangible outcomes. Most people plan their youth engagements around existing funding structures, but this is cart before horse. It takes a long time to create real and sustainable behavioural change. Consistency of experiences and relationships is essential. One off or short interventions are fine, but let’s not pretend they make a difference, they don’t. They may be fun, entertaining, cool or capture immediate attention, especially if it’s creative or focused around popular interests, but it won’t make a difference in the long run. A lot of people claim their programmes do make a difference, they don't.

Besides, none of that has young people come back in their own time. They are more interested in being real. Bulls**t they get on a regular basis, it is love and boundaries is what they seek, that and a need be authentically witnessed, as they move into adulthood. A rites-of-passage experience is what they search for.

All of this I have learnt in working with young people from challenging backgrounds over the years.

Being vulnerable

Critical to learning to heal our shame and embarrassment, is learning up open up and talk about those initial events that caused us so much shame and embarrassment, otherwise, we will just manage our internal beliefs, not change them in any structural or significant way.

To set the tone, I always share my excruciatingly toe curling undermining beliefs that I have had about myself. These are the ones I try to keep out of view from others, the more I share them, the more comfortable I become about it and the less hold they have on me, as well as the less I invest in having to pretend I’m not that person I had believed myself to be all those years ago!

I have a number toe curlers, but one is a belief that I am unlovable; as my parents divorced when I was young and I felt pretty much abandoned by that experience, as a result, I have always struggled with commitment ever since.

Additionally, due to that experience, I came to a conclusion that I had best toughen up and never be vulnerable - I was going to have to become successful and win by force of character, as I didn’t have a road map to success! I had no one to turn to as at the time, I certainly thought my parents were losers!

My parents didn’t enjoy school and I inherited their defended approach to education in a formal sense; as a result, I went to grammar school but was not recommended to go. I made the decision at that particular time that I didn’t really belong, I was a fraud and I was stupid; this was made more concrete in my mind, due to my poor written and spelling ability! I had little self awareness and even less confidence. At the time my parents got divorced; I dropped out of school, left home and entered the world of work. I was 17, just.

I was good at acting, or at least I thought so; people had told me and I was keen to believe them. So, I packed myself off to the best drama school in the country at the time, the drama centre, but after a year, I was kicked out. I thought that my dreams could and would never come true and I had invested everything in becoming a successful actor to prove I wasn’t stupid. There I was again, feeling even more stupid, not daring to be vulnerable and pretty much believing that I was unable to shape my destiny. I was in a foreign city, with no money, no trusted friends, no home support and nowhere to go. I was very low. I thought myself low too.

The more I share these stories, the more I realise that even though those things happened, that I could decide what they meant to me. I could liberate myself from the belief that I was stupid, brutish, unlovable, incapable, unwanted etc.

When we deny the right to be vulnerable, we also deny so many other thoughts, feelings and ideas. When we stop ourselves from being vulnerable to avoid the shame, pain and sadness, we also deaden a great many other feelings and expressions.

The secret to change is creating a ‘vocabulary for the heart’, and then slowly, the pain subsides and eventually leaves. The young people we work with often have so much pain, that they struggle to get past that overwhelming feeling of hurt and shame, to get to the rich ground of hope, belief and success.

The more we avoid or try to manage or protect ourselves from those beliefs, the more they dominate our lives and feelings. We must all learn a vocabulary for the heart.

Transitions

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:01:00 +0000

I felt compelled to write something on the urgent need to help young people understand and manage the big life transition moments, the rites-of-passage experiences that shape who we are and what we believe about ourselves and others.

There are many transitionary moments in a young person’s life, and all can be fences that can unsaddle and bring them tumbling down.

These rites of passage moments were described to me by a friend as water obstacles, which we need to cross or navigate, if we are to have a successful life – we start with puddles, then becks, then streams, ponds, then rivers, then estuaries, lakes, seas and then finally the mighty oceans, and each one of these water barriers are linked to an age for instance 3, 5, 7, 11, 16, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, then retirement and finally death.

These key transitions for young people might be:

First day at nursery (away from mum)
First day at infant school
First day at junior school
First day at secondary school
First kiss
First fight
First date
First boy/girl friend
First day at college
First time you have sex
First heartbreak/rejection/disappointment
First time you get drunk
First death
First day of apprenticeship, University, work
First day you move out of home
First pay check
Engagement, marriage
First child

And so the circle of life begins again.

At Arrival Education we are constantly supporting and hand holding young people through these tricky but essential moments, as they shape our understanding of life.

We certainly don’t want to avoid them, as they form much of our experience of the journey of life.

However, without the right guidance and framework, many are deeply wounded or hurt through the confusion and disruption that failed attempts to understand what these experiences might mean to them. Many become psychologically stuck in that moment, frozen in time, due to the experience and the decisions that were made at that point in time. This internalising process leads to key decisions about who we are, what we think about life and what we choose to do with it.

These rites-of-passage moments are central to how we learn and develop, each are stepping stones that ultimately take us into adulthood, into healthy (none destructive nurturing) partner relationships, parents and into positive role models and citizens.

Each transition point needs understanding and attention, as well as some sort of experiential framework to help them cognitively understand and process it, so they can make sense and internalise it for themselves. What we believe is our reality after all.

What if?

What if these transition experiences, these landmark moments, were part of our educational curriculum?

It would help young people make sense and calm a great many fears, soothing anxieties and giving them a language for these sometime overwhelming experiences.

As decisions will be made by all on how these experiences are played out. It will colour much of how life occurs, as well as the decisions they make in the future, how and what they learn and who they take their signals from.

What if?

What if these transition moments were more important than books, classroom learning, exams and school? What if we learnt the school of life in school?

Binary thinking and A4E

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:12:00 +0000

One of my greatest frustrations, as well as a current interest, is observing the way that people avoid thinking in complex ways, preferring instead to think in binary notions. However, binary thinking limits new ideas, how we think and our beliefs in obvious ways but also in subtle, complex and profound ways too.

Unfortunately, much of our current media consumption is delivered in this binary way, and - in my experience - nothing is just zero and ones. Examples of this type of limited thinking are:

Good or Bad
Black or White
Right or Wrong
Win or Lose
Left or Right
Conservative or Labour
Owner or Worker
North or South
England vs. The world
Attractive or Unattractive

Life just isn’t simplistic like this; nothing neatly fits in boxes or camps based upon black or white beliefs, answers or attitudes; however, in order to get messages across, political parties and and other interest groups need to coral people into simplistic notions in order to punch through the background noise.

Additionally, they are usually spun with some sort of emotional heat/angle, so people can be offended, upset, righteous, have a point of view, which will either drive interest/traffic or create binary tribal attitudes, such as, this party is bad, the other one is better!

The overall impact of this style of media and news consumption is that it creates anxiety and simplistic thoughtless notions of right and wrong, as well as a general sense of apathy and helplessness. It’s toxic, corrosive and erodes the important, more nuanced messages that are never binary.

As people who know me will attest, I’m not terribly political, but I felt frustrated recently by the press frenzy around Emma Harrison and A4E, which culminated in her being hounded out of her high profile positions and A4E having to curl its tail between its legs.

Inside the hurricane

As an award-winning Social Enterprise working with young adults from challenging backgrounds, we have been working with A4E for nearly a year now.

From the inside the camp, I was taken-a-back by the level of hatred and bile! Furthermore, I didn’t recognise the descriptions bandied around in the press. In fact, if you knew the details, you might start to see how most of the ‘facts’ propagated as 'truth' were neither facts or truth.

Yes A4E is large, they have over 3,500 staff, but big doesn’t always equal bad, just as small isn’t always good.

It strange that A4E seems to have been created by some as the pantomime villain. Any mention of A4E (or any of the Prime Contractors for that matter) and you draw hisses from the audience, as if it were curling its waxed moustache.

There is collateral damage from this kind of negative noise.

Britain doesn’t have that many successful self made business women and even fewer who have come from humble beginnings. What message did we just send out by lambasting a woman and an organisation that is fundamentally committed to trying to support the lives of those that are often the hardest to help?

If she has done anything wrong, she probably brought a little too much attention to herself; perhaps she was over hungry for the spotlight. An attitude that perhaps the more 'educated' press found gauche and coarse. She’s a tough girl from Sheffield, who built a successful business; come on, what do people expect?

I hope she can use this opportunity to reflect and grow as a person and although she may not feel it right now, it could be a blessing.

What sort of country do we want to be?

I hope one that creates and drives innovation, such as being a global leader is Social Enterprise. But all this negative press seems to be painting a different picture.

Are we trying to suggest that drivers of enterprise and business are villains?

That success should be looked down upon?

That anyone who tries to set up a business is evil?

Why does this country hate success so much? As someone who runs a social purpose business, it takes blood, sweat and tears just to tread water, never mind excel!

Are we trying to say business is bad?

Or, just those businesses that succeed?

Or, is this about faceless big business?

Or, have people collapsed Banking with all business?

Or, that anyone who supports this administration is bad?

Or, do we despise excessive dividends in a time of austerity?

What REALLY is this about? Surely, we need to get behind our business success stories? Who will help us out of this current economic climate, if not the innovators and drivers of commerce?

Let's stop the emotional binary noise and start to investigate the facts, so we can try to understand the truth and the complexity of life.

For those with an interest in accuracy, rather than hearsay, here are some facts about the events that led to the media interest about A4E.

Let’s start with the fraud allegations:

Over 3 years ago, 4 former sales staff claimed falsely that customers had been placed into employment. This was not on the Work Programme, which did not exist at this time.

Which A4E themselves uncovered nearly 2 years ago; as a result they immediately began an internal investigation, reporting the issue to the DWP, where they began a joint investigation. There was never any ‘raids…’

No further issues were found.

These 'issues' were able to arise because of a paper-based system initiated by the DWP, which was highlighted as ‘open to fraud’ and ‘inefficiency’, prior to this happening.

3 of the staff involved were suspended, once the allegations had been made; the other had already left the business. All have now left the A4E.

As a result of this, A4e commissioned a leading independent auditor to conduct an independent audit of their procedures. They made recommendations, which were enacted in full.

A4e is not under investigation. It is the former staff who were suspended who are under investigation.

Poor performance allegations:

It was alleged that A4e only got 9% of people into work on a previous programme, the press splashed with headlines of ‘abysmal performance’.

In fact, the Committee was just plain wrong with their facts: That 9% figure was for a totally different organization, not A4e. The actual performance was 24% on average, rising to 28%! 24% is pretty good when you take into account the communities they are trying to support. I know, as I'm on the coal face. When you understand the prescriptive, limiting and onerous constraints that bind much of what you can do in this space. It’s hard to be innovative with your hands tied!

Subcontractor partner allegations:

As a subcontractor, we have found A4E to be pretty generous with their cut; their management fees are some of the lowest in the sector. I sure as hell don’t want to have to do all the administration and reporting to the DWP!

Besides, it’s in A4E’s interest to find and work with the best small organizations/ sub contractors. They don’t want to suffocate quality, they want to be associated with it.

A4E has a network of hundreds of partners on the Work Programme, 49.7% of which are social in focus – social enterprises and charities.

Additionally, with the new 'payment by results' model, they shoulder much of the risk and often don’t get payment themselves until much further down the road, if at all.

To conclude, sure A4E have not got it all right. Who has?

But to cast them as the evil face of privatization is just daft! They make mistakes, but in broad terms, they are trying to do right both to those they are trying to help and to those like Arrival Education who deliver the work.

For those who might want to scratch below the surface, perhaps this had very little to do with A4E and more to do with Emma’s high profile roles, and her connections to The Big Society agenda.

Isn’t it time we all grew up and realized that nothing is as it seems; that there is good and bad in all things, right and wrong, excellence and failure. When we fall into simplistic binary notions, zeros and ones, we lose sight of what life is really like – complex and challenging, where, in our own way, we are all trying to create success in a sea of change and challenge, which is hard at the best of times. Let's celebrate success not undermine it!

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going to

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

As we approach the end of 2011 and peer into 2012, it gives me time to reflect not only on this year, but the adventure as a whole, and celebrating by far and away the most rewarding and important thing I have ever done, namely creating Arrival Education.

We have been getting Arrival Education investment ready this year, with support of UnLtd and Incutoc (an external investor ready business); during that process, we had to write a history of the results we have generated to-date as part of our investment ready documentation.

Writing that history, was one of the most inspiring things I have done. In the writing of it, I become present to the results and journey we have been on to get here. Here is that abridged history of AE:

History

Started in 2004 by Daniel Snell, in response to the murder of a friend’s 17 year-old brother, Arrival Education began as a voluntary organisation, delivering after-school and Saturday programmes to young people in a challenging urban Academy. In 2006 Daniel left the security of employment and with the support of Emily Shenton, spent an academic year working with teachers and young people.

The experience clarified for Daniel and Emily that the prevalent thinking and approach to creating lasting behavioural change was not working. They spent the summer of 2007 engaging with leading educationalists and business leaders: the result was Success for Life. Daniel and Emily then leveraged their corporate contacts to create the partnerships that would resource Success for Life.

Their vision was to develop young people, from challenging communities, into young adults who could hold their own with those from the top private schools.

In early 2008 Arrival Education was the first organisation chosen for the Young Foundation’s Learning Launchpad. The £25,000 grant was awarded in recognition of their innovative approach.

The first pilot Success for Life programmes ran in spring 2008. Since then 24 cohorts have started, from 14 different schools. Arrival Education has also delivered over 700 highly effective volunteering interactions for staff, from 22 leading organisations.

In the summer of 2008, Arrival Education was commissioned by leading International law firm, Eversheds, to deliver a programme in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London, which, in 2009 received The Learning and Skills Council’s Excellence Award.

In 2009 Arrival Education also conceived the Green Talent Fellowship Programme – designed to introduce young people, from disadvantaged backgrounds, to the commercial opportunities of the emerging green sector. This was commissioned by Gordon Brown’s Talent and Enterprise Taskforce and was delivered in partnership with The Eden Project, Rolls-Royce, Boots, Skanska and EDF Energy. The programme was launched nationally by PM Gordon Brown in his annual party conference speech.

That same year, Arrival Education was commissioned by Brislington College, Bristol, to run a pilot programme for disengaged boys, called “I’m alright, you’re alright”.

In autumn 2009 Success for Life helped Investec win the prestigious Lord Mayor’s Dragon’s Award.

Throughout 2009/10 Arrival Education focussed on the content, delivery and impact of Stages 1, 2 and 3 of Success for Life – refining Stage 1 and designing and delivering Stages 2 and 3 for the first time.

In 2010 Arrival Education was commissioned by NESTA to deliver “Successful and Cool” to Year 8 students in London. NESTA and Pearson also funded a research programme delivered by Arrival Education, investigating why working class white kids are prone to disengage from school. In August, they celebrated an extremely successful GCSE results day with a special reception at Downing Street, hosted by Deputy Prime MinisterNick Clegg. This was accompanied by a high profile interview on BBC news. In autumn 2010 they were finalists in the Dragon’s Awards for Community Partners and Education, chosen ahead of many more established organisations.

More recently, in 2011, Arrival Education was commissioned to deliver its first Leadership Development Programmes for Kerry Foods and Enterprise-Rent-A-Car - here. They also conceived and delivered ‘The Entrepreneur’s Mindset’ programme in partnership with Investec – to teach young people how to think like Entrepreneurs. Arrival Education also continued to deliver ‘Eversheds Unlocked’, including expansion into Cardiff in August 2011.

The London Riots galvanised the Arrival Education team + Oli Barrett to create and lead on the first significant youth-focussed response – ‘Not in Our Name’. Following a breakfast reception at Downing Street with the Prime Minister and an event held in Westminster, ‘Not in Our Name’ garnered global press coverage, showing the world a more positive side to London’s young people. This was delivered at one of Arrival Education’s busiest programme delivery periods.

In September 2011 in recognition of its readiness to scale, Arrival Education was chosen as one of UnLtd’s Big VentureChallenge (“BVC”) Award Winners.

Hit your mark

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:23:00 +0000

Like most, I often struggle to find the right balance betwixt being overly optimistic vs. being too pessimistic.

I think on the whole, I fall into the camp of being a glass half full. However, I fear, like most men I have the tendency to exaggerate a little. Perhaps, in an honest moment, by expand the truth (size, outcomes etc) by at least 15%!

There must be some optimum tipping point, where we become most productive.

Where we are not too ungrounded or foolish; a lightweight, where people immediately discount everything we say due to our pie-in-the-sky rush in mentality.

VS.

Being overwhelmed by a desire for perfection, caught in a suffocating – if well intentioned – desire to get everything right.

I think being a little overly optimistic produces better results; and the current evidence suggests as much.

Some risk is critical for success. You need a certain disregard of risk control, in order to achieve any level of success.

There are some things that start to eat into that disregard and focus the mind, which bring some tension into the equation. And can ultimately unravel success.

Experience and age
Commitments or burden by other accountabilities
Responsibilities for outcomes and others
The need to guarantee outcomes/success
When you have things to loose – money, reputation etc...

Where do other people stand on this?

Notes from a Social Enterprise

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:14:00 +0000

Some highlights a month into our 3 year Big Venture Challenge UnLtd programme.

We had the launch event and boot camp at newly launched The Westminster Hub.An event that was both useful and practical.

We heard from Sinclair Beecham and Lara Morgan; both were inspiring in their candid appraisal of what it really takes to become successful. Both have seen hardships and great success and that journey and experience was evident in their insights. Great.

We had a chance to meet the25 winners/peers, as well as hear from some social enterprises that have managed to secure some significant investment, which is no mean feat in this challenging investment market.

We finished the day at The Guardian with a champagne reception.

We have been working with our UnLtd contact over the last month. This process is very useful as it reminds me of what we do (and what we should be doing) as well as get the operation streamlined for external investment.

Bookmarking a life...

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:44:00 +0000

Things often move so fast these days - in my life at least - that it’s hard to take stock of one’s progress and achievements, let alone what one has learned.

How do people mark the past? A past that increasingly occurs as dancing shadows to me.

What signs, or bread crumbs do we lay down in order to be able to look back, remember and make sense of the events, thoughts and key experiences that shape who we are?

Otherwise, life is a series of days, nights, weeks, months, and years... endlessly slipping through our minds eye.

With some, its films or TV shows; with others, its songs and others its holidays, or cars? Or even girl or boyfriends (perhaps?): but for most of us, we store memory and history in the key social, political or personal events.

Where were you when?

Kennedy was shot, or Elvis or Diana died

Twin towers

When granddad past away

What year you went to high school

First record (Tape, 8-track, CD, iTune)

Had your first kiss

Lost your virginity

Your first pay check and what you spent it on

This catalogue of ‘things’ that we thread our lives with that hold the past together... a thread we may follow back, dropped bread crumbs that lead us back to the path, in order to remind ourselves of who we were once and what we thought, did or we were involved in.

For me though, it’s often books.

I look upon my bookshelf and I can make sense of the connections and the past. A jumble of interlockers, which suddenly snap into organised patterns that make sense, in my mind ... at least.

I try to read when I can, but it’s not always easy in this modern age. 'A helmut for a pillow' is my current read.

Important reads of my adolescence – Siddhartha, anything by Graham Greene, Slaughter House-Five, Catch-22, The Catcher on the Rye, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Wasp Factory, Iron John, Fear and Loathing (I laughed whilst I read the whole book in one night), Anything by Kerouac or Camus, The ragged trouser philanthropist, Harper Lee’s - To Kill a Mocking Bird, The works of Nietzsche, Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance.

What were yours?

#the25

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:29:00 +0000

To my dear reader (hello mum *wave*) firstly, a declaimer:

You may have little sympathy for me as I fly BA into Bologna for a business, wine and food entrepreneurs retreat.

And now...

The last 3 month has been busy to the point of being dysfunctional, but/and it has also been a highly productive purple patch.

I don’t think I could work at this pace over an extended period, without it exacting a toll upon my health.

An overview of the last 12 weeks:

We’ve conceptualised, designed and delivered a range of new programmes!

We also welcome our new clients – EAPD Law and ERAC! Any new client takes considerable effort; sign up and servicing is a demanding (and painfully slow) process.

Then there is our central programme – success for life. It marches on but needs constant attention and effort. Like all change programmes, it is resource and time intensive. Working with young people always is. Anyone who tells you they can ‘transform’ anyone in a weekend is either a charlatan or thief.

There are no quick fixes, if there were, someone would have delivered it already. But some people keep on drinking their own Kool-Aid.

It was a very busy summer schedule then the London riots happened. Choosing to respond to the circumstances with a cross sector positive youth led event called – not in our name - we got stuck in.

#Notinourname generated incredible amounts of media interest; culminating in a Downing Street meeting with the Prime Minster and going global with Associated Press. Here.

Although a fantastic experience, it meant our team lost 2 weeks’ worth of work and focus time. It also meant for a week or so not having much sleep. You do what it takes.

Investment

In the background whilst all this was happening over the summer we have been attempting to get the organisation investment ready. This has been made possible by using the services of an excellent CFO, as well as other experienced business professionals. This focus has led us to winning a place on the BVC UnLtd SocEnt programme, hash-tagged on twitter as #the25.

Alongside 24 other Social Enterprises (I look forward to getting to know over time) represent the best (disclaimer) social enterprises in the UK; ready to be accelerated and scaled; a timely victory, and an opportunity for encouragement, insight, in-put and for seeking external investment.

UnLtd’s programme is designed to last 3 years and is seen by the sector as an opportunity to share best practice, as well as a vehicle to demonstrate that the social enterprise space is ready for investment and for successful growth, as government increasingly steps away from the 3^rd sector and it starts to look after itself.

AE was again achieved the honour of being nominated for the Lord Mayor’s Dragon’s Award as community partner. A real boon.

Somewhere in amongst all this, we moved offices and we also lost and gained some staff.

As we start our decent path toward a sunny and beautiful Italian destination, you probably think this is the ranting of a prima donna, (after all, loads of people work 80 hour weeks). I guess I write this more for my own sake, to make sense of what has been a period that has seen us move into a thriving period within the business. I pushed myself so hard that at one point my eye balls were literally bleeding. Not a good look.

Although this summer was the hardest I’ve ever known, I sense I will look back upon it as the summer that might be marked as the tipping point in our development and growth. If not, I may have aged unnecessarily.

The David and Goliath myth

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:18:00 +0000

I recently had a very interesting conversation with a leading figure in the social enterprise space about how social enterprise’s struggle to work with the lead bid or primary contractor organisations known in the 3rd sector as Primes.

Read Jack Graham’s Guardian here on the subject.

As the eagle-eyed Guardian readers among us may have noticed, the government spending pie is shrinking, and social enterprises are getting a smaller slice than ever. For example, 16 out of 18 prime contractors of the Coalition's Work Programme are commercial organisations; voluntary organisations are relegated to less profitable sub-contracts....in an increasingly competitive environment, seems to slope towards large private sector firms such as A4E and Serco.

Ironically, "evidence-based" government procurement often creates more bureaucratic process than impact. Large contractors can afford systems to feed the beast of bureaucracy but many social entrepreneurs feel that they are working harder for the customer, funder or auditor than for the communities they were set up to serve. To stand a fair chance, social entrepreneurs need to innovate.

AE have been working closely with A4e over the last 9 months on a number of different fronts.

And I felt compelled to rebuff some of the commonly held notions that SocEnts and other commentators may have about sub contracting or partnership relationships with Primes.

I have found A4e to be nearly as entrepreneurial as we, keen to understand us and to be open from the outset. There has never been any subject that has been ‘off grounds’ and we have been able to shape much of the work and the structure of the deals, some of which we’ve been driving some they have.

I know A4e find it very frustrating when there is negative PR because they are genuinely attempting to make partnership relations work. They know they have to move toward and work with the dynamic and innovative suppliers because that is where the future lies. In fact, Andrew Dutton (Group CEO) has personally made it his mission the understand partner relations, particularly with SocEnts.

I think some of this has to do with the Work Programme (DWP) and in particular, a misunderstanding of how the finance structures and arrangements apply to the contracts / sub contractors.

When you speak to SocEnt's there’s a belief that they will get finance up front from the Prime, which isn’t how the WP funding model works.

Because payment comes only on results – is this fair? Discuss – They have to bare the risk and stump the cash themselves. There is less govt. money around and now they have to internally fund things themselves. Not easy.

I think there are some constraining factors that perhaps SocEnts are shying away from but need to be aired. I'll start the debate...

The Primes know they have to change and they are obliged to work with partner organisations anyways, but the days of big safe guaranteed money contracts are gone, which means the Primes have to think laterally which means scoping, piloting and selling v good concepts/programmes and fund them in new ways afterwards (perhaps overseas if they can), these packages need to be priced right and can actually be delivered on, once you move on from the scope and pilot stage and start to scale.

This requires new skill-sets that some SocEnt’s don’t currently have. Just like the fact that Triodos, Bridges and others struggle to find SocEnts to invest in is not that there aren’t any, there are loads it’s because they are NOT INVESTMENT READY!

That is something SocEnt’s will have to get their heads around if they are going to progress.

Join the RSA SocEnt group for events on this and other subjects. The next event is on the 12th October.

A4e and other Primes (I’m sure) want to work with good organisations that are genuinely bringing new thinking and quality delivery to the space, however, small organisations don’t have much resource and struggle to invest too much time in scoping, winning, piloting, administrating and managing contracts, where larger organisations have the luxury and resource to do so (within reason).

It’s hard for fledgling SocEnts to spend months chasing things that don’t end up materialising just because there’s a new internal edict that means the focus of the SocEnt is no longer that of the Prime they’ve been working with. Small organisations just don’t have the resource to suck and see, as most small business live on what they kill. It’s pretty hand to mouth for the first few years.

A suggestion for Primes might be:

Invest a lot of front up time in scouting and scoping really good delivery partners, that once endorsed can be invested in with a little more surety.

Then perhaps a 3 step relationship pathway which a Prime could front load, which they could claw back later: for instance, once an organisation has been qualified and chosen after rigorous examination

Small fund for scope
Larger fund for pilot
Standard (minus % or fee clawed back) on contract

We need to avoid the cliché of Primes as BIG BAD buys and SocEnts as good guys doing good but being wrung dry by the naughty large vampire institutions, who are only about the money. This is just NOT true and and will entrench unhelpful and inaccurate attitudes.

Being big tends to get negative press anyways but we all need to think a little better and more holistically in order to understand each other. A4e for instance are reaching out to their community partners in order to listen to their concerns, as well as feeding back to their commercial teams on how we can support this.

They are listening and trying like we all are. But don’t put Primes on a pedestal they are populated with humans like you and me.

It might be that I worked in corporate business before, but the bigger a business and there are 3,500 staff at A4e, the harder it is to get everything right, it doesn’t mean you're bad, it’s just bigger and slower.

Having looked at some of the detail of the work programme it looks like a difficult contract to run, actually it looks like a dog. I believe A4e are trying to do the best they can with a hospital pass. I don’t know who put it out there but there seems to be an expectation that the Primes would cover the risk and support financially. They aren’t and can’t. Besides businesses are full of individuals with their own internal challenges and issues – welcome to business and being human.

SocEnts have to take ownership and responsibility for the terms which they go into business.

A4e have been as up front with us right from the start. Perhaps it’s more about the nature of the questions socially focused delivers and organisations ask? Are they good questions?

Advice to SocEnts:

Be prepared to walk away from business – always.
You have more influence and importance in the relationship (if you are any good) than you might realise.
Check contracts get a good Lawyer involved (David Ramm is good)
Ask commercial questions – don’t stop asking until you are happy with the answers you get
Put lots of irons in lots of fires – if this is you’re only revenue you have then you deserve everything you get

When we become scared of our children

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:47:00 +0000

There’s a Proverb that goes - it takes a whole village to raise a child - it seems to me to be very evident that we have not understood the proverb and have marginalised many of our children, to such an extent that their behaviour now occurs as dangerous to us.

The events which have unfolded over the last week in the London riots and beyond, are probably not a surprise to any of us who work in the communities affected.

That said, the moral outrage at the behaviour of the few is understandable and even justifiable. Wild boys make us uneasy, due to their fierce unpredictability and unreasonableness. What was the logic? Organised gang theft of factory made plastic goods whose real retail price is what? Pennies?

However, let us focus on the cause, rather than the effect, otherwise this is plasters for cancer.

We must act to resolve this.

A solution

To do that, we need to engage and listen to those children, if we are to genuinely understand why this happened. #notinourname was a start, but only a beginning. We need intelligent listening and understanding, as we move into solution mode is required next here.

Everyone is angry, scared and confused (the fabric of safety has been pulled at) and in response many seem to be looking to find people to blame, rather than take a collective responsibility.

But this is our village and these are our children.

Looking for easy targets to blame never works, responsibility and healing is something that we must take ownership of.

THESE ARE OUR CHILDREN AND THEY ARE MADE IN BRITAIN TOO

I'm wary of adults who are quick to cast their own from their homes and villages so quickly. If they are dysfunctional, we made them so. They are our boys.

In all the years I’ve spent working with young men, I’ve never met one which given the right time and relating wasn’t a good person; I’ve never been scared of one of them or had to cross the road.

Given the time to be so, all were intelligent, thoughtful, articulate and kind - to me at least. Once trust has been formed – which takes time and consistency – all things can be said and understood and great change is possible, we’ve proven that time and again in the work we’ve done at Arrival Education, if not with all, then with most.

Haven’t we all lost something here? Something important?

We've lost our children, we've misplaced them outdoors, and as a result, become a little infantile with our own needs, wants and responsibilities.

The world owes us nothing, but we owe our children everything.

The Government cannot fix this, us or our issues, only we can do that. And that is something we must do if this is not to repeat itself, when the boys are let out in a year from now or just replaced with other boys.

This is our village, this is our house and these are our children.

Discipline is important but secondary to love and understanding. No one ever changed from a stick to the head, that just entrenches existing attitudes, beliefs and feelings.

My message to those who care is don’t be scared of our children, of our wild boys, they just need to be shown the way.

We need to go out to meet them, listen to them, hear what they have to say, invite them into our houses, feed and water them, nourish them and place them on a path that creates success.

If we don’t do this, these wild boys turn into wild men, whose arms are bigger than yours and mine, whose minds are turned to darker matters. This is the nature of those cast aside and live with survival and little hope, outside the house and the village.

What we need to do is take these very same boys at the heart of these communities and have take responsibility for their lives and their own village and homes and yes this takes time and empowerment.

But if we cast our children from the house, don’t be surprised if they try to smash the windows and doors to get back in.

Interesting times and the law of re-correction

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:25:00 +0000

In physics, it states that for every force, there is an equal and opposite force and this law can be applied to anything.

For the last couple of decades, we have enjoyed good living, in fact it turns out we were all living beyond our means, through a debt fuelled spending spree which has now come to an end. In other words 16 years of growth, may mean 16 years of economic decline, as we find the natural water line.

This debt fuelled existence felt like the norm, but in reality, we all just spent money we didn’t have, we rode the wave, we lived beyond our means, and you can only stretch that model so far, before it corrects itself and snaps back to its real position. Our houses weren’t what we thought they were, the real price is what it was worth 20 years ago, perhaps less; It turned out that we did have to pay back our loans and credit cards, and that a job wasn't guaranteed for life and that a university degree was perhaps worthless.

I remember as a child going to Greece and thinking how poor they were, you could have an amazing fresh lunch back then for £1! I had the same insight when I was first in Spain back in the late 70’s. Since then these nations and the people in them, have all lived lives that were entirely different from those back then.

But how? And who funded this growth? Where did the money and investment come from? Why was it released? Who thought it would be sustainable? Why didn’t people save or invest?

There are over 750,000 empty properties in Spain today and over 40% unemployment for the under 25’s!

Across many of the Western economies, social mobility has not only ground to a halt, it has gone into reverse and for the first time since world war 2, there is the real likelihood that we (you) will be poorer than our (your) parents.

UK’s empire has been in decline since 1904 (in part due to being over stretched in the Boer war and the USA’s new supremacy of metal bottomed gunships); so we, I think, have got a little more used to being in a declining state, but for the USA, this is all rather new! I wonder how they feel as they lose their dollar value. Losing the triple A is the beginning.

What does this mean on a personal, corporate/fiscal and state level?

Personal

It means the average person will have to make do with less, (it will really hurt the under class) that things we expected or thought were a right are not, that things we took for granted may be taken away regardless of how we feel about it.

That unless you can fund and finance certain things and experiences for yourself and your children they may get pushed out of your reach and therefore, you and your kin will fall behind in terms of social mobility and other socio-economic measurements.

This might include access to education, access to the web and information, food, quality accommodation, holidays, pensions, transport and healthcare.

Things we consider a right now, may no longer be considered as such, and are in fact, a luxury. Can and will you give them up?

Business

Building a business in zero growth environments may become the norm. This usually has two pressures – the product or service deteriorates as it tries to remain competitive (which we have seen in the things we buy in the high street – not as well made as the stuff we once bought) and salaries will be squeezed, we'll have to work for less in real terms, if profitability is to remain.

A business must remain profitable; otherwise, it goes out of business and people lose their jobs. But in finite constrained environments of the shrinking market, something has to give.

Can we state change the game on a global playing field? Will nations in these desperate times, do desperate things? Will they become protectionist for instance? Will they start making things at home again?

Many businesses I know are only hiring from within. So employment opportunities are strangled right now.

The evidence suggests if you are out of employment for more than 3 years, it’s nearly impossible to get back in. Recruiters will always try to entice someone in a job to move, than finding an unemployed person who is qualified or even better qualified than the person in employment.

There is a great deal of anxiety within business right now due to the market conditions. People’s behaviour gets strange when they’re scared. They make poor commercial and ethical decisions, as they wish to keep their jobs. Working hard for instance is now the norm, long hours too. Businesses expect 8 – 6 and if you are unwilling to work those hours as normal, best of luck kid!

Country

As we see a swing from west to east and we see the rise of new economies in China, India and Brazil we see the impact of that wealth/power swing. When there are finite resources globally, people need to understand that if they are getting richer, someone is getting poorer.

The truth is - it’s us, we are getting poorer!

We may have to do with less. We have paid for the new roads and factories in China, perhaps we weren’t aware of that, but none the less, that is what has happened.

Are we OK about that? Are Greece, Italy, Ireland and Spain OK about going back to their 70’s existence and lifestyle choices now they've tasted these new levels of wealth? Will the bright and able kids just leave? Where will they go? What does it mean? Will it create tensions and wars?

Where will these wars be fought out?

China is buying up much of Africa right now. Will the West allow that to continue? Will proxy wars be fought in Nigeria and other resource rich nations in the way the USA/Communist axis flexed their muscles in other nations yesteryear?

We are indeed in interesting times.

If you and your organisation can’t move at a global level, you may be in trouble. In the meantime, you best learn Chinese.

Permission to fail

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:44:00 +0000

What an extraordinary last two weeks I’ve had.

Not perfect, not even good, actually, it’s been difficult. But as often is the case, we grow in the face of difficulties. I can’t remember a more insightful fortnight for my own personal development in a very long time. Who knew that difficulty equates to growth and not something to be avoided.

I’m a man made of my experiences and epoch. My parents and their parents, didn’t really talk too much about their weaknesses and failings; none of them were too comfortable talking about what didn’t work, there was a powerful under-current that we – my brothers and I - were to put our best self forward, in order to show the world how successful we were. We didn’t invest too much time in what didn’t work or failure.

When things didn’t work out, it wasn’t our fault, it was other people, or circumstance that were at fault, but never us. A physical wall was constructed to protect us from the outside world. This attitude presented me with some mixed blessings.

I suppose you could say we had a positive upbeat sunny disposition in our family. The other side of the coin is that we hid, controlled and protected what we weren’t or hadn’t figured out – both from ourselves and the outside world - but there was an even darker side effect, which is that we weren't allowed not to know and it became a weight that stopped the free enquiry of the learning mind.

My family, and in turn myself, invested in the pretence that we knew – about things, everything really - more than the process of learning. It became a suffocating constrictive mask, where vulnerability and ignorance were not allowed. We had to be successful, regardless; the irony was we were all destined to fail in such a domestic controlling culture of anxiety and fear.

Even now, my parents don’t allow for their own weakness and failure; neither do they allow me to be weak – I have to go out and succeed - it's a historic family belief and it profoundly stops growth and success. With us, it has to be good news or nothing; the conversation becomes awkward if questions of failure arise. This thinking stops the most important space... the space not to know, the space for questions.

In a profound shift, I’ve decided I am going to try to remain in the place of being ignorant and free myself of the cloak of pretence. I look forward to creating a mindset of enquiry, so I can investigate how things work unburdened from the pretence of knowing things. Newly cast as the person who doesn’t have the answers to everything.

I have spent my life pretending that I knew more than I did. Which seems ridiculous now that I write this, but this is how it’s been since as far back as I can remember.

From the first day I turned up at primary school, there was nothing anyone could teach me, not even my perfectly good teachers. I'm sure after a while they gave up, or thought me stupid or ignorant, where in fact, I was just acting out my family drama. A fear of not knowing. I was profoundly closed minded and my grades reflected that attitude. I think they let me go my own way because my parents owned their own business, perhaps they thought I would just inherit it.

I don’t blame my parents or my grandparents who had their own challenges to face, including the Second World War and all the tragedies that brought – heck, my granddad built a successful business rising from a family of miners.

I just want to free myself of ignorance and the clamp of pretence because of some unwritten responsibility that was silently passed to me that I never wanted or asked for, so I may have a learner mindset and have permission to fail.

Thank you Ben Cooper, you knew before I did.

Stuck in our own past based thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:36:00 +0000

I had a Facebook moment yesterday, when I realised that people (myself perhaps?) assess each other or think they know each other today/now, based on their assessment of each other from yesteryear.

As if we’re the same person we were 20, 15, 10, 5 years ago.

But we are all constantly changing aren’t we?

Am I the same young man they think they know today, who made all those social mistakes that a 15 year old makes? Am I the same person before them now, who is busy making different and new middle aged faux pas?

On what grounds and criteria are we being assessed? Can we influence or control that unconscious debate?

The human mind is structured in such a way as we're blinded by it's own ignorance and pattern forming nature.

It’s easier to make a past based assessment of someone and look for the evidence to be proved right, than listen to them a fresh with an open mind. It takes concentrated effort to hear and grasp that we and they are actually totally different and not the same person they once were - even if they were that person we imagined they were. But that takes immense effort to constantly allow people to be new, different from the person you imagine them to be.

It’s easier to imagine the people I went to school with, are the same people now. But they were 15 then and so was I. It’s ridiculous, but we all do it don’t we?

We conveniently judge people, based on past assessments and experiences, but what we forget is that we’re assessing and judging people from a yesteryear position with our yesteryear mind; a position that was just as youthful and ignorant as the person we were assessing and judging.

It’s as if we can’t take the imaginative leap that takes into account that we are all growing up and getting wiser. That this entire process is fluid and that as our relationship to everything changes so does everyone else’s?

Does anyone have any further reading or suggestions on this subject?

No reward without risk

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:03:00 +0000

Entrepreneur Mindset – #2 Risk taking

The ability to take calculated and measured risks is critical to increasing success for an entrepreneur. But what does risk taking look like and how do you learn it?

It’s one of the hardest skills to master, and is probably, in all likelihood, formed in childhood. It’s the BIG one that stops most people from doing their own thing, following their own dreams.

If you’re the sort of person waiting for the right time, or are flicking through University courses on entrepreneurship, or keep telling yourself you need some more experience first or more money in the bank, chances are you aren’t or shouldn’t be an entrepreneur.

I don’t mean to put you off and certainly entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes but always remember the risks are as great as the potential rewards. In fact there are no rewards without risks.

I think there are 4 types of entrepreneur – you figure which one you might be.

The ungrounded fantasist that leaps without thought regardless of outcome
The practical and talented visionary who works out the angles
Driven and consumed by an idea that takes over everything
The ‘I couldn’t do anything else even if I wanted to’ entrepreneur, who couldn’t work for other people, even if they wanted to

It’s a trick question, because in reality, you’ll probably a mixture of all four! That got you huh?

Sure you can de-risk a business venture, (more on that in due course) but ultimately, you'll have to leap, no one can creep to success. Success takes everything, you’re going to have to go for it! Besides, old mother time waits for no one. There’s a difference between being ready and plain avoidance!

I started off imagining I would make millions – this time next year Rodney! But being an entrepreneur actually has very little to do with money – although important; it has everything to do with trying to make things work, trying to be exceptional - if not at everything, then - at least at one thing, dear God, please let me be exceptional at one thing! It’s about passion and love and people and the challenge of it all. Sure you don’t want to mess up and look a fool, but that’s secondary compared the the thrill of it! It’s addictive, a drug, your business, enterprise, organisation quietly slips under your skin, and before you know it, it’s your lover! You can’t live without it!

And just like a drug it has incredible highs and lows too, it’s a roller coaster, one minute you are up, the next you’re trying to hold on!

The upsides of being an entrepreneur are fantastic! The highs are incredibly high. The downsides can absolutely floor you. Sometimes those are obvious gut punches, most of the time they are more like a dawning realisation that you missed a trick. Without knowing, or realising, there’s an awakening feeling that something slipped through your fingers. The piece of business you invested time into that didn’t turn into fruition, or a relationship you thought was good, wasn’t, competition that snuck past you in the middle of the night.

How do the average entrepreneur learn to take risks?

A passionate entrepreneur will do anything to protect their baby, their lover, their drug and when push comes to shove, they’ll do anything not to fail and most things to try to succeed! Once you’re in the game, you won’t even think about it. You’ll just be aware you have to take greater and greater risks in order to grow and develop or in some cases survive.

Learn to be with new, with change (it's a constant any ways), engage with it, investigate what scares you, what stops you, develop your capacity to be with ambiguity, lack of comfort and not having all the answers. Learn to take risks and trust your instinct. It's in the arena of risk taking and failure that you will learn the most.

If you're interested in speaking to me or finding out about AE, as well as funding or joining the RSA. Please book yourself into the RSA SocEnt event at Investec on the 8th of June.

CLASSIFYING CLASS

noreply@blogger.com (Late Arrival) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:22:00 +0000

I have a professional interest in social mobility, and in particular, in understanding how to influence it. As a starting point, I believe it’s important to understand how to measure class.

To which, I wanted to continue the debate on current social classification in the UK, after reading Sam Leith’s article in the RSA Journal entitled ‘Class Dismissed’ .

My issue, as with Sam’s, is that the simple triptych classification model of upper, middle and lower, simply no longer applies well enough for understanding, marketing or policy making. Class has become fragmented with ever more complexly - a little like media and news channels, there are subgroups within subgroups – to a point where the historic crude rules of class have been diluted to such a significant point that they aren’t really useful any more.

There seems to be class distinction leakage, in terms of what defines a thing or a person in any one class. As a result there’s a constant and fluid battle ground over the ownership and position of class and its telltale signature values, opinions, objects and attitudes. For example, one might have ‘middle’ class attitudes in one area and ‘working’ class positions in another arena, such as, proudly supporting a football team - surely the denizen and preserve of the working class- juxtaposed against eating only the best prawn sandwiches (from M&S), which would suggest a different class distinction. In fact, the more you think about class rules, the more fluid and complex it becomes, which is why some people are so tribal about the class badge.

A class badge, worn with honour and at times even aggressive hostility, underpins the desire to belong to a tribe. Hence, ‘you’re a plastic football fan’ or ‘where do you source your buffalo mozzarella’ are not only communications to the wider world, but probably a need to help frame and understand who we are, by the community we’d like to be associated with.

It’s also interesting that someone now might not want to move from their ‘social badge’. Although, I think this class chip on the shoulder only applies to the working class? The middle class seem to feel apologetic for being middle class, where as upper and working classes seem to be able to wear their badge more readily, preferring to wear it with pride and why not?

The working class historically would have aspired to rise from their humble situation, to be working class might have meant a life of misery, toil and strife, something to get out of if at all possible. Where, now it’s ‘I’m Millwall and proud’. As if defining yourself as working class, as long as you have money (loads of money) is the aspiration of the working class. There maybe a classification below working class, which might be the 'not working class.'

Perhaps I’m wrong here, but I sense it’s only the middle and upper classes, which look back fondly with rose tinted glasses upon the lives of the ‘simple’ folk as charming idles; all rosie cheeked, hard working honest souls, in their leather hob nailed boots, corn stalk in mouth with their warm beer humour. Being poor is, and always will be, ugly. Due to my work, I witness the consequences of being poor every day - the violence, the debt, the loan sharks, the stupidity and ignorance – are terrifying in their vicelike grip.

My assertion is that money plays much more of a significant role to social mobility and class, than whether you went to a comprehensive, a grammar or to a fee paying school and it has been the access to money over the last few decades, which has given rise to a need for a new social classification model.

As wealth has spread through society (if not equally), bringing with it education, comfort and time to think, our attitudes and opinions have changed accordingly.

Money and what it affords are linked to class.

Class reveals itself in shibboleths for everyone to see. The ‘h’emphasis of adding of the ‘h’ in yesteryear, to the avocado bathroom suite, the trolley-dollies, the carpet and sofa savers were the objects that identified the new middle class in their suburban homes.

But now, it’s more confusing. There are so many subtle class indicators that defining someone’s class is quite difficult.

Although many of the labels have changed, social mobility for the poor, has never been harder. In the last decade we have seen unparalleled investment into social mobility but the proportion of poorer children reaching university has only risen by 3% and near 3 million children live in poverty and that number is increasing not declining.

It's obvious, that it's not access to money alone that makes social mobility possible, it’s also attitudes, peer groups and opinions. It’s very hard to have attitudes that don’t mirror and match those of your community and tribe. As it would point to their limitations, which might bring challenging feels and conflict to the fore.

There is a palpable fear of change and the name calling which comes with leaving old opinions and people behind that holds the working class in check. Is there any worse character assassination than calling someone nuevo riche? All upwardly looking, social climbing, pretentious, all airs and graces etc? Integrating all those new social ideas and behaviours is challenging and if you get it wrong there can be deep embarrassment. Integrating all those class messages successfully is hard work, for many it’s just easier to control what they know, rather than being left open to potential mockery.

However, wanting to upgrade up the social ladder would be the smartest thing to do. Aspiring to educate oneself is the greatest of all aspirations.

The only way to guarantee social mobility is in longitudinal pathway programmes. Without that approach, it's hard to qualify the impact.