27,000 Fellows; 260+ Catalyst applications; 80+ networks: We’re stepping up support for more
At the RSA, we’ve been working with Fellowship networks for some years. Our aim has been to provide opportunities for the most active and innovative Fellows to support each other and to help the RSA meet its goals.
I am excited to announce a new phase in our efforts. With the Governance Advisory Group recommendations adopted at last year’s AGM being implemented and the Fellowship survey results in, we are now in a position to refocus our efforts. Specifically, Trustees would like to increase support for high-potential projects.
For this reason, the team will now split into two inter-dependent entities: one focused on the day-to-day work of RSA Fellowship Regions and Nations, working with Fellows where they are; one providing specialised support for Fellowship activity, including our Catalyst seed fund, online community management, communications support and so on.
To focus the mind – the Trustees have asked that by 2015, the RSA should have a well-established series of support mechanisms to ensure that the most active, engaged and innovative Fellows regard the RSA as a major resource for the achievement of their goals. This will mean actively developing those mechanisms in dialogue with Fellows and in response to the findings of the Fellowship survey. It will also mean increasingly focusing our resources on supporting practical, innovative work undertaken by our most active and engaged Fellows.
By restructuring the team we will be able to meet the following specific objectives over the coming years:
• develop clearer access points and information for those active and innovative Fellows wishing to engage with the RSA more closely for the first time;
• raise the number and quality of applications to the Catalyst fund;
• improve the in-kind support and advice offered to Catalyst winners through development of the Skills Bank and improved links with Projects;
• design and resource ‘enhanced support’ for those Fellowship activities that reach the point at which they can achieve significantly increased levels of impact and profile;
• provide greater opportunities for the most active and innovative Fellows to support each other and establish new networks through development of the Skills Bank, holding of more regional, national and international network events and encouraging greater use of on-line resources
We’ve been working closely with the Trustee board and the Fellowship Council leadership on this and we’re now ready to get underway.
Introducing the Regional Programme team – led by Vivs Long-Ferguson
This team will provide support for our Regional, National and Network leaders as well as the RSA Programme as a whole in line with strategy and against a clear set of impact-driven targets. Vivs brings a wealth of experience from the field to this role and is itching to get started – and going forward, the regionally focused Networks Managers will be known as Regional Programme Managers to better reflect what the role entails.
Introducing the Specialist Programme team – led by Jamie Cooke
Charged with supporting the Regional Programme team as well as the RSA Programme as a whole including a series of priority Fellowship projects, this team will be deploying specialist skills in a focused manner.
The RSA Fellowship Regional and Specialist Programme team (née Fellowship Networks) provides support to our most active and innovative Fellows
Later this summer we’ll be introducing a new role – that of Project Engagement Manager designed to meet the strategic imperative around Projects. Sam Thomas has been appointed to this role – yet it will be a transition over time as he is of course currently fully focused on supporting London Region.
To keep things simple, we’re also amending a few job titles in the specialist team to make them better reflect what people do.
This is an exciting next step – stay tuned to this blog to keep posted – and if you are a Fellow and interested in working with us (or know an action-oriented Fellow with rolled up sleeves who you think could make a real difference to the RSA), why not consider responding to today’s call for nominations.
Michael Ambjorn is Head of Fellowship – Follow him @michaelambjorn
A Road Less Travelled
Last week has been one of those involving lots of travel. It happens occasionally for us staff that regardless of well made plans and diary management sometimes we need to be in 3 or 4 places in one week. This week started on Saturday in Blackburn and finished in Nottingham. To summarise:
Saturday means Blackburn at the Community Centre in Little Harwood helping the RSA Projects team deliver a community workshop on health and wellbeing research project for Blackburn Council. The aim of the session was to feed back to the community and disseminate the findings of research. With a community as diverse as Little Harwood the sessions shifted between in-depth individual conversations and wider group discussions. This demonstrated the value of tailoring methods to engage with your audience. For further information on this project contact Gaia Marcus
Workshop, Little Harwood
Tuesday a fleeting visit to North West and the latest planning meeting for the Keep Calm and Prepare for Change Conference planned for Manchester on 18 October 2012. This event will connect and combine new ways of doing business, examine how we can use resources wiseley and shift society perspectives around living sustainability. Co-ordinated by a groups of Fellows the event has already secured major support from the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Business in the Community and the RSA. If you would like to get involved please contact Lilian Barton.
Wednesday leads to Yorkshire to talk through governance changes and preparing for Fellowship Council and Regional Chair elections. I also connected with York Fellows at the Ebor Lecture with David Halpern. The York Network is exploring a collaboration with Ebor and their many partners (including York St John University and Joseph Rowntree Foundation) to encourage debate and discussion with this programme currently focusing on “Big Society”. The next event will be on the 2 May in York Minster with Will Hutton. The York Network will be hosting a small get together to continue the discussion and debate.
Thursday finds me in Nottingham for a Network meeting on RSA SkillsBank, a project I am currently leading on. As well as general relaxed networking and connecting we also talked through the aims of SkillsBank, how Fellows can get involved and how we can swap into the expertise or knowledge to help their project. We also found time to play the Skills Game and demonstrated how everyone has something to contribute.
So a busy and productive week highlighting the many diverse activities of the Fellowship.
Vivs Long-Ferguson, Senior Networks Manager
Twitter @vivslf
One way RSA Fellows’ networks can help local social enterprises
The Angels’ Attic evening organised by the RSA Fellows’ Thames Valley Network in Reading recently gave four organisations each 25 minutes to get input from Fellows on the challenges faced by their start-up social enterprise or increasingly-entrepreneurial charity.
The event went so well that when I later met with colleagues from the Fellowship Networks team (who have helped Fellows put on similar events across the UK) we decided we will create a space online to share guides or toolkits that will help others draw on these successful event formats such as these in their own location. But before we create this, here are my brief thoughts on what happened, what good came from it and what caused that success.
Ingenious Networks
Last year we published a pamphlet called How to be Ingenious, which explored the effect of very resource-constrained environments on innovation – how such situations can sometimes cause innovation to thrive but at other times throttle it. We drew on examples of bricolage, technology races between countries, the Indian concept of jugaad, and interviews with people we thought exemplified the ability to devise ingenious solutions in different domains: an expert in theatrical improvisation, a software engineer and a survival instructor.
Given the state of our global economy (and ecology), the topic of resource-constrained – or ‘frugal’ innovation – is enjoying focus in public and private sector. The Innovation Unit’s blog pointed me to David Cameron’s tribute to the ‘Delhi drive’ to succeed: “When you step off the plane in Delhi or Shanghai or Lagos, you can feel the energy, the hunger, the drive to succeed. We need that here”. The Economist proclaim that frugal innovation will ‘change the world’. The subject has attracted recent business books (Jugaad Innovation) and one fascinating magazine (Makeshift).
Examples of ingenuity in the public sector exist, but how could they be better supported? Matthew recently blogged about the importance of clusters and networks to innovation, which are arguably even more critical to successful innovation in resource-constrained environments. Chatting with a colleague about the shift from top-down ‘best practice’ to more devolved practice and more ’micro-innovation’ to solve problems, we wondered whether an online platform could collect and showcase examples of ingenious or frugal solutions to common problems: perhaps a kind of Instructables for the public sector?
Are networks/complexity the future of policymaking? (RSA event report)
‘21st Century Policy Development – how networks and complex systems can inform policymaking in the UK’ was the focus of what was, for me, a fascinating conference – jointly organised by the RSA – which attracted an audience of 200 Fellows and others to Westminster Central Hall.
Paul Ormerod (© Zarina Holmes / Synthesis ISP)
The first speaker at the event was Paul Ormerod FRSA, author of the 2010 RSA pamphlet N Squared – Public policy and the power of networks.
“The idea of complexity is about much subtler and much cleverer government,’ explained Paul.
“The science of networks has advanced enormously in last 10-15 years”
- Paul Ormerod
However he candidly admitted, “if we knew how to do it, we wouldn’t bother to hold this meeting”.
Steve Broome (©Zarina Holmes/Synthesis ISP)
RSA Director of Research Steve Broome explained during his session: “if we have some idea of the network structure then we have a better chance of seeding interventions in those places that will enable network effects?”
He drew on examples including the pioneering drug recovery work the RSA is beginning at scale in West Kent and the mapping of local relationships in Blackburn, “to tap into the hidden wealth in communities… that can be encouraged to be more co-productive”.
“At the heart of the networks are active parents at the school gates, the quiz-master at the local pub,” said Steve.
Another RSA project mapped social networks in New Cross Gate in London: aiming to “bring local latent change-makers together”.
“There is a role for a new kind of public servant: a network weaver, an enabler”, said Steve.
- Steve Broome
He also shared that: “complexity is difficult, it can give you a complex – in some ways I feel less capable and knowledgeable than I used to, but I feel more confident in my reduced sense of capability being more effective.”
The organiser of the event, Greg Fisher FRSA, co-founder of the think-tank Synthesis with Paul Ormerod and Bridget Rosewell, feels the approach is very much part of the RSA’s ‘21st Century Enlightenment’: “The most poignant moment for me was during the breakfast seminar in Parliament when Jeff Johnson, Professor of Complexity Science and Design at the Open University, emphasised that the world is currently undergoing a scientific revolution. For me, the shift underway, which was very much catalysed by the computer revolution, is equivalent to the Enlightenment of the 18th and 19th Century.”
“Curiously, this chimes with the RSA’s tagline of ‘21st Century Enlightenment’. This revolution is not confined to the natural sciences because it involves an improved understanding of systems we call ‘complex’ (those with lots of constituent parts that interact with and adapt to each other), which includes human systems. Computer power gives us the ability to model such systems much better than we did before.”
21st Century Policy Development - breakfast session with MPs and senior policymakers (©Zarina Holmes/Synthesis ISP)
The key role being played by the RSA seems very appropriate: “One of the most poetic aspects of the day for me was the co-hosting of the event by the RSA and Synthesis. Synthesis recently emerged during what I think is a new Enlightenment, while the RSA, the grandfather of think-tanks, emerged during the first Enlightenment.”
- Greg Fisher, Synthesis
“So it’s great that the infusion of this new thinking into policy is being led by one of the oldest and one of the newest think tanks. It was good to see a number of RSA Fellows there (in addition to me and Paul Ormerod!), including a number of Fellows from the Living Systems Group” (which was founded in 1994 by Eileen Conn MBE FRSA – and has involved around 100 Fellows since its launch).
“Finally, one of the points I struggled to get across during the day was that a networks and complexity take on human systems will not get us to some modelling nirvana when we have a perfect understanding of people and society,” said Greg.
“We’re moving a step in the right direction but one of the lessons that emerges from this thinking is that we should be humble in the face of the complexity of the world around us. We will never have a perfect understanding but this new thinking does lead us to understand things better i.e. it’s a step in the right direction.”
Links
- Synthesis blog
- RSA Living Systems group: e-mail John Field.
Matthew Mezey is RSA Senior Networks Manager – Online & International. Twitter: @MatthewMezey. A live dashboard webpage showing RSA online activity is here.
If only you could bottle it! Reflections on a year in the Spotlight and the Social Entrepreneurs Network so far…
The latest event from the Social Entrepreneurs Network (on Wednesday 7th March) drew to a close the first and pilot year of Social Enterprise Spotlight. Hopefully you’ve heard about the network and the Spotlight initiative but if not here’s a brief (or not so brief) history and an update about the future of Spotlight:
The set-up
In early 2010 we tentatively put out a notice in the Fellowship newsletter about an event surrounding social enterprise – we got over 300 enquiries back and 150 people interested in coming. Clearly there was interest out there in the Fellowship. The night saw approx 100 people discussing what social enterprise is and led to weekly breakfasts being held in the Gerard Bar. A small group of regulars formed who expressed an interest in starting something to provide tangible help and impact to the network. So Social Enterprise spotlight was born. The premise was that by using a small sample of social entrepreneurs and enterprises as a case study, we could highlight and solve the challenges they are facing, and by proxy solve similar challenges facing the other social enterprises in the network.
The year
Through the monthly breakfasts and quarterly events, challenges were shared and advice sought. We looked at mentoring and advisory boards, how to set up and what is best for what sort of business; funding and what sort of resources are needed for enterprises in the 21st century, and how to ‘survive before you thrive’ – the last quarterly event in 2011 about how to ensure robust growth and expansion and avoid burn out.
The celebration
The recent event on 7th March was titled a Celebration of social enterprise – year in the Spotlight and held at the Hub Westminster, an innovative new working space just the other side of Trafalgar square. On the night the participants in Spotlight (expertly mc-ed by Malcolm Scovil FRSA, the Fellow who helped to kick off the network back in 2010) appeared in the following order: Hermione Taylor spoke about her journey to set up the innovative charity giving site, the DoNation; Dan Snell, co-founder of Arrival Education asked some of the young people he works with to share their moving and inspiring stories of how their prospects and mindset have changed having been on the Success4Life course; and Diana Bird of Wedge Card, Phil Conway of Cool2Care and Alex Johns of GoJaspa took part in a frank, articulate and amusing interview about what they have learnt (ranging from learning not to micromanage, and not to take knock backs too personally, through to making sure you enjoy yourself more). Chris James of Inspired Youth gave a passionate account of how much he’d learnt on the programme. The last story of the night was by Trudy Thompson from Bricks and Bread (I think going for world domination of #socentmischief – check out the hashtag!) who spoke about her transition into life as a social entrepreneur, her ways of doing things, and her trustee board made up of young people.
As this was the last event for this batch of Spotlight participants we were also introduced to the next set of social entrepreneurs taking part in Spotlight. The night was rounded off by an opportunity to network. You can watch our time-lapse video of the event:
What’s next
The evening was a great example of what bringing enterprise and passion together can achieve. The pilot year has been a real success story, with great content, impact and stories. The 7th March event was the last for the current set of Spotlight participants but I am pleased to say that we have a new batch of Spotlighters joining the ranks! They are:
1) Eugenie Teasley at Spark+Mettle
2) Asma Shah at You Make It/Ladies Who L-EARN
3) Maria Ana Neves at Plan Zheroes
4) Becky John at Whomadeyourpants?
5) Richard Raynes at SportInspired
6) Neil Basil at Patient Choice
7) Steve Ralf at Inklusive CIC
8.) Patrick Shine and Simon McNeill Ritchie at Franchising Works
9) Kate Welch at Acumen Trust/Reap & Sow
We will continue to hold quarterly events and monthly breakfasts with these this amazing set of social entrepreneurs and trying to overcome the challenges they and the rest of the sector face – we hope you’ll come along for the ride!
How you can get involved
The Social Entrepreneurs network is only a success because of the people involved and their extraordinary ability to share what they know. If you have a social enterprise or need some advice please join the online group for the network and attend the Friday social breakfasts which take place in the Gerard Bar, the last Friday of each month at 9am. They are a great opportunity to connect to the Fellowship so hope to meet you soon!
Sarah Tucker, Networks Manager
@SarahTucker10
#rsaspotlight
A day of discussions on 21st century policy development
If you happen to take a keen interest in public or social policy, it’s likely that in recent years you’ll have stumbled across terms such as “complexity theory” and “systems approaches”.
The emergence of these and similar theories is being driven by a growing acknowledgement that our social, economic and environmental problems lie rooted in not one but a multitude of competing factors, all of which are vying to shape our behaviours and attitudes. Whether its climate change, financial crises or popular uprisings, it is now regularly argued by academics and social commentators that our responses to major challenges can only be understood (and addressed) by making sense of these factors and appreciating how they interact with one another.
This much is understood by most of us. Yet how these new approaches can be translated from theory into practice appears to be another matter. Across central and local government, although the importance of network and complex systems approaches is recognised, there is little sense that these are being drawn upon during key moments of decision-making. Indeed, many in policymaking circles are often frustrated at being exhorted to use these approaches while not being offered any practical advice about how to do so.
In a bid to fill this gap, Synthesis, the RSA, Assyst and FutureICT will shortly be holding a day of discussions to look more closely at the implication of these theories for a number of key policy areas, including security, community development, transport and technological innovation. The event will consist of a number of stand-alone daytime sessions, each of which will cover a specific policy challenge, and an evening reception and closing speech from Jesse Norman, MP.
Speakers include Prof. Paul Ormerod, Steve Bishop, Bridget Rosewell, Prof. Jamie MacIntosh, Lord Julian Hunt and Steve Broome.
The event will take place on Thursday 15th March and is free to attend. The daytime sessions will be held in Central Hall, Westminster, and the evening reception at The Cinnamon Club.
For more details and to sign-up to the sessions or the evening reception, please visit our eventbrite page here.
Should you have any further questions, please email me directly or call 020 7451 6836.
Adrian Ashton …..On a cold, icy night…in Manchester
Following a successful Manchester Network meeting with UnLtd, Adrian Ashton FRSA guest blogs here about inspiring social enterprises and how important brokering partnerships are.
Last week the RSA Fellows in Manchester did something different. And unusually for what may potentially prove to be one of the more significant initiatives for our august society, it didn’t take place in London…
Instead, a group of fellows from the North met in an unassuming hotel conference room on a cold, icy night in Manchester to hear the stories of 3 people who are changing the world. These are people who aren’t Fellows, and before being invited had never even heard of the RSA! They were incredibly diverse in their vision for changing the lives of young women suffering from various gynaecological distresses, of empowering people with learning disabilities to find their voice through dance, and using workspaces to transform whole communities.
So if they didn’t know us, how did we come to know them and what were we trying to do together in this unassuming hotel room? Well – you may have heard that the RSA has recently explored collaboration with the UnLtd, the largest support body for social entrepreneurs in the UK. UnLtd have being getting on with supporting social entrepreneurs (like the three who shared their stories) for 10 years through various means – including a mentoring programme and small awards scheme. Now if those latter ideas seem familiar, it’s because we as the RSA do the same thing through our recently re-launched SkillsBank and Catalyst Fund. The RSA and its Fellows have also been making deliberate efforts in recent years to also better engage with the wider ‘social enterprise’ movement as its aspirations for changing the world and society for the better seem strangely reminiscent of the original aspirations of the founding members of the RSA a couple of hundred years ago…
It therefore seems logical to try and connect our two bodies – the RSA is seeing to find ways to better mobilise and inspire our Fellowship to become more pro-active in changing the world, and Unltd are keen to broker more and richer relationships that could better support social entrepreneurs. Further joint events are planned for later in the year.
Our evening in Manchester was the first in a planned series of similar ‘brokerings’ around the country: creating spaces and opportunities for Fellows to be inspired and realise how they can use their skills, knowledge, experience (and contacts) to further achieve the RSA’s ultimate vision of a changed world.
But as for me – I won’t be doing anything different as a result of that evening and that’s because as well as being a Fellow listed on RSA SkillsBank, I’m already mentor for some of the social entrepreneurs that UnLtd support – so for me, it’s business as usual. But for the RSA and Unltd, it’s (hopefully) the start of a beautiful friendship.
For further information join the social entrepreneurs network
Adrian Ashton FRSA
adrian_ashton2@yahoo.co.uk
Bobby Baker – an artist at the RSA
If you have never come across Bobby Baker, I envy you. I envy you because you have ahead of you the delicious joy of discovering her work. She is one of the most widely acclaimed performance artists working today, and has a large and impressive back catalogue of work which, using the most fabulously inventive methods (plenty of cake), makes art out of the everyday.
And, there’s nothing as everyday as mental illness. In 2009, Bobby exhibited her ‘diary drawings’ at the Wellcome Collection. These pictures, drawn daily over a period of eleven years, depicted Bobby’s experiences of mental illness, in real time, as it was happening to her. Throughout this period, incidentally, Bobby continued to work prolifically, raise a family and continue to forge an impressive career.
Despite her international reputation, and long established success as an artist, Bobby herself had no idea how the drawings would be received or what the impact of going public with something so personal would be. Needless to say, they went down a storm, the Wellcome extended the length of the original exhibition, and it has since been touring, going to Portugal, Belgium and Holland.
The ways in which the exhibition and the book that came out of it have made an impact are wide reaching. The book won Mind Book of the Year in 2011. People recognised themselves and their own experiences in the images. Those with no experience of mental illness felt a glimmer of understanding as to what it might be like. Practitioners and academics in mental health took notice.
Since that exhibition, Bobby has been as busy as ever, her new piece about what it takes to cultivate mental wellness, Mad Gyms and Kitchens, receiving critical and audience approval.
So, when I put a call out to Fellows of the RSA to find out who has interest, experience or expertise relating to mental health and employment, Bobby Baker responded. As a long-time fan of her work, I was ever so slightly starstruck (and definitely not squealing with glee) to see her name in my inbox. As a keen, and in her words ‘patient’ Fellow, she’s been waiting for the right thing to get involved with, and luckily for me, the challenges I outlined sparked her interest.
Today I met with Bobby Baker to discuss her take on the issues around mental health and work. She has a unique perspective, rich with the insight and wisdom that comes from personal experience. Amongst other things, she told me about a new project she’s working on in which she’ll tell the story of the steps along her journey to get to the extraordinary position of influence and leadership she now occupies. It’s quite a story, and the unique way she has of expressing herself, whether in conversation, in her drawings, or in her performance, is bighearted and expansive. Fortunately for the RSA, she’s as generous with her time and ideas as she is in her artistic expression.
Hot off the press! The first Fellows’ newsletter of 2012….
So here we are in 2012. New Year, new news… Last year surpassed all our expectations with inspiring projects from Catalyst, Fellows’ networks and events creating a wealth of exciting discussions, lots of collaboration and a plethora of ideas – all captured in the Fellowship newsletter.
The Fellowship newsletter (for those who aren’t aware) goes out fortnightly and is a snapshot of all the good stuff going on both in the RSA and amongst the Fellowship. Amongst that, you can see regular profiles of our Fellows, latest reports from RSA Projects and updates on what events are coming up. You can check out our newsletters online.
A couple of highlights from this New Year issue include:
Our latest Catalyst winners were awarded a record amount of grants. The winners of our Catalyst grants receive funds and expertise found amongst our Fellows to help their community based projects grow and expand. A couple of winners this round include Ladies Who L-EARN which helps young unemployed women complete an entrepreneurial development course which culminates in running a market stall specialising in designer-maker products. Also Plan Zheroes which maps and connects businesses with excess food with organisations able to receive and convert it into meals for citizens on low income, received further funding. Read the rest of the article about the Catalyst winners.
Another story I wanted to highlight is the ChangeMakers project. This is being led by Ben Dellot who is part of the Citizen Power team. The project looks at the key people in an area who make things happen, creating positive action for their local community; like the old adage goes, if you want something done, ask the busiest person you know…. Their focus is currently Peterborough but it has huge potential to be rolled out. Read more about the ChangeMakers project.
These are just a couple of the things happening currently.
If you are a Fellow and you are not sure you receiving the newsletter (it goes out fortnightly, normally on a Monday evening and is a great way to stay in touch) contact us at Fellowship@rsa.org.uk.
Here’s to another year of inspiring news and events happening across the UK and worldwide. The next issue is coming out Monday 30th January so keep an eye out!
If you are not a Fellow and you’d like to hear more about what we do, visit the Fellowship section of the RSA website or you can find out how to become a Fellow.
Sarah Tucker is Networks Manager – Communication and Events,
follow her @SarahTucker10
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