A KaosPilot Perspective

Posted by Bert Meijers on 27 May 2010 | 2 Comments
Tags: social entrepreneur, KaosPilot, Adelaide

It's no picnic being a social entrepreneur.... Bert Meijers, Kaospilot & TACSI intern, explores some first steps in building networks for this unique group of passionate individuals.

Social Entrepreneurs are passionate individuals who seek to create social value through innovative solutions: these are the people that TACSI wishes to support. In order to do this we need to create a better understanding of who they are and what drives them: their ideas, struggles, challenges, needs, and their dreams.

For the past three months, I have been working with TACSI to try and unearth social entrepreneurs working in Adelaide. It has proven to be quite challenging to identify these local change agents, as the field of social entrepreneurship in Adelaide is perhaps not developed to the extent that it is in other places around the world. Therefore people might be new to the language and not readily identify themselves as social entrepreneurs. Which begs the question: how does one find these social entrepreneurs who don´t identify themselves as such?

Nonetheless, we've been in contact with some quite inspiring individuals (who may or may not self-identify as a social entrepreneur). It's been very exciting to meet all these people and to learn about their experiences and their ideas for the future.

We decided to bring everyone together for our Social Entrepreneurs Picnic. The Picnic was designed as an informal gathering where we could learn through dialogue what the current landscape of social entrepreneurship in Adelaide looks like. As it was a Picnic, everyone brought their favorite edible delights to share.

At our Picnic, we were joined by Benny Callaghan from the Australian School for Social Entrepreneurs, based in Sydney. Benny brought with him a unique perspective on "who is" a social entrepreneur and how we can support them. With this in mind, we staged a so called Fish-Bowl exercise, where we invited Benny and our CEO Brenton Caffin to host an open discussion about what support for social entrepreneurs might look like. This was a unique opportunity for all participants to exchange perspectives, which led to some very interesting conversations, some of which translated directly into help and advice, tips and pointers.

We structured the rest of the afternoon according to the World Café model, a facilitation method which we use often at the KaosPilots. The World Café enables participants to foster collaborative dialogue and tap into the shared intelligence of a group, in order to create next steps for the future.

The key questions for the World Cafe session were:  “What are the challenges facing social entrepreurs?” and “How can we support social entrepreneurs in Adelaide?”. With this we meant the big "we", in what ways could not only TACSI, but society in general, contribute to the support of social entrepreneurship? It was fascinating to see such a diverse group of people coming together to explore the topic, what it means to us, and what can be done to support it's growth here in Adelaide. We discussed various possibilities for both on-line and off-line support, the pro's and cons about the use of social media, and soon we came to see that the needs of the social entrepreneurs in Adelaide, aren't that different from anywhere else in the world. Perhaps the biggest issue for social entrepreneurs anywhere is that they feel isolated and somehow, abnormal.

To put a finer point on this, Benny extolled one of the real beauties of the School for Social Entrepreneurs: when the students come together once a week, they get to share their ideas with people like them. Instead of constantly talking about their ideas to spouses, children, the postman, they're surrounded by people who share the passion and conviction that drives them. For once a week they don't feel like 'freaks'.

From hearing a more focussed discussion about challenges and support, people were immediately thinking of who they should introduce to one another. This was particularly rewarding to see, as these new relationships began to flower and bear fruit (it was a picnic, after all).

Looking back on our Picnic, I believe there is fertile soil for social entrepreneurship in Adelaide, as it seems we're nurturing a very unique community of practitioners, coming from different backgrounds to bring different perspectives to the conversation. Importantly, there was a shared willingness and desire to meet again, where hopefully we'll continue to turn 'talking' into 'doing'. On my way home from the event, one quote by Margaret Mead came to mind: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Right now it feels like the ball is in our court, that it will be up to TACSI to take on a leadership role in this space. Yet, I'm also hoping, and I'll not be surprised if a few people take their own initiative and begin to form the foundations for a thriving community. It's an exciting time for changemakers everywhere but maybe, especially here.