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[oguntewomen]

How Women Build Peace Through Deep Democracy

Deep democracy at Women of the World Festival in Rio, Brazil

The Women of the World Festival, (‘WOW’ or ‘Festival Mulheres do Mundo’) debuted its Latin America’s journey between the 15 and 17th of November 2018. The festival has already been held in 23 countries across Europe, Asia and Africa, and the Brazilian edition convened local and international activists, entrepreneurs, politicians, inventors, journalists, artists, scientists, philosophers, women in technologies and network leaders, in a warm and intense intersectional platform. We tool stock, recharged, connected to collaborate and show the world that looking at the gender lens contributes to better performance, deeper knowledge, grow peace and a positive social impact.

I was lucky to be invited to Rio as part of an international delegation, sharing the space with brilliant fellows including Marieme Jamme (Senegal), Reni Eddo-Lodge (UK)  Tanzila Khan (Pakistan), Marijana Savic (Serbia), Lulu Barrera (Mexico), Kit Redstone, Minna Salami (Finland, Nigeria), among many others.

Meeting with our Brazilian counterparts was an emotional experience as they enter another difficult period in their public administration with a president elect who has expressed antagonist views towards women, human rights defenders, peace activists, environmentalists, indigenous populations, and incredible statements are added everyday that just makes the work of our fellow collaborators engaged in peace and progress for all, more and more difficult.

It is in this context that I proposed, among other interventions, to create a safe space for people to experiment with a safe space and tools that foster dialogue – not debate. I wanted a real rich, peaceful conversation.

These safe spaces are created to enable participants to listen to others but also to be heard and ultimately make decisions and strategize wisely.

When you are heard and you hear others, you can think together, grow consensus and enable action locally;

When you learn to listen well, It helps you grow as a person,

When you are heard, it helps you grow as a person,

When all parties are more open about obstacles, biases, interests, anxieties, self selected truths, the process enables you to manage collaboration between various individuals and organizations.

During my first intervention, I introduced the Deep Democracy concept, the brain child of Myrna Lewis. She is a co-founder of the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy which was born out of South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy in 1993.

How it works

In the Deep Democracy training we work with the metaphor of fish and sharks.

You have a conscious group, and an unconscious group.

In the unconscious group, the 'fish' are swimming around; unspoken thoughts, emotions, irritations, interests

If there is no room to name or give attention, then the fish slowly but surely become sharks.

If we imagine the groups (teams) in organizations or community groups as an iceberg, then you will find a shared, conscious reality above the waterline and an unconscious, hidden reality below the waterline.

This In itself is not very bad... Unless you never pay attention to what is under the waterline.

If you systematically only want to hear the formal voices and there is no room for the voice of the minority, then the fish slowly but surely become sharks.

What starts small, ultimately leads to sabotage, dissatisfaction and dysfunctional behavior.

The only option is to lower the water line and bring the fish and sharks to the surface.

You can view and discuss them, and thus respond to the wisdom of the minority.

There is something hugely powerful in women making themselves heard and seen in a way that suits them. Why conform. Take the space due.

Our platform for dialogue started with this proposition:

We live in a world that looks complicated, and women and men, children, adults, elderly are paying a tough price. There are places, where circumstances are extremely tough to live in. It is true in Brazil, it is true in poor and even in privileged places in Europe, in Asia, in Africa.

However, it appears what we want is fairly simple, and that is something the organisers of the Women of the World festival have shared widely. What we want for women is:

Freedom, empathy, respect and the guarantee of a just life

The beauty of what happened next within this group that was fairly attached to a similar set of values, is that an unorchestrated dissonance appeared, people voted with their feet, some wanted to bring nuances in the space, others wanted to act quickly and directly, diversity came forward, personal stories came to the open, from violent deaths to legacy of slavery, technological and political lenses that we sometimes forget, or don’t see when we live in so called safe societies.

But there was a lot of love in the room.

We learned to look at current and future situations, we looked at our vocabulary for resistance. We listened to how we were bringing our statements forward, the words, the tones used. We explored our toolbox for responding to societal aggression, stereotypes, and self-limiting beliefs. We looked at what was in our power, and what we were letting go of.

This is never enough. There needs to be commitment for more dialogues, less bullying, more systemic thinking. At household level, on the street, with friends, strangers, on line. We never have the full picture yet we respond with our gut too fast sometimes.

I will never stay silent.. however I think that having better tools for dialogue is necessary.

Our lives are at stake.

[oguntewomen]

Start programming your future, both literally and figuratively

Could you be an active player of the digital era?

How? -  you might ask.

The answer is The Code to Change’s Digital Skills Bootcamp. From October, Code to Change wil run an innovative mentoring programme that imparts essential digital skills which are required for pursuing a career in the digital market.

https://youtu.be/KF3uen5J8uA

We believe that you do not have to go back to school to go into ICT (Information Communications Technology). We help you realize you do not need to be a coder to be in ICT. At Code to Change, we aim to bridge the skills gap by making available effective education and mentoring through our dedicated community of technology professionals who are already on their career ladder.

The program is supported by leaders and rising stars of the tech world who are passionate about sharing their skills and expertise with others. The program kicks off with a three days event, which includes e-skills bootcamp and conference. It is then followed by 5 months activities: 1 month for onboarding matching mentors and mentees, following by 3 months of mentoring. The last month is dedicated to sharing learnings, showcasing projects and sharing feedback.

JOIN THE BOOTCAMP IN AMSTERDAM

The bootcamp on the October 10th will help 50 women to take their first steps intothe basics of coding and introduce them to the fascinating world of information technology. The mentees will work with their peers and highly experienced mentors from tech companies.

This is our third cohort and we are even more excited about the changes and improvements we are bringing this year! In addition to the beginners’ level session, we have now introduced the intermediate level. The intermediate level is for code newbies, who did some courses and are now ready to take their learning to the next level.

We are expecting women from all over the world to join us! If you can be in Amsterdam for three days and want to get a taste of building something from scratch, or you have already opened Pandora’s box and started playing around with different programming language at the intermediate level, apply for the bootcamp today!

The two days bootcamp will be held in the heart of beautiful Rent24 venue at Magna Plaza, one of the landmarks in Amsterdam. We look forward to welcome 50 women to join the bootcamp. The boot camp participants will get the opportunity to hear from our emerging leaders in the tech world and get a first hand knowledge of what it takes to make it in the tech world.

The opening talk will be delivered by the founder, Iffat Gill and co-founder, Mine Ogura of The Code To Change.  The beginner session will be lead by Alexandra Vargas, a passionate Colombian Front End Developer and the intermediate level by Andreea Marin, a Software Engineer specialised in Java and Big Data.

Today our mentees are exploring new worlds in the technology sector, whether it is building applications or using their existing skills in a new digital role. Our mentees are creating the technology and not just consuming it.

It is something for you? Apply now on http://codetochange.org !

[oguntewomen]

Jump in! Become a social enterprises supporter

Original interview on Ogunte

In our efforts to join up the various elements that make the women-led social enterprise world, we constantly liaise with supporters, intermediaries and organizations that provide social finance, logistics or capacity building to social innovators and entrepreneurs.

Today, we are talking to Paoola Sefair, a woman who has been instrumental to Ogunte for her input in strategy and processes, and who shares her journey as a supporter for social entrepreneurs and changemakers. Paoola has over 20 years experience working with global corporations like Cisco, Tech Data and L'Oreal, in various capacities. Her areas of expertise include, strategy & planning, operations, marketing, sales, business development and design thinking. She also has entrepreneurial experience as the founder and CEO of the Real Estate Investment Group.

Ogunte: Paoola, what are the 3 words that define you the most?


Paoola Sefair: Kind, determined, honest.

Ogunte: What did you do in your past life, before focusing on social entrepreneurship?

Paoola: In my previous life, I worked in the corporate world at companies like L’Oreal and Cisco. I spent over 20 years working across various capacities including marketing, operations, business development and strategy. Part of my role was to work with the teams based around the world to define the strategy and implement the global programs. This was by far the best part of my experience. I was blessed to meet people from so many cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life. Every interaction taught me something, broaden my mind and expanded my core beliefs.

The biggest lessons I took away from this journey were:

Always keep an open mind when encountering a new experience / place / person. Give it an opportunity to fully reveal itself before you attach judgement or meaning to it.

Delivering on your objectives is baseline, to get noticed, you need to develop your network up, down and across the organization.


Invest in yourself (education, health, friendships). Getting sucked into the idea that working 24/7 is somehow a badge of honor is simply foolish. This I learned living in Europe! Americans, we got this all wrong!


Ogunte: What is the story of your transition towards supporting social enterprises? And if anything, what would you have done differently?

Paoola: My shift in focus towards the non-profit / social enterprise world was accelerated by a few experiences: The first, becoming a mom and having a deep desire and sense of responsibility to leave a better world for my son. 


The second, experiencing two cancer encounters only a few months apart. Luckily for me only one of these encounters materialized into a cancer diagnosis. Going through these two experiences (mom & cancer) within an 18-month period forced me to answer big questions about life that had gone unanswered for too long.

And through this journey I came out the other side with greater clarity about my life’s purpose and priorities then i ever had before.


Today my MTP (massively transformative purpose) is to make a positive impact in the lives of one billion people.

I don’t yet know how i will accomplish this goal, but i am loving the journey to discovering the answer! My first stop along this journey was Moving Worlds, thanks to them i was introduced to Servane at Ogunte. From our first meeting sparks flew, we had great chemistry. And what started out as a 6 month project has turned into a beautiful friendship.

I no longer take for granted a warm shower, a doctor’s visit, clean drinking water...

Ogunte: One of your current many hats is provide support to social enterprises, activists, and community groups that provide relief, aid, to refugees, what do you feel are the main issues they face logistically?

Paoola: The next stop in my journey led me to working with local NGOs helping refugees in Greece and Austria. This experience has been profound on many levels. On a personal level it has heightened my appreciation and gratitude in my life. I no longer take for granted a warm shower, a doctor’s visit, clean drinking water... and the list goes on. It has also given me great insight into humanity’s willingness to help one another. I have met volunteers who have put their lives on hold for the last two/three years so they can help refugees stuck in limbo on the islands. The challenges and conditions these small NGOs face are unimaginable, yet somehow they find resources and strength to keep moving forward.

The top challenges faced by these smaller NGOs are:

- access to funding

- specialized skills (donor management, social media, story telling, etc...)

- and people’s power 

This insight has led me to investigate how exponential technologies (like AI) can be used to close the gap for these type of small organizations that are the lifeline for millions of people around the world. How to use exponential technology to help social enterprises scale.

Ogunte: You have also made the decision to go back to class, what kind of training have you followed and what did you take away from it?

Paoola: I follow closely Peter Diamandis’ work and I do believe we are living in a time of abundance (knowledge, access to information, technology). Currently I am learning about artificial intelligence and investigating how to use this exponential technology to help NGOs and social enterprises scale and amplify their impact.

Jump in, become a social enterprise supporter!

Ogunte: If you could advise other mentors/supporters of social enterprises who come from the corporate world, what would you advise them to explore, learn more of before starting?

Paoola: I would suggest they jump in! A lot of the corporate experience translates over to the social enterprise space.  

Ogunte: What are the key features at Ogunte that got you most interested?

Paoola: I was attracted to Ogunte immediately when I read their mission to empower women-led social enterprises. I think it’s critical that women support women both personally and professionally. We should focus on building each other up instead of tearing each other down. I believe there is plenty opportunities for our all boats to float!

Ogunte: Finally, what is the question that nobody ever asks you, you wish you could answer right now?

Paoola: I wish more women talked about the journey into motherhood. The true reality of becoming a mom. The impact on our identity and the hit our confidence takes as we move into the unknown — child rearing. And how this process spills into and impacts our professional life and marriage. Just like there are birthing classes, there should be motherhood prep courses to give us a glimpse into what’s to come…

[oguntewomen]

Tiny Strategies for Self-Care

by Servane Mouazan

I am navigating a sector where people give selflessly to their purpose, facing disheartening and disempowering policies, change of governments, budget cuts, increasing pockets of poverty and inequalities, resignation of champions who are not being listened to. Personal dramas.

It is tough.

Even the strongest vocations and a robust passion for change need nurturing. Even the fiercest campaigners need to pause sometimes to replenish. Believe me, this is not about luxury spa treatments or chic self-indulging meditation retreats. If only.  

During our last Ask Me Anything session this summer, we talked about self-care strategies and shared examples and insights from members of our Impact Women network.

A definition for Self-Care

I think it is the personal decision to activate tools, techniques and general lifestyle changes that can help manage the symptoms of many mental and physical health problems one can face in their personal, social and professional life.

I stress the “personal decision to activate”, because I have seen a lot of social entrepreneurs being totally aware of what they needed to do to feel and be better, that they should slow down, or move away from toxic practices or relationships. And the last thing they need is another self-appointed guru to tell them what to do. They know. But they don’t always do anything about it.

The key thing is to take the decision and activate.

Because there is no self-care without practice

Why do we procrastinate?

Question from Kirstie Sivapalan: “It seems clear that self-care is essential to creating a sustainable empathetically connected world. (Physician heal thyself?) If so why do many of us choose not to prioritise our own self-care and how can we break that cycle?”

What makes us fail is that we often think about acts of grandeur first, big goals, huge visions and there’s little planning or strategy in between. And if these words make you roll your eyes, a strategy doesn’t need to be complicated.

It can be about saying no 3 times a day to something that is toxic to you.

It can be about saying yes 3 times a day to something that is good for you.

It’s about having a way to track and measure these YES and NO and after a week or two, looking at what came out of that. A pen. A sheet of paper.

So what our friends in the network repeatedly say, when we interview them: the first thing is to assess what you can do and can’t do considering your own personal situation. Some people have the luxury to have partners, or relationships they can rely upon, so that they can insert more time for reflection, mental or physical support. Others don’t. And others live in a place with conflict or dangerous social or domestic contexts.

So before committing to anything, it is about assessing what you have (not what you haven’t got).

It could be a specific environment, a park, a friend, a neighbour, a community centre, a mentor, a parent, even a pet.

An outdoor space, a significant other, an animal can help you start and commit to an action.

Emotional Energy

Minnie Baragwanath, CEO of Be.Accessible, founded the Be. Institute in 2011 because she envisions a world that is truly accessible and inclusive of all people. Based out of Auckland, New Zealand, Be. Accessible is a holistic social change initiative that will stop at nothing to change the way society engages with access citizens

We interviewed Minnie this year, here’s what she shared around self-care

Ogunte: Your work involves giving out a lot of emotional energy. What does self-care mean to you?

Minnie Baragwanath: Two and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. That forced me, in a very abrupt way, to seriously ask myself these questions. At that point, I had slightly lost track of self-care as a priority, which can easily happen when you’re in start-up mode. Since then, I’ve been much clearer with my boundaries, and knowing when I need to take time off work. I’m very conscious now that I can’t take my health for granted.

“In my day to day, I make it a priority to deal with issues quickly, and not leave things that are bothering me to fester and grow in my imagination. This way, I avoid the build up of unresolved worries  I think of it as doing my ‘Minnie Housework’, a weekly clean-up of my own brain!”

She exercises, and visits a counselor regularly, which she finds incredibly sustaining. “I need that trusted sounding board for whatever might be going on”.

The Role of Networks to be better at self-care

Your network, your connections to the outside world are absolutely essential. Particularly the inner circle, people who help you keep sane.

The penny dropped for me when I met feminists activist groups in Meso and South-America, who are frequently exposed to violence on-line and off-line, from various individuals and sometimes even public institutions, and they too stress the importance of building your network.

Lulu Barrera, founder of Luchadoras (Fighters in Spanish), a Mexico-based social enterprise working to protect and promote women’s rights through an online feminist TV show. One of their projects is about empowering women to fight online harassment and abuse:

“You have to grow and consolidate a community of women driven by principles of collaboration, solidarity and mutual support, connected on-line and off-line. This is a proven stronger solution to counter violence.”

The feminist movement and individuals receive a lot of threats online. We need to build joint protocols to know how to react safely and protect each other in the community.

A global campaign such as Take Back the Tech has experienced this and built tools and protocols for community groups and feminists online.

If you are not exposed to the same level of violence, wherever you are in the world, I think a community of like-minded people, who care, who show empathy, who check on you, and know the words and gestures that are soothing in the most relevant times, is a good strategy too.

But be careful, you can be a fantastic networker yourself, you have to learn and remember to let other people come to you, ask you questions, be there to listen to you, let yourself be vulnerable too at time, and be helped.

The role of self-defence as a mechanism for self-care

There is a movement around the world to promote physical self-defence.

Our friends Luchadoras say: “Mastering self-defence contributes to policies of self-care and group care in the midst of a risky environment related to gender violence on the streets in Mexico.”

I can testify that practicing a martial arts, although it doesn’t always help when you are physically attacked, is part of a process to finding strength, a space for reflection and a way to assess your own practice.

I have found this in Capoeira. And I must say, there were times when I forgot that this was the most helpful tool I could turn to in times of need.

However, it has provided me tools for physical health, mental health, the capacity to fall and stand up again, a global community, which I have been cherishing for almost 20 years this year.

( I salute my master Vladimir Frama, from Batuque Capoeira group for sharing his wisdom, his systemic view on life, and the foundation skills he provided me though capoeira.)

What is your own strategy for self-care?

My strategy is summarized in these words:

Time limited

Focused

Approachable

Stimulated

Available

Switched-off

The big question is what happens behind the scenes? Where is the human being behind the activist, the social entrepreneur, the campaigner that you are?

How do you take care of yourself and still get work going? You ask yourself, is it really compatible?

Looking back at the process of my “busy-ness”, and how I jumped on the other side of the productivity and wellbeing fence, I realise progress happened when I became:

1) Time-limited

I had a son. And when this happened, he came first. I had less time to complete my work.  I am decidedly not happy when I am asked to formulate a personal 5 years plan. However I have been ever so impressed by my capacity to plan ahead when it comes to him. First, the logistic and basic baby commodities, the childminder, later the school, the trips, the play dates, broken teeth, remember to delegate homework and other duties to daddy - EQUALLY- , and other matters...

With the baby, my working week shrunk from “10 days to 2”. Literally. During the two remaining days, work related activities were confined between 5 and 7am, a couple of sessions in the late morning, another one just after lunch and a last stretch after 8pm.

2) Focused

I started to map all the activities I was running at Ogunte, the knowledge I had acquired from our clients and connections, and merged all this in 3 products maximum. One of them became a growth readiness programme with a strong financial focus, aimed at Women-led Social Enterprises. The other product turned out to be a focused coaching offer with associated monitoring and evaluation framework, and the final was a learning and development programme management service for foundations and business support organisations.

3) Approachable

I decided to digitalise most of my activities. Someone wanted a coffee? Then it had to be online and I allocated a specific and limited space during the week for this, cut in chunks of 30 minutes. I always asked people to send me a specific pragmatic question they wanted to reflect upon. I let people book their slot online. I also learnt that a brilliant chat could also come in the shape of an old fashion written conversation. I love Slack.

For people who still wanted coffee, I took them to events I had to attend where they also made tons of new connections. If they were serious with their purpose, they had to follow up.

4) Stimulated

I accepted to join, or speak at events that were clearly related to my work stream, or that could clearly provide me with food for thoughts. As I love out-of-the-box thinking, my selection always remained diverse and exciting. The question I was asking myself: if you go there, what will you do with the information? This generally helped me select the most interactive events. Another tactic was to organise these stimulating learning events for Ogunte, which ticked several boxes at once.

5) Available

Crucially, I said goodbye to the tasks I was not an expert in or that prevented me from engaging with stakeholders at a strategic level. I subcontracted fantastic women to deliver on social media, accounting, strategy, design. The time saved enabled me to deliver more and paid for services, which in turn enabled me to pay for the growing staff. A meaningful investment.

6) Switched off

Finally, to preserve my sanity and to provide me with a much needed creative space, I categorically refused to engage with work at specific time of the year, or after a certain time of the day.  I started focusing more on my neighbours, my health, arts and martial arts. I rekindled with my sense of empathy. All this proved to give me productive brain and body stimulation, which ultimately made me a better business person.

When I took myself offline I also realised that there was an addiction at every corner. It could be an addiction to the web, an addiction to food, drink, an addiction to getting rewards, and of course, an addiction to rescuing others and fight for a purpose.

Flipping this on its side, it’s interesting to look at what happens when we are inactive, when we recharge, and when we let others help us. What judgment emerges? What underlying concept are we dragging around?

I understood that being switched off, didn’t mean becoming weak, useless or invisible.

By being too active, or involved without purpose, I could end up resenting my work.

I could become bitter to not having enough play time.

By being too active I risked losing myself, and ultimately others.

So to recap, self care might be about (and not only)

·      Being aware of your constraints and managing yourself as it it was part of your work strategy.

·      Building connections and relationships in and out of work

·      Evaluating your habits with honesty

·      Learning to say no to toxic habits, learning to say yes to environments and people that are good for you.

·      Not turning treats into new toxic habits.

·      Linking decisions with deeper meaning and higher purpose.

Connect with bold women changemakers all over the world tough the Impact Women Map (http://map.ogunte.com ) abd share your self-care practice on the tweeter feed.

For more coaching tips and questions to boost your social venture, read our previous posts on this Ogunte Blog.

[oguntewomen]

Why is willing to change the world not enough...

By Servane Mouazan

In August, one of our Ask Me Anything sessions focused on “Communicating your purpose”. (You can check the video here).

Here’s the set of questions we looked at:

Question 1 Why is having a clear purpose important? Servane Mouazan: Let me share with you a conversation I had with Isabel Kelly,  a social justice advocate and founder of “Profit With Purpose”, a consultancy she founded, after a few years at Salesforce. She ran the international team at Salesforce Foundation and turned it into a profitable ($12m revenue) business unit within the company. This enabled the delivery of the 1/1/1 model of corporate philanthropy - volunteering, grants and product donation, which was, in effect, a start-up social enterprise embedded into a fast-growing commercial company.   Now with Profit with Purpose, Isabel is bringing both the NGO and corporate worlds together by creating strategies with SMEs who want to integrate real social purpose into their business.

I asked Isabel: What questions do your clients never ask you, you wished they did…? Isabel Kelly said: “I wish clients were more questioning about WHY they do the things they do... Organisations tend to get very focused on the tactics (the 'what') and the 'why' gets lost along the way. It's essential to have a clearly articulated purpose or vision for the social impact they want to create, together with a great plan for how to get there. Clients rush to wanting to fundraise or increase their income but often need to take a few steps back to better articulate their proposition”.

A PERSONAL PURPOSE STATEMENT

Question 2: I think I need to be clear about my own purpose first, what do you think? SM: Absolutely! And these things change or can appear to you suddenly. Look at how Cecilia Milesi, from Global Change and Subir al Sur in Argentina, states hers: “I’m a woman with a clear purpose since childhood. I work collectively with many others to co-create a world of justice and dignity for all. “

Bilikiss Abiola, who transitioned from WeCyclers, the social enterprise she founded, to Lagos State Parks and Gardens Agency where she became General Manager:

“I was never an environmentalist on purpose - I think I fell into it! But now I’m seeing that we need more people like me to make some noise about the environment. Most people do not think environmental issues are important. Changing this is a matter of life and death. It doesn’t matter where you are, the well-being of the planet affects us all! Some people think: Well, oh, what we need in Africa is roads and security, or this and that. The environment is not high on their list of priorities. They talk about securing the pyramid of food, shelter, and clothing before you get anything else. People need to hear that the real base of the pyramid is the environment – if you don’t have a stable, safe environment, then you cannot survive”

Bilikiss Abiola

MAKTOUB

The last example is from Essma Ben Hamida from Enda Inter-Arabe in Tunisia. Essma co-founded enda inter-arabe with her husband Michael in 1990. It is now one of the highest rated microfinance institutions in the world, and has distributed over one million loans, benefiting over 330,000 borrowers. “I left teaching to become a journalist – I dreamt of changing the world. But despite writing about the big issues, I realised I was disappointed because nothing changed; they were not solving any problems.”

At some point she realised something about the contributions of small NGOs who were really doing something against poverty despite adverse contexts.

“An article on why farmers in Tunisia were not paying back their loans brought me home. I talked to a lot of people, a lot of women - the situation was very bad. Suddenly, while talking to a woman, something struck me very significantly. In Tunisia, we call it ‘maktoub’ - it was a moment of seeing my destiny, my purpose. I was sent to do this article so that I can reconnect with my country, and do something to help the women of Tunisia”.

Essma Ben Hamida

Question 3 What do you need to focus on when you work on your organisation purpose statement?

SM: When you run a social business - meaning, when you align your commercial objectives with your social purpose - you are not always selling easy products or services (at least not all of us), you put some social and environmental parameters in the equation. What we do is connected to a change that is needed, pain, sometimes horror stories, issues we want to see gone. And the first hurdle - after making sense of our why - is to communicate what we do without making people run away, or roll their eyes with early exhaustion. We need to keep them on board. Not just feel inspired…

When you start crafting your organisation statement, something you need to think about is “Am I challenging enough?” or “Am I overwhelming / confusing my audience?”

At Ogunte, since 2001, we have chosen to explore social entrepreneurship with a gender lens and specifically highlight and support women who focus on changing people’s worlds, and their environment. It is a very wide angle as we have to be intersectional to cater for the  various needs or objectives women have in this space, and at the same time we want to see them shine and make decisions at the highest level possible, without victimising them. Our challenge is to make this topic exciting enough and not overwhelming for people who might be overwhelmed by feminism… (although I think they have a problem of their own, if that is their case!)  

“Your purpose should be also a vessel for people to shine… “

We have a tagline that helps us in the process: “A better world, powered by women…” This is a conversation trigger… it assumes something is changing, and that women are heard, at the heart of decision-making, valued and recognised in the process of powering, fueling change, alongside men, and in all their diversity, and intersectionality. (At least, that’s what we hope this tagline vehiculates… Maybe some people feel overwhelmed… so we need to balance this by explicitly adding specifics on how we do this and how OTHERS can do this. So it shouldn’t’ be instructions, but guidance, and beliefs, a “rallying value layer” that gives a flavour of your ethos and how you do things.

We believe in ImpactWomen: Influential, skilled and connected women with bold solutions to social and environmental issues can create sustainable opportunities to make the world a better place. They are also more likely to be listened to and valued as civic, political and economic contributors.

... and a strong support ecosystem We believe that a stronger ecosystem of advisors, supporters and finance providers, that operates with a conscious gender-lens, can contribute to grow women in social enterprises and their work. Our purpose is to make this healthy ecosystem a reality, to address gender equality, and contribute to social justice. So the final bit is about Repercussions and Rewards. �� What is the cost of you not intervening. • What is the reward and the benefit of your intervention?

Question 4: What if I am in a place where it is not safe to speak up and share my organisation’s purpose?

When you are in an unsafe place/ social or political context, you need to create alliances, and form a block with other like minded organisations, a united voice. For your personal support and also to never stay isolated. Find common purposes beyond your own, a network organisation for instance that understands your objectives. A great example is the Association for progressive communications ( APC). APC is an international network of organizations that was founded back in 1990 to provide communication infrastructure, including Internet-based applications, to groups and individuals who work for peace, human rights, protection of the environment, and sustainability. So very frequently, when their members see their internet shut down, APC creates a relay network to provide support, and continue to provide information on their behalf if that is what they need.

Question 5: Why is willing to change (or save...) the world not enough?

SM: Because it is vague, whose world is it? Maybe it’s not believable, changing the whole world? Who is changing it, who is helping, who is likely financing it? Who is calling the cards? Changing it t what, to whose image? Who is inclined to campaign and change the law to support this plan? Why hasn’t been done before? And whilst you are focusing on this, what would be the systemic repercussions of achieving your purpose?

a) The brain doesn’t like a blank sheet. It finds it horrible, you have to plant the seeds of your story, so set the context, bring in evidence. b) Start to work with what you know, the evidence you have, you need to buy in this purpose 100% and contribute to it day and night, as a matter of principle, otherwise you will feel mis-aligned. c) A course I encourage you to take up to grasp the origins and consequences of issues and how to affect change systemically, is the System Practice course by Acumen+ (Next intake October 2018 - Free course)

Communicating your purpose is about clarity of intention, it is about timeliness, and audience. It is about why your presence is relevant, how you fit, now and overtime. At some point you will have to explain how you serve, how you create change, which tools you use. Immediately after this statement, you should be able to bring about evidence, traction, and arguments that support this statement.

At the core of it, at its foundation, is of course, how you as an individual are able to find your MAKTOUB.

Like Essma Ben Hamida from Enda InterArabe, when stars align and you take a step back, you can find yourself at the intersection of duty, care, dream, passion and skills, you find your purpose, your destiny. Listen carefully and observe!

Please look at our previous videos on our Facebook page, they are packed with links, resources and tips (we previously talked about leadership, governance, and today was the AMA on Communicating your Purpose).

There are many ways we can help you grow your social venture, check out our services here

[oguntewomen]

Women in social enterprise, forget the “soft touch”, focus on this instead.

by Servane Mouazan

This is a quick cheat sheet that you can use when you get too much advice and guidelines, and your head starts spinning.

Focus on the essential (in this post and the ones that precede... we are here to serve!)

People are waiting for your insights. Spend your time building a strong process, then deliver and evidence your work; segment your participants in meaningful categories. Learn from your results, amend, pilot again and ship for good.

Then become an educator in this market.

Bring the discipline and the proof (they are not separable) that your model makes a difference

You have got  a chance of a lifetime and the opportunities to make a difference in this market place. Seize it.

Angels find new businesses at pre-revenue stage very difficult so chase any small amount of money you can.

As an entrepreneur, you need to be outstanding in putting your story across. Make it understandable, jargon free, granny proof!

Investors are not here to fund a lifestyle for you, it's about shared risks.

Cornerstones invest if your business has a chance to attract angel investment.

If you can go to a bank, get a cheaper loan!

Get yourself a financially savvy mentor or a non-exec finance director for instance.

You need to be able to challenge figures as the business grows. If it is not your specialty, have you envisaged attending a course in finances for non-financial managers? If not, do so. You’ll survive!

You found the business, and then you have to build a team. Failure happens inevitably when you think you can do everything!

Be able to provide evidence of your social impact.

Monitoring and evaluation is inspirational. (Whether you use it to track your weight or build a new business strategy. If you want a morein-depth conversation about it, let’s chat ( Find us on twitter here).

Get a due diligence pack and tidy up the loose bits.

As Banksy says, if you  get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

[oguntewomen]

Why peace building is a hurtful business (and what we can do about it)

by Servane Mouazan, CEO OGUNTE CIC.

All I want is peace.

My head is spinning because movements and initiatives supporting women are popping out everywhere, but also with them the cathartic confirmation that deeply ingrained behaviours and beliefs (colonialism, toxic patriarchal ways and racism) impend our best efforts to help.

And it reminds me that peace building is a hurtful business.

That’s why I want to spend a few minutes thinking of the marks left by women fighting for peace through social movements, politics, and social enterprises that impact on people, planet, and the rule of law.

What if we learnt and took stock of the soft power that female activists, politicians and human rights defenders, such as Marielle Franco, Jo Cox, Berta Cáceres, have been using with great craft, albeit paying it with their life?

Peace building requires a lot of… fighting. That’s the contradictio in terminis that sadly forms the basis of activism. Fighting to get heard, fighting to co-create with the voiceless a platform where they can follow up their aspirations and exert their rights in dignity.

Yet peace-building starts the moment you decide to nod and smile at your neighbour, and understand how it impacts on their day.

In NGOs and social enterprises, peace-building efforts are embedded in every-day (well-run) governance.

Reflecting on the disrupting presence and actions of women in activism such as Marielle, Berta and Jo could be a pathway to progress, and whilst in your own context you might not risk your own life, it is nevertheless a mark of social leadership to use their tools for your greater purpose.

I want to hear what you make of their example and really want to read about your own experience in the comments below!

1- Fighting the forces that want to make you invisible

I am totally convinced we need more women in politics, but it’s not just that.

If we want to make this world a place worth living in, we need to look at our everyday connection with power and how it is used.

Your impact will be measured by how you made the invisible visible and how you create a space where they are valued and counted.

Brazilian activist Marielle Franco who emerged from her fight against homophobia, racism, poverty, corruption, and the intersection of it all, made it an obvious choice to grow as a human rights’ defender, a vocal challenger, a peace-maker, and ultimately run for election. This was a symbolic act but also an impactful act of leadership. As she became increasingly political, Franco joined Brazil’s new left-wing party, the Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL), and quickly became one of its rising stars.

Sadly she paid it with her life.

Journalist and Human Rights activist Rebeca Lerer, from Sao Paulo, says: 

“It’s not just about bringing more women in politics. Marielle Franco was not just a city councillor. She was a black, lesbian woman, born and raised in the favela, involved in the unconditional defence of the human’s rights agenda, and this is for this specific reason that her election was so symbolic, important and even revolutionary. And that is why she has been cowardly assassinated. Not all women in politics are involved with the Human’s Rights agenda, and for some of them, it is rather the opposite.”

Dying for the planet

Berta Cáceres, Honduran environmental activist, Lenca indigenous leader, human rights defender, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, once won the Goldman Environmental Prize (the equivalent of a Nobel for environmental defense), for "a grassroots campaign that successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam" at the Río Gualcarque. 

In 2016, she was assassinated in her home by armed intruders, after years of threats against her life.  There is still to this day an obvious, concerted and evidenced effort to control, neutralize and eliminate any opposition from environmentalists and human’s rights defenders.

Why should you pay attention?

Berta’s work as well as hundred of other environmentalists is about consent, survival and the rule of law.

International treaties compel their signatories to allow free, prior, and informed consent by indigenous peoples before development take place in their territories.

In many places, people have no way to challenge individuals or companies seeking to control water, minerals, forests, and lands. Quiescence and compliance are key for profit seeking mining and exploiting companies to grow.

Imagine for a minute not having any say in the access and sustainability of commodities upon which your life depend?

Imagine that for this reason, profit-seeking businesses can make or break peace?

Cities like Sao Paulo, Bangalore, Beijing, Cairo, Djakarta, Moscow, Istanbul, Mexico City, Tokyo, Miami, and London are the 11 cities more likely to run out of drinking water. That, added to pollution and lack of planning infrastructures, can be a major risk to peace.

Think for a minute that London is expected to require an extra 200 million litres per day of potable water by 2025. [London First]. This water will need to come among others from savings or reuse. As there will be more and more severe droughts, water restrictions lasting nine months or more, may be required. Recent calculations showed that a six-month drought order could cost businesses between up to £1.7 billion.

Civil unrest also can occur. This means that water security needs to become a top priority if we want to keep peace and sustainable living in London, like in other large cities. Not something you suspected would take place before long, is it?

Yes, Berta’s legacy is right in your kitchen tap.

Watch this interactive map of Global Killings of Land and Environmental Defenders 2002-2014 (actualised in 2016)  .

To learn more about Berta Cáceres’ extraordinary work, Watch the video below from AWID.

or look at her profile as a Goldman Environmental Prize winner.

2- Have patience, nerves and consensus

Women in the public eye, especially politicians, are constantly submitted to hideous comments about their looks, to threats of death, rape, or the rape of their children.

Even within her short life dedicated to British child poverty, overseas aid and development, and then to politics, Member of UK Parliament Jo Cox managed to make a strong impression. She died at the hand of a man connected to neo-nazi groups, shot and stabbed outside a library in West Yorkshire, UK, where she was about to hold her surgery. Interviewed by the Huffington post about which one thing she would change about UK politics if she could. "A more consensus style of politics looking at problems and getting the best brains involved in them to find solutions," she said.

“We are far more united and have far more in common with each other than that which divides us." Jo Cox

Consensus as a peace-building tool is not about compromising and losing ground, it’s a construction principle.

3- Choose “Power With” against “Power Over”

“I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the idea that governance should be 'power-over' and abusive rather than 'power with' and collaborative.” Louise Van Rhyn, CEO Partners for Possibility in South Africa.

Partners for Possibility are connecting good school leadership and educational outcomes. Education outcomes are critically low in South Africa. Most school principals in South Africa have not been equipped with the skills & knowledge for their critically important leadership role. So Partners for Possibility’s daily practice is about building collective leadership capacity. They provide principals of under resourced schools with a business leader and a development plan alongside tailored support, which address the school’s specific challenges. In a co-productive and collaborative way.

“We have discovered that this is the essence of work. We have discovered how to make cross-sector collaboration work because we have figured out how to move from patriarchy to partnership. I have seen this in action in 741 schools.” says van Rhyn.

Following biomimetic principles, Partners for Possibility don’t source expensive experts to overturn school’s performance, but rather source brilliance from a wide pool of well trained local business people and the magic happens when these worlds collide and create a collaborative recipe of care and compassion.

CEO Louise van Rhyn explains what it takes in practice to move from patriarchy to partnership:

“Partners for Possibility deliberately enables and supports a non-hierarchical process by providing principals with a “Thinking Partner” who:

- Cares deeply. “We think this is the “magic sauce” of Partners for Possibility”, says Louise van Rhyn

- Is in their corner and committed to creating a “safe space” for them.

“These business leaders join PfP and partner with a principal because they want to, and they show up at training courses and community of practice sessions because they don’t want to let their partner down.”

“Traditional aid into Africa has never had an impact because it has been patriarchal & 'Power over'. The only way we will see development work in Africa is when we can work 'with' other and realise that we all have something to contribute.”

When executives go “on a visit to a poor country to do good work”, there is sometimes a lot of “grinning and bearing” that happens:

For example: “Recipients” bite their tongues when they experience visitors as condescending, particularly when they know the visit will be short-lived. On the other hand, “Visitors” who are on company-sponsored development programmes, where they have an opportunity to shine, can sometimes focus as much on themselves as on the beneficiaries of their input.”

The measure of success is respect, empathy, the right to “divorce” from the process when things don’t go to plan, however through a series of authentic and brave conversations.

Partners for Possibility’s coaches are here to help participants reflect upon the learning acquired. Every single time.

To me, this “Power With” trajectory, as opposed to Power Over, is a robust peace building process that leverages talent and opportunities. It requires discipline and authenticity.

4- Participants not beneficiaries

“Promoting peace is about justice, inclusion, voice and power.” Cecilia Milesi. 

Born in Argentina, Latin America, Cecilia Milesi is a professional and activist whose work is inspired by the vision of co-creating an equal and just world in which all human beings live in dignity and freedom.

Cecilia considers that this transformation will only happen if the Global South countries and their people play a leading transformational role in local-global politics and if societies are respectful of human rights and citizens’ participation.

Cecilia is now Senior Adviser South-South Cooperation on Peace and Development at the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation.

Cecilia makes a point to talk about participants in programmes she works on. She finds it odd and misplaced to use words such as “beneficiaries” or “clients”. It comes from her dialogue-focused approach and whilst bringing her professional tools about and ensuring that the space is open and safe enough for all to participate, when she supports programmes she insists on respecting the collaborative design approach.

What do you make of these approaches?

I haven’t got any solution to prevent murders, in fact evidence shows that keeping your head high and your voice loud will get you killed especially if you are woman. The techniques, values and principles Marielle, Jo, and Berta campaigned for, and that Louise or Cecilia still use today, can be implemented and pushed forward at all time.

Intersectionality in your thoughts and behaviour, as well as respectful and non-condescending participatory decision-making being two of them.

[oguntewomen]

#Leadership: The Unfinished Business

Leadership is never a finished business. You cannot graduate in leadership and be done. 

At Ogunte, since 2001, we have chosen to explore leadership with a gender lens and specifically with and by women who focus on changing people’s world, their social and environmental contexts. It’s a fascinating topic, and we hope to be a loyal and faithful platform for women who are growing and leading change this way. We are learning every day with you all and we share this learning through our networks.

As part of our summer online learning sessions, we invited network members to share thoughts and questions around leadership. Watch the video here.

Read the transcript:

I recently read an article about Resilient leadership in educational context. It was all about leading with open eyes. 

“When things are going well, change is the last thing some school leaders want to do, so they skimp on learning. When things aren't going well, some leaders make the dangerous mistake of believing they can't afford to invest in professional development. Whenever top leaders quit learning, it usually means one thing: They believe they know everything they need to know. Organizations, however, are in a constant state of change. Responding to change always requires learning.” I propose you to adopt learning as a key and pivotal element of leadership.  

How can one influence without authority in a big and highly hierarchical organization? Patricia Cotton, MD Upside Down Thinking, Rio Brazil.

I would shy away of talking of Influence without authority, but would rather use Leading beyond authority.Define authority, do you mean power, do you mean you have a leadership role but no positional power? There’s always something within you can lead from or with.

Let’s look at the power you have within.

You have the power to gift support, to follow, to echo good practice, to stop false information circulating.

You have the power to ask incisive and empathetic questions.

Then you have the power to educate and influence through example, and responsibility.

Finally you can influence, by elevating yourself through learning, even on the job, challenging yourself. And like a virus in nature, your positive behaviour will contaminate your peers.

You have a parallel between this question and the following:

What about influencing and developing authority and leadership in a market that is not specifically waiting for you to come in…

Let me give two examples of social innovators in the US and Nigeria.

Chinwe Ohajuruka is the founder and CEO of CDS Comprehensive Design Services– an innovative organisation dedicated to improving the lives of millions of Nigerians through affordable green housing.

Sustainable designs and renewable technologies are central to CDS’s mission of social transformation, as they strive to bring dignity, privacy, and opportunities to many living in poverty. Affordable housing is not a topic that many people necessarily want to get involved in, because it is a huge problem that even governments have a hard time tackling. 

“To be commercially viable, sustainable housing construction requires land, finance, labour, technical know-how, and scale. It thrives in an enabling environment where there is government cooperation, suitable policy, and good infrastructure. All of these are in scarce supply in the regions that need the housing the most, so making the stars align is a constant uphill struggle! Housing provision requires great capital expenditure for construction and mortgage finance. We are constantly battling to find the kind of patient capital that will allow the marginalized and under-served the opportunity for home ownership”.

Megan Miller co-founded Bitty Foods and is committed to spreading the word about edible insects – crickets in particular. Crickets are an eco-friendly, high-protein source of nutrition and could well be part of the solution to securing global food security for the future. In some cultures eating insects is a done deal, and in others, people are shivering just thinking about it! Megan thoroughly researched the topic, and started socialising the idea with her friends, asking: ‘What if we all started eating insects, and we saved the world?!’ To the extent that they sort of peer-pressured her into actually trying it. They said, ‘You know, you’re gonna have to put your money where your mouth is and start cooking edible insects.’ So she did.

With a combination of well timed public speaking, publication of research, and the finding of startup farms producing crickets, they quickly found their supply chain, but very soon they had to find more crickets.

Despite the growing demand, they are still in the phase of convincing mainstream consumers that eating edible insects is something that needs to happen.

Chinwe and Megan both have an evidenced based solution, and a market that is not necessarily willing to switch, change, nor adapt instantly. They have to be clear about what they are bringing about, articulate it in a simple way, but at the same time, they have to identify what their potential customers are ready to hear, to absorb. And in this fine overlap, they will grow their authority and start to lead. In this fine overlap, they have to forge alliances, people who communicate the same message and also who are ready to build the infrastructure that will support this innovation. It is a very fine overlap, yet a hopeful one.

What's your golden tip for leading cross-cultural teams?

There is no golden tip. However there’s something that seems to be recurrent among The Impact Women we spoke to... They reported the importance of nurturing a shared vision in their leadership. They stressed that the venture was not about them, but about the shared journey of everyone involved: staff, volunteers, investors, beneficiaries, families, communities. No one is left out and that is powerful.

Practically, you need to put representatives of these communities in the room and get their creative juices working together. It could be for a service, a product you plan to come out, a piece of research, an inquiry about their needs, their prospects, their worries…

Dr Urvashi Sahni, founder of Study Hall Educational Foundation ( SHEF), an education foundation to help underprivileged girls in India, says:

‘I used to lead from the front more, but now I have learned to walk alongside my team and learn from them, as well as teach them everything I know.It is key to develop the vision along with the people you are leading, so that it’s a shared vision. I learned very early that telling people what to do doesn’t work.’

Organisations tend to get very focused on the tactics (the ‘what’) and the 'why’ gets lost along the way. You need to revive this and go back to it. Read our article: “How Impact Women imprint purpose and values on their business”

Another good aspect to think about, comes from Kresse Wesling, co-founder of Elvis & Kresse, a luxury accessories brand that rescues materials destined for landfill.Kresse says:

‘Ensure that your story does not belong to you; it is your stakeholder’s story, your team’s story, your customer’s story, your community’s story.’·     

To recap:

Leadership is also about finding the purpose and the vision within and keeping it very clear at all times. 

It’s about accepting that the story is not yours.

It’s about redefining your power and what you want to influence as a leader. 

What about the unfinished business of how to lead cross-cultural teams?

I am afraid there is no one size fits all answer to that question.  The essence is that, to lead a cross-cultural team, you might chose to impose your view of the world, and the culture that will come out of this will be a projection of your personality. However, you might cut yourself short here. You need to be very curious and flexible as to:

a) how people need and want to be led, and

b) which leadership trait but also which skill, behaviour, insights, networks, the members of your team themselves will be able to bring to the game, that will also be the most relevant for what you are trying to achieve.

c) It requires your end vision to be clear to all. 

In an article by Dr Tomas Chamorro Premuzic on Entrepreneurial leadership - “What Leadership looks like in different cultures”-  discover which type of leadership is most prominent in certain countries, in the context of decision making, communication style, even dark side tendencies.

The key traits you will need to develop as a leader are certainly your fluidity, your flexibility at the same time as your consistency, how you keep purpose in sight and how you manage to keep a systemic view of the world.

How do you think we can support young people now to build a lifelong learning mentality that will make them good leaders in future? asked Angela from GlobalLearning Goals.

I love the richness of experience and storytelling. There’s nothing more enlightening that people experimenting and trying out things for themselves, that stand out, that are out of their routine. Nothing stronger than young people have the space to express questions, articulate stories about their life.  We need young people to speak out more and to bring out more stories to the front, accept them as great speakers, develop these interpersonal skills that are so useful and required in the adult world. For negotiation purposes, to capture attention, to raise concerns, to manage emotions, to lead! 

“Is there anything left about the subject of leadership that hasn't already been said? Any wisdom we are yet to hear? And if so what would that be?” asked Kirstie Sivapalan from London.

This is interesting. I guess we are not finished with leadership. What is left to do is you brandishing your campaign and get on with it, get loyal followers, champions on side, as well as people who will challenge you to do more and better.In an article I shared a little while ago called “That leadership conversation you haven’t had yet” I am sharing an exercise. It is a sabotage exercise.

The Sabotage Question (Fill the blanks!)

Knowing that you are working in the field of… and the current constraints around this theme are predominantly (select practical examples) …, …, and … (and these don’t seem to go away), what would you (you, your team, your family, society) need to continue doing, or start doing more of, to make the situation even worse? 

Answer here: …

Reflecting on what you would need to do to sabotage the situation really helps you to become more aware of the things that are creating problems...

Now, on your way home today, leaving your leader’s hat and any other hat behind, where do you suddenly spot the issue you are working on?

a) Here…

b) There…

c) And there as well:…

Find one reason why this is happening in that very location, or one reason why something is not happening, just there.

What if you engaged now in an impromptu conversation with … (stranger), as well as … (someone in your neighborhood), also with … (an elected councilor), and … (an executive/chair from another NGO, social business, or company) and invited them to think about… ?

What if you invited them to activate …[something] with you?

How about you do that this week?

When you get back to work, after this experience, get rid of the superfluous and start focusing on the actions and the relationships you’ve identified, until you get incremental yet evidenced results.

To have an example of how someone did that in practice, read our interview with Cecilia Milesi, peace builder, from Argentina.

She is talking about leading a movement, as opposed to an organization. 

“How do we take people to a space of authentic leadership where both the male and female qualities are interested and balanced”. Kirstie, London.

As Kirstie asks the question, she immediately adds: “I wouldn't even know where to start with that one. Maybe the point isn't the answer it's just to ask the question.” And I loved when Kirstie thought out loud this way there. The question is complex, because, to start with there’s not just one male side and one female side. Reality is much more complex than that, thankfully. The beauty is that we come in the most various shapes forms, abilities, vulnerabilities, voices and heritages, and experiences.

The risk is we are not all equipped to embrace our complexity. Because we are expected to communicate through boxes, stereotypes, unevidenced common beliefs.

In each community, someone needs to go the extra mile to develop empathy, care, and above all, make space. We can’t steal someone else’s speaking space when they are perfectly capable of speak for themselves. In this short introductory session on Leadership, I have highlighted ImpactWomen that you should definitely connect to, and discover how they – and their friends - have mastered the topic of leadership, each in their own way.

About Ogunte CIC

Ogunte CIC is an organisation that amplifies and supports Women in Social Enterprises, in various places in the world.  It is a networked based organisation, made of trainers, consultants, coaches, business transformation practitioners, who truly believe in social impact made by women. Outside the one-to-one or group learning opportunities we provide for women in social enterprises and their supporters, face-to-face and online, we also have a fluid network you can join, by just pinning your social enterprise on a global map. Go to map.ogunte.com and click on “participate”.     

Photo on <a href="https://foter.com/">Foter.com</a>

[oguntewomen]

About funding: who wants to deal with growing pains and hurdles?

by Servane Mouazan

We put up this post together as we have had several conversations about the rationale behind funding and how to “recruit” supporters for your social business.

Do you really want a funder that is looking for safe bets, and polished, problem- free companies? You might have a decent track record, but you also have issues to fix and learning to do. Most of the time, when a venture philanthropy organisation says "We will not back you", it really means no, and it's because there’s a legal or strategic reason. But when they - maybe - want to back you, they might ask a few things from you before signing off the deal. When you select your future financial supporters, think of the following: 1. It’s important you understand the perspective of the donor/investor you have selected. Do the due diligence on the donors. Are they clear about why they are backing certain organisations above others? How easy are they to work with? Look at the skills of the board and also the portfolio of ventures they have backed to date, they constitute the knowledge capital that will come on top of the funding. They give away the values that underpin the organisation. Look in the organisations that the funder backs, ask yourself what was the growing pain that needed to be dealt with. 2. You want a funding organisation that will help you move forward and take you out of the "awkward stage". So don't be afraid to show weaknesses and your failures in the past and talk about how you have learned from them. If you don't, your pitch will sound unrealistic. The backers need to know how they can help you.

3. Put together a flexible due diligence pack- a simple file folder with the basic key information - the material the management works with to manage the business. The clearer you are about your own business and your data, before you approach funders, the better the relationship will start.

Be ready to have the pack relevant to the type of funders you are going for. It’s about where you are at now, make sure to remove any outdated information!

4. Don't try to fit funding agendas at the cost of your mission and real social impact!

5. Keep practicing – there is a conversion process between the charity world to the venture capitalist’s world.

6. Yes paperwork and data are important, but it’s not all about ticking boxes. Professional investors also have instinctive skills they use when judging your proposal. They are also interested in people who have the right attitude and a clear story to tell.

7. You can’t escape it, you have to know your numbers. If you can’t talk about that number on the spreadsheet, rest assured it is the detail the board will ask you about! When you pitch, stay clear and succinct, make sure the board can feel authenticity, direction, and passion!

8. Choose your professional volunteers carefully, as it can sometimes turn into a nightmare. Some venture philanthropists do spend a lot of time in the matching of volunteers with social businesses. A healthy support organisation will have board members who are very hands on and get involved as executive investment committee members, using their broad skillset. Candidates go through their sniff test, based on years on experience of seeing companies fail or succeed. They are engaged by taking a partner role, like a mentor, and also tap in their network to bring in additional people.

So, yes indeed, impact investors too should be able to deal with growing pains and hurdles...

Check the other posts on this ImpactWomen blog to grow your skills around fundraising, governance, operations, etc. Let us know how you are progressing!

[oguntewomen]

How to waste 10 precious seconds whilst pitching your social business?

During one of our previous Make A Wave incubation programmes for women in social enterprises, we welcomed Ms Sarah Ryan, an advisor for ASTIA. Astia is a global not-for-profit organization built on a community of men and women dedicated to the success of women-led, high-growth ventures and to the eradication of the need for the organization within the decade. The Astia method is designed for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs who understand the value of extraordinary relationships and believe in giving back. Designed for high-growth companies at all stages, the Astia offering is implemented by over 1000 volunteer members of the Astia Advisor Network that includes more than former and current CEOs and investors. Astia is an extremely committed community of advisors, investors, industry leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Sarah understands social enterprise. Besides being an advisor for Astia Europe, she has been a Mentor for the Prince's Trust, Women Like Us and has contributed to Pioneers of Prosperity Awards, conducting on-site financial due diligence. The questions she is always asking social ventures leaders: - There's one bottom line: how good is your company for your community, your employees, your customers, your shareholders, and importantly, is it viable? From Astia's point of view, Social Enterprises will be looked at like any other enterprises (if they also are a company limited by shares). Venture Capitalists want to see at least a prototype. They love when you speak a language they grasp (and if they can grasp your language). They want to understand your big story, your plan for scaling, and how you will make it sustainable. You can (and you should) articulate how you are going to "give back' or “pay it forward” by creating value - if you create employment, if you create other businesses- and that you need to reinvest money in the business to be able to do so.

Whatever the story is, you need to be self-sustaining.

VC's are looking at investing large sums (+/- £200 000) to help you going to scale. Angels will be considering smaller amounts. Anyhow, they won't be interested in writing you a cheque for £25,000 for an office space and a member of staff for 2 years.

So the 5 elements that you will need to polish before starting to approach VC's will be:

1) A prototype of a product and a clear explanation of what that product is!

2) A real team (knowing what gaps your team has is as important as having a fully formed board). If the venture sounds interesting, VC's are likely to ask to speak to your management team.

3) The assessment and the proof that there is a market for this product.

4) Relevant stakeholders to bring this venture to fruition...

5) Interest in learning, the ability to take feedback, to be ready to be open and make changes.

But more importantly, they want to hear about the BIG VISION! FACTS to bring perspective to your journey:

- VC's will look at dozens and dozens of proposals a week. - They will all do a different amount of Due Diligence. - They will want to talk to your customers - They will want to meet your management team - They will want to see results of the market research. - They will find a way to know more about your industry! - They will send you away with more and more homework and collect more evidence (that is if you have secured a first meeting with them and they haven't yet said NO...) If you have some government funding, they might be worried about the type of strings attached. If you are involved with VC's, remember, they'd love to discover the next Google, they would love your business to be highly scaleable. You might be running a social enterprise and considering yourself innovative, but by saying this during your pitch, you've lost a precious opportunity (5 or 10 seconds?) to tell them directly WHAT YOU DO AND HOW YOU BRING VALUE.

nb: most of them are skilled enough to judge if something is innovative or not. So remember... it can be a long process but you will learn a lot. They really want to see your business succeed, especially if they are to be involved! So, who are you going to call now?

[oguntewomen]

Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work in Social Enterprises

Today in London, our Ogunte #ImpactWomen #GoodBreakfast audience wanted to know more about Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the truth, the misconceptions, and how we can use them in our social enterprises, and shape the future of work. Here’s the summary of our session, packed with resources!

This session was hosted and animated by:

Karen Rivoire, Chief People Officer at Purpose in Action, (Sony, Microsoft Reactor, Unilever, WPP), passionate about human interaction, organisational health and the future of work, focused on Augmenting human capability with intelligent systems,

Be Kaler, Founder and Director of Futureheads Recruitment Ltd, Founder and Director of The User Centred Design Society  and a Trustee to Hope For Children

Servane Mouazan, Founder and Director of Ogunte CIC, specialised in Women in Social Enterprises, and Lead Partner at Conscious Innovation.

1. First a bit of myth debunking

It’s important to explore what Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are really about, and what they can and can’t do.

“Artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals”

Read about the fascinating history of Artificial Intelligence starting in Antiquity.

Then have a look at this A to Z cheat sheet about the terms that are frequently used and misused on the topic.

2. There is Weak AI and Strong Ai

AI is not limited to a story of robots. That would be a pretty simplistic way to describe what it is…

So let’s distinguish Weak AI (very narrow, what Artificial Intelligence is today), Artificial intelligence which is specifically programmed and focused to execute a narrow task effectively.  Fos instance: only facial recognition or only internet searches or only driving a car

We are far from taking over the world!

There might be some AI applications coming together and solve big problems, however we are not there yet …

The Future of Life Institute (a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence) say that to have a realistic time line about the developments in AI, you need to at least double your time expectations to see any substantial developments.

And then there is “Strong AI”

The main vision is to develop artificial intelligence to the point where the machine's intellectual capability is functionally equal to a human's.

We can see efforts in applications wishing to mimic humans. Yet we are not talking about mimicking the way humans think and do.

“Humans are not necessarily a superior species. It’s our ability to deal with complexity that is interesting and using tech to augment this, is useful. However we need to be very mindful to the decisions we make,” says our guest Karen Rivoire.

An algorithm is a list of rules to follow in order to solve a problem. Algorithms need to have their steps in the right order to work properly.

They also depend on the information input. If it is biased, the output will be biased too.

We have handed over decisions to algorithms we wouldn’t have let go off  in the past.

As technology develops, our host Karen insisted there is still time to influence the development of the technology, but we need to get involved now. Our knowledge of communities, our proximity, our connections, are of key importance.

At the moment some organisations are using technology to research and solve issues in health, science, energy consumptions and more, such as Deep Mind (acquired by Google in 2014).

One of Deep Mind’s approaches is to use AI to deliver better care for conditions that affect millions of people worldwide.

3. So what do I do first?

Remember that an algorithm is a programme. We can not programme human brains into 1 and 0s. THE PROGRAMMING doesn’t solve the problem.

Start with understanding your own data. Does it fit your purpose?

Audit your organizational processes, what needs to be more mindful, where you need more evidence, more automation, more learning. Look at your values, your identity, your emotional intelligence (how you develop it how you use it) and how inclusive you are in your operations and impact.

Remember that your expertise in social innovation, and your purpose-led work is as important as technology.

Your input and actions need to be personalised and fair but only with great customer insight and coherence.

Finally, technology (good data and analytics) can reinforce value-driven leadership.

Karen advocates using the P.A.I.R. methodology

Purposeful

Adaptive

Intersectional/Inclusive,

Resilient

and to encourage staff and stakeholders to immerse themselves into a life-long learning mindset.

Questions samples:

How am I protective of my own data?

How much do I know about the data I have in house?

What do I want to learn?

How can I best use data to serve the participants in my purpose-led organization?

How does it help me to work towards a positive and intersectional social impact?

4. Explore the AI protocol.

Robbie Stamp, Chief Executive of Bioss International (working around judgment and decision making), gives an overview of the Bioss AI Protocol in this video.

Think about your Artificial Intelligence systems...

- Is the work they are doing Advisory? Does it inform your judgement? Is the decision eventually made by humans.

- Has the AI been granted Authority over any human being?

- Have you granted the AI Agency? Can it commit resources without human intervention? (Like in the Stock Exchange, or agency to machines to write code or repair their own code...)

- Application: are we clear when we abdicate responsibility to a machine... (eg a driverless car making decisions whilst you are doing something else and not paying attention to the core task as you’ve abdicated responsibility)

- Accountability: all humans have some sense of responsibility (albeit imperfect!) An AI cannot be accountable in the way humans currently are. Can it ever be?

5. Immerse yourself in AI world through powerful connections and reading

Hoover on the names to open links

Inspirational Women (What would we do without them... )

Cathy O’Neil : Mathbabe.org Weapons of Math Destruction.

Catherine Helen O'Neil is an American mathematician and the author of the blog mathbabe.org and several books on data science, including Weapons of Math Destruction. Some AI stuff has been created without basic Math foundations nor statistical ground. Cathy challenges this.

Kate Crawford – ate Crawford is a leading researcher, academic and author who has spent the last decade studying the social implications of data systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

We programme codes with huge bias in. Kate challenges that.

Joanna Bryson Polymath psychologist and computer scientist.  Associate Professor in the Department of Computing at the University of Bath, Joanna works on Artificial Intelligence, ethics and collaborative cognition. She asks: How to use tech to become even more human?

Tabitha Goldstaub Co Founder of CognitionX, a Market Intelligence Platform for All Things Artificial Intelligence enabling people and companies to educate themselves and get community led recommendations on how to deploy AI.

Martine Rothblatt The founder of Sirius XM satellite radio, Martine Rothblatt now heads up a drug company that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases (including one drug that saved her own daughter's life). Meanwhile she is working to preserve the consciousness of the woman she loves in a digital file ... and a companion robot.

Networks:

TechSheCan: a diverse range of organisations who believe that together we will make a much greater impact to address the root cause of the problem. (Video and video transcript)

AiforGood Artificial Intelligence for Global Sustainable Development

TeensinAI exists to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence

Reading

Exponential View newsletter: Azeem Azhar's wondermissive on technology, the future & society.

Tim o’Reilly: What’s the future and Why it’s up to us

The Benefits and Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Pete Trainor:  An author, applied Artificial Intelligence designer, technologist, accidental polymath, mental health campaigner and co-founder of Us Ai. He talks all over the world on creative & social technologies, data, Ai and the physiological & psychological effects on their audiences.

Read Futureheads’ Be Kaler’s write up on the hype / trust issues around AI.

Read OECD’s white papers on the Future of Work, and the list breakdown of routine and non routine jobs that will stay or go in the near future.

Events to attend

·  Internet Freedom Festival- Valencia, Spain- Yearly event every March.

·  RightsCon  Tunis 2019.

·  Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and  DeepMind on The role of Citizens in Developing Ethical AI

·  Get a nano degree at General Assembly and explore learning at Udacity’s School of AI

There are many ways we can help you grow your social venture or impact on women and girls, check out @Ogunte services here.

[oguntewomen]

ImpactWomen Learning: From Functional Lead to CEO

I recently ran a rapid prototyping session for senior women in social enterprises, who are contemplating moving from a functional lead or a senior changemaker position, to CEO level.

Did you know:

Although Women in Social Enterprise lead in small entities, only a small percentage of them occupy CEO or decision-making seniority in larger social enterprises. Women make 66% of employees but only 41% of social enterprises leaders. From Activist to Entrepreneur. The Role of Social Enterprise in Supporting Women’s Empowerment in the UK.” British Council, 2017.

Research by SELUSI finds that women CEOs in social enterprises earn 29% less than their male counterparts.

Women need to make their case to move from functional leadership role to CEO.

I decided to interview many CEOs in the social enterprise sector, then use storytelling, co-coaching, leadership growth tools, futures thinking, and an introduction to Design Sprints, to help participants understand themselves better (their success and failure patterns), contribute to move an organisation to the next stage, and become its leading face.

CEO: Chief Encouragement Officer | Chief Energizer + Optimizer | Chief Effective Organiser | Catalyst & Empowerment Officer, etc.

There is a title on one hand, and there is the effective leadership on the other, and this does not necessarily mean you can’t do anything below the CEO title. Even before being appointed to the function, your leadership capacity can be used to galvanise colleagues, manage up, incubate in-house programmes and launch them in the world afterwards.

The social enterprise sector is there to create movements, and sustainable pathways for entire communities, so how can your role be contributing to creating more impact, how can you be more involved in shaping sectors, movements, and influence.

As Sian, one of our participants, concluded:

“It’s not about how to become a CEO it’s about thinking how to use the position to create the change you want to see – If you start with that, it informs your approach to becoming a CEO”.

Don't stay on your own

Your network is there to serve your purpose and empower you.

Start by mapping who your direct and indirect stakeholders are.

Ask them about their work, their methodology, their impact, and if they can be frank with you, what they think your strengths are and also what road blocks you might face along the way, because you:

1) might have a different understanding of what it takes to do the job or

2) you haven’t explored your comfort and discomfort zones in depth yet.

Remember: you haven’t shown the best of ALL your abilities yet in a particular setting; people only know you in particular circumstances, so don’t only focus on that odd 360 feedback comment...

Surrounding yourself by peers – in peer-to-peer mastermind classes for instance or co-production groups - is valuable because you hear them reflecting on their career trajectory. Use this not so much to benchmark yourself but to appreciate that life stories are never linear, and you might find someone who can exchange valuable insights, or reflect on your experience from a totally different angle.

“For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

John F. Kennedy

Build a roadmap

This roadmap will look at 5 essential pillars, include what you have built to date and bring with you, and how you can either prepare in depth through additional courses or coaching, or through in-house practical learning experiments.

In each of the categories, think about what you feel you need to explore/ learn more about in the next days/weeks/months.

Governance: confidence in organising everything and everyone / confidence in being heard and managing complexity.

Leadership / Visibility / Communicating your cause in a way that makes people move forward with you and help you.

Connectedness - generating alliances, partnerships, support for yourself and others.

Sense of learning, retaining, managing, distributing knowledge and wisdom.

Viability - Sustainability - Finance management and resources raising.

Each of these pillars should be attached to a particular outcome. Roll back the film and explore what needs to happen from the future, to now.

Prototype

One participant went away with this thought: Use the quieter summer months to pick apart some of the bigger 'broken' processes which have a direct impact on the company strategy and put back together in a way that it helps the company expand and become more sustainable – It is also a way to test whether the leadership role is something I'm ready for or good at.

The not so great stuff

Do you really want to sign up for the whole package? For example, unless it rocks your boat, we sometimes underestimate the amount of work and time spent on governance. It’s time you don't get back, even if you spend it to design and implement great structures and processes to move your organisation forward… Look at how much you love facilitating work or be client facing... assess how all this might change in your next mission.

Look for a big mess

How do you feel about inheriting a big mess? If you have the organisational capacity, the guts, the calm, and the energy to excel under pressure, look for underperforming businesses, a failing service or products, a board that is about to jump, a venture about to be put into administration.

Be bold, be bold, be bold, .... and prepared.

62% of our research respondents told us they'd had only 1 month to make a decision/apply for the CEO position.

So even if you are only playing with the option, get ready now.

Assess internal (what you think or feel within) and external obstacles (beyond your control, circumstantial, other candidates)

Our research among current CEOs showed that, prior to applying, some of our female colleagues had noticed the following:

They felt fear of not being good enough, and if they hadn’t been asked, they would never have applied.

They reckoned they were not networked enough. It’s important to appreciate how much you are known outside your usual sector/circles.

Many of them revealed they felt a massive imposter’s syndrome and some worried about their well-being once into the role.

The competition was fierce, and sometimes boards have got a favourite candidate aligned.

It is not straight forward to prove that your skills are adequate and transferable even if you do not have direct experience in a specific targeted sector.

Appreciate internal and external accelerators

What CEOs mentioned in the research:

The trust people put in you: “Once I had committed, there was no turning point.”

Up to date self-awareness around strengths and weaknesses

I knew I would need help before the interview and once into the role.

I knew my USP after having been coached and I could translate it into the role.

I think having advised organisations for ten years in the early part of my career and having had opportunities to observe and see how the function and how CEO's operations we really helped me get the first role I applied for

If you are looking at reflecting for your next move from Functional Lead or Senior changemaker to CEO, contact me for individual sessions or a group experience with peers!

[oguntewomen]

The value of positive manipulation!

Or “how to effectively build relationships with your team & main stakeholders”.

Ida Beerhalter - guest host on Make A Wave @Ogunte Growth Readiness Programme, shared with participants some guidance on building relationships with team and main stakeholders, and how to manage influence. Here's a sample of the questions Ida answered and some of her communications insights:

The value of "positive manipulation!"

[Manipulate: to negotiate, control, or influence (something or someone) cleverly, skillfully... ] Ida Beerhalter: The minute you are in a room, you start to communicate. You do it with words, you do it in silence, your body speaks volumes, you continuously give signals. Manipulation is a way to influence. It’s not necessarily bad. It starts with you. It’s important to reflect on how you say something, and when you say it. Manipulating is about setting up the scene where your message is most likely to be understood, where you are most likely to get results. For instance, if you feel there is a conflict in a team, it’s certainly not the best time to start a strategic discussion. (In another context, for instance: when you want something from your life partner, don't assume they will go along, especially if they just came back from a 3 days conference, a 15 hours flight and a jet lag.) Handle your professional relationships the same way you would handle personal relationships. When you build a team, don’t just ask what the person can do, but ask why she/he would like to do it. What are their drivers? Find the foundations to establish trust.

What about disruptive advisors on my board? Some advisors have been imposed to you and might show a bit more ego than necessary. Look at the power shift on the advisory board. Who is backing you up on your board? If you have evidence and back up, the power play stops. The disruptive advisors either stop or they contribute positively. 

Same eye level It’s not because you are the entrepreneur in need of money, and the investors have the money (and are in need of entrepreneurs), that relationships should be unequal. It’s about having equal value, respecting each other’s contribution and input. At the same time, you need to trust the value you put on your business. If you don’t, why should investors value it at all?

Leave your communication channels open! When you meet potential supporters, don’t just overflow them with information about yourself. Invest in the relationship, ask questions, listen, they might be opening doors for you. And quickly close them if you are only self-centred.   If it’s all about a monologue, don’t even bother pursuing the relationship.

Common sense! Ida notices that mainstream businesses somehow miss the “soft factor”” and that lots of social ventures still ignore the most basic principles. “Force yourself to look very deep into the areas you always try to ignore or postpone, whether it’s about the relationships or the basic mathematics. If you think your business is sustainable, bring the evidence it is.” Find someone who could play your worst customer, that extremely critical friend (in fact, don’t even ask a friend..) and ask them to “grill you”, and really go through the questions you would have never thought of, or never dared to imagine. If you don't have any answer to outsiders' basic questions, people will lose trust.

When conversations can go wrong. Men and women don’t talk the same way. People communicate differently, never assume they understand what you are talking about! In fact, like in most relationships, it’s as much important to look at the way a question is asked as the way people answer it.

So, when things go wrong, who is to blame? The one who receives the message? The one who sends the message? If you want people to buy cheese, tell them. You can’t blame people for not getting you the right information if you have used a cryptic question! Be straight, be clear: go for close questions and numbers. You always know the quality of your questions when you get the answers.

How to move a supporter from an advisor position to an investing position? Ask direct questions: How much and when they will invest, and what questions you need to be able to answer and by when. And very importantly, ask them in person.

"What tactics can be used to identify those people who offer help and can be helpful, as opposed to those people who offer help because they want to be associated with our brand?" I would say go with your gut feeling. Most of the time, your gut feeling is right. If the language and the body language don't match, just walk away (although don’t ask Italian people to talk without their hands, you wouldn't get the right impression!) Ask them why they would like to associate with your brand. Match what they say with the way they behave. Avoid doing this on the phone, as you would miss the body language! Do a background check. Remember, YOU should be the one selecting the supporters – (when they are about to join your company more formally) - not the other way around. Slowly build relationships, and ask for advice, see how it moves forward.

Top Tips from Ida to participants on Make a Wave:

1) Do not add complexity, look at networks and supporters that are in front of you. (Going far away also adds up to your costs!) 2) Think out of the box, read the newspapers with an open mind, look at information about people, companies, resources that are related to your service/product, see how all this fits. Keep it simple and use it to establish relationships. 3) Think about relationships and communication: Observe yourself. Look at how or why people react to you negatively sometimes. When they do, it’s tough but you should stand the heat and learn from the experience.

Read more about Idea Beerhalter’s background here.

[oguntewomen]

What angels might expect from you

Following up on our latest post, here's another set of tips by Suzanne Biegel, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur, previously host on Make a Wave, our growth readiness programme.

What do you wish entrepreneurs have prepared, by the time they come to you?

Knowledge/Skills I'd like to feel you are clear on what you know vs what you don't yet know. I want to hear about what you want to learn in the next year, to move your business forward.

Money How far will my capital take your business, how much of a cushion/buffer do you need.

Valuation Is your valuation rational, does it fit with the amount I want to put in?

Impact Are you clear on the social and environmental impact you would be in position to make if you grow.

Marketability I'd like to see a service/product that has been validated by paying customers.

Team Can the entrepreneurs tell me about hard decisions they had to make regarding their team, and how they made them. This counts as well for business choices.

Due Diligence Pack Entrepreneurs should know what investors are going to ask them, or look for. Entrepreneurs really need to be in position to provide answers or most answers.

And I want to see good references!

Angels who have burnt their wings investing with their heart rather than with their head, really want to see the business value of your proposition.

You might have a great story every one will fall in love with, a great cause to fight for, a fabulous brand, but if you haven't worked out the logistics to bring your product to market or planned ahead to bring enough capital to make all this happen, you will not be in position to move forward. In fact, you might even get propositions to expand and scale rapidly but, by not having the logistics planned ahead, or the skills in your team/board to move forward, this will be the kiss of death, and the potential end of your business. So as an Angel, I want to hear about a solid USP, I want to have the evidence that customers or buyers feel they are missing something, and they they would want your product/service. I want to see the evidence that you are building your business first, rather than working only on the story! Specifically for entrepreneurs with family or caring responsibility, at the end of the day, I want to know that you can be available when needed. So is your private logistics in order?

What are typical blinders you come across among entrepreneurs? 

"You are so in love with your own story that you cannot hear input."

"You are so in love with your own idea for a product/service but haven't validated it with the market"

"You haven't done your homework on how the business makes money"

"Have you really figured out your social impact AND is this the best use of money to get to that outcome?"

"Have you really thought smartly about doing this on your own vs. partnering up for it?"

"Who is handling the day to day blocking and tackling - billing/invoicing, collecting, managing financials, managing inventory, keeping YOU reigned in?"

"Who is asking you hard questions and there for you when things get rough?

“Do you have the right people in your world who will challenge you and support you?" Read Suzanne's bio at the end of this blog.            

[oguntewomen]

How to Structure Your Board

Learning from ImpactWomen

During one of our Make a Wave Growth Readiness Live Sessions, the participants heard insights and tips by Suzanne Biegel, business angel and investment director, one of the most remarkable networkers and insight generators in the social finance arena, and specifically the gender lens on investment. In this post, we'll recap her tips and answers to the fellows' questions.

How to set up an efficient board? 

"Your board can include 4 to 5 people, 7 at most. You need to bring in at least:

A board member with strong financial expertise, someone able to look at contracts and even bringing them in.

Someone who holds the human side under scrutiny, who can deal with human resources issues, labour, and have some good guidance and resources for staff personal development.

Someone to bring strategic partnerships and relationships to develop sales, and other opportunities.

Someone who knows best in marketing and branding.

On top of this....

You  need to weigh the pros and cons of bringing a well known name vs. someone who brings intrinsic value to your board. 

Look at your industry and bring in someone who is an expert in it!

Essentially, these people should bring in new relationships, they should make time for you and be in position to meet up every two months at least.

.... And how can I recruit a chair?

The Chair, however, has to be a closer relationship. She/he should be in contact with the CEO every week, and i would even suggest up to 2 hours a week. This person will facilitate, steer, the rest of the board.

Remember the board will be thinking on your behalf!

The Chair needs to be able to deal with challenges, help you fundraise, accompany you to strategic meetings. But remember that a strong board overall is what matters most!

Potential investors want to be assured that your company is backed up and has solid foundations.

Suzanne Biegel is founder of Catalyst At Large Ltd and has more than 25 years' of experience as an entrepreneur, investor, board member, and hands-on operational manager.

She is the founder and Chief Catalyst of a pilot initiative about investing with a gender lens called Women Effect which is now part of the Wharton Social Impact Initiative at Wharton Business School, and is there now as Senior Gender Lens Investing Adviser. She is the lead angel and founder of the Clearly Social Angels network in the UK for ClearlySo.  She is Investment Director for the SPRING accelerator. She is the founder of Women in Social Finance, a closed group of mostly senior level women working in the field of social impact finance in the UK.

Suzanne served until recently on the board of directors of Confluence Philanthropy. She is a Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute. She is also on the global advisory board of Cornerstone Capital Management. Read more

There are many ways we can help you grow your social venture, check out our services here.

[oguntewomen]

How activist angels show an integrated approach to decision-making

Learning from #ImpactWomen

During a Make a Wave Growth Readiness Programme webinar, Bonnie Foley-Wong, CA, CFA, CEO of Pique Ventures (an impact investment and management company with an edge) and Ogunte collaborator, highlighted the way a new generation of activist angels make decisions when investing in social ventures. The key word is "integrated way".

Here's Bonnie's insights to an integrated investment decision-making approach.

For now, put yourself in the shoes of an activist angel.

Investing is an interactive human activity

Yes, you can make number crunching interesting, and tell the story of a business in numbers. "But before you go about the numbers, as an angel, I want to hear about the business model, the narrative, the story. Tell me why you are doing what you are doing. Tell me what you are passionate about. Tell me about your strengths." says Foley-Wong.

"Then, tell the story through role playing, choosing different scenarios. Talk about units, customers, what happens when you change variations, numbers, parameters and see how the story unfolds."

Then transition to the hard core numbers.

Never forget that overall, it's a human process, even when there are technical rules.

Impact investors are astute business people. In theory, they are interested in aligning values.

During the session, Bonnie suggested the audience to use the good old business model canvas and the seven domains model to start telling their story.

"You'll see these tools have very human questions!"

When looking at your business, or your fellow's business, put yourself in the shoes of an activist angel and ask yourself these questions:

Has the product been tested?

Who else is doing this (and there's always someone doing similar things)?

Will you lose my money? Will I make money?

Will i have fun, will i enjoy myself working with this entrepreneur?

Are they ready to go through bad times? What obstacle could I help them overcome?

and the whole range of "why" questions.

So far, nothing new. When you've answered the questions, at that stage, the angel has just received information.

They haven't started the decison-making process yet.

This is the next stage.

Remember that all decisions involve emotions, guts, emerging consciousness, not just numbers and analysis.

There have been a lot of discussions around how our body supports decisions and/or influence risk-taking. "Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves.

Remember this sequence: Intuition= Guts + Emotions + some dosis of experience.

Remember also that we cannot analyse something that hasn't happened yet.

During the session, Bonnie shared the tool she uses to help people develop awareness, a tool to use the information and knowledge they have to guide their decisions.

1. Knowledge

- Remember to take stock of what you know. Look back at your own experience, your own knowledge, never forget your life experiences.

2. Awareness

- involves risk and impact. It's a very personal matter. It's influenced by our own experiences. eg. if I have had many exposure to risk, I might be more risk tolerant...  The things people perceive as impactful are also drawn from personal experiences.

3. Skills

- In conducting research, try the " what if... then what?" Grow your decision-making skills through exploration of scenarios, and follow through...

Final Top Tips

The following top tips are valid for activist angels but also true for any entrepreneur, as there's always an activist angel in each one of us, even if sometimes we're just providing knowledge or social capital!

1. Integrate

2. Work on your relationship building skills. Ask the other: how can I help you get your job done, which also helps me get my own job done!

3. Connecting: help people realise their ideas. Be relational.

4. Make the ASK.

There are many ways we can help you grow your social venture, check out our services here.

[oguntewomen]

How to Put Yourself in the Shoes of an Investor

During our first Make a Wave Growth Readiness Bootcamp in Manchester, we played the Dragon’s Apprentice Den!"

The group of participants was divided in two groups One one side: the investors One the other side: the entrepreneurs. (1 participant put her business idea forward and got support from her newly formed team)

1st part

The investors co-designed questions they wanted answers to, after hearing the pitch. The entrepreneurs group decided on one entrepreneur’s case-study to put forward. The designated entrepreneur explained her idea and others asked questions to understand as much as they could about the business.

2nd part

The entrepreneurs pitched. Investors asked questions. Entrepreneurs provided answers and suggestions to support the “founder”.

Key learning from the participants:

Put yourself in the shoes of a potential social investor is insightful.

Investors will have to understand someone’s business to be able to help them as much as you can

You need to articulate what your business is about in a limited amount of time, show passion, but also discipline and enough evidence, numbers, details to be able to give a realistic picture of what your business is about.

Go from Vision and Purpose (Why), Principles (How), to Products (What)

Look at answering questions when, for instance, you are just starting up and haven't got traction yet. Think strategically: how can your team help you provide this traction, how can you insert existing research and evidence into your business case?

To demonstrate potential impact as a start up: you can use co-founders track record, use academic research, use other businesses track record as evidence, and how valid it would be to duplicate a business in a new market..

Further thoughts...

Vision without evidence is not enough

Passion without discipline is not enough

You  need to bring the business case, (find a niche and simply what you want to deliver specifically instead of willing to change the world… tomorrow!!)

Having critical friends is so useful

Articulating your ideas out loud helps shape your pitch

Your business is not who you are and you are not the sum of your business. But who is who?

The exercise helped me get new perspectives and new ideas.

The exercise helped me think about the way i need to show results.

We realised we needed to put ourselves in front of the right investors. Not all investors are relevant, and our products wouldn’t be all relevant to what they want to support or invest money in..

So… knowing how to "recruit" your angel, or your investor, is necessary, as it is a two-way process.

Angels will ask: "What do you want? Just money? Or relationships, expertise, access to networks, access to market?" Be ready to answer this.

Investors  can get excited by your passion too. They have feelings and emotions that help them make a judgment beyond just a track record, order sheets or promises of sales. Useful to remember!

Have hope

Just do it

Trust yourself

Be prepared, do your homework

Know your figures!!!

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