In this week's #FFS, I talk about my work with women in social enterprises, and the value of looking at your career as a succession of results, not just a linear 'path'. Thanks Futureheads Recruitment! Â https://www.wearefutureheads.com/news-and-views/ffs-servane-mouazan
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
12 essential ways to weave inclusion into the fabric of your social venture or investment fund
by Servane Mouazan
If you want to learn about culture, listen to the stories
If you want to change the culture change the stories.
Michael Margolies
As I was invited to speak at the recent TechInclusion event in London on the Inclusive Investment Panel, I looked at what the ecosystem of investors, accelerators and entrepreneurs needed to rethink and apply, to develop diverse and inclusive portfolios and investment models.Â
The background was technology but I think the reflection around what needs to be done applies to the majority of companies, public services and communities.
It requires a total mindset overhaul, yet itâs very simple:
As I read on a poignant Facebook post written by Antonio Dejada, a grieving father: âInclusion is not a whim, inclusion is dignityâ.
In each community, someone needs to go the extra mile to develop empathy, care, and above all, make space.
The TechInclusion event has prompted me to reflect on various conversations and interactions in my networks and draw out 12 insights, and great behaviours that exemplify inclusion in practice. If youâre serious about changing peopleâs worlds for the better through your work ask yourself, âhow many of these traits can my organization demonstrate?â .
#DesignForHumans: Helping employers everywhere operate at a basic level of humanity.
I recently interviewed Abigail Driscoll from GoodWell, intrigued about their new certification process based on metrics that prove that people are a company's most important asset.
Servane: What is Goodwell about?
Abigail Driscoll: GoodWell is a metrics based management framework designed to strengthen employee satisfaction by certifying fair, equitable, and humane workplace practices.
Servane: You call the companies who have gone the extra mile, and have become âhighly engaged and aligned workplacesâ, what are the key activities the decision-makers need to commit to?
Abigail Driscoll: Decision makers need to commit to changing their practices if their metrics need improvement. All employees should understand that the decision makers want to run a transparent organization. That happens from universal, fair standards.
For example, it is quite common for a company going through certification to fail the metric around gender or racial pay gaps. In order to correct this issue, the management team needs to increase the salaries of the affected individuals, this is a straightforward change that can take place immediately. However, there are other metrics which can take longer to implement corrective action such as #10 Attrition. If the organization fails the attrition metric they need to take more holistic changes to ensure they are both hiring well and creating a work environment which encourages employees to stay. In this case it may take six months to a year before the organization sees improvement in the metric. We have several organizations who are working through this type of corrective action right now.
Servane: From your study, you know that organisations that demonstrate a commitment to a fair, safe, equitable and humane workplace perform better, 37% better. There are also numerous studies on how inclusion does contribute to a better performance, or, for a topic that is close to my heart, how more women at senior level contribute to a better bottom line⌠According to you, why is it that some companies are still resistant to change?
Abigail Driscoll: Simply put, executives are skeptical and comfortable. What they are doing today is working and they believe these studies are more propaganda than hard evidence. The more hard data we continue to gather the harder it will be to ignore the evidence and continue to operate with traditional approaches.
Servane: Do we have a cultural problem, a language problem? Why is the change so slow?
Abigail Driscoll: Executives are simply people. It is far easier and less frightening to surround yourself with people who look like you and agree with you. Bold, genuine and honest moves in business mean risking your job. There are simply not enough leaders who are willing to stand up and do what is right even when they know it is the right thing to do.
You can not manage what you cannot measure
Servane: You have designed a set of âmetrics that inspireâ, can you tell us more about the process you've followed to come to this set?
Abigail Driscoll: When he was the CEO of a venture backed technology company, GoodWell founder Pete Gombert discovered through curious introspection that the company had a gender pay gap. This was particularly startling because he had hired and negotiated the salaries of every person in the business. This discovery shook his foundation to the core and started a long process of using metrics to help him ensure he would never again allow his intentions and actions to become misaligned. Â
At GoodWell we believe you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Unfortunately until now there has not been a reliable way to ensure an organization is treating its most important asset in the way it intends to.
Every entity GoodWell has worked with to date has discovered something critical they did not previously know about their actions, and that is the point, with awareness comes the ability to make change. Â Each of the metrics address a universal standard that all organizations should aim to meet.
Servane: I imagine the metrics work best when explored simultaneously. Which metric however do people mostly respond to, and which one companies believe it is more complex to work around, at first glance?
Abigail Driscoll: The pay gap metrics, both racial and gender pay equity, have fueled a lot discussion among decision makers. Several organizations have actually failed these metrics, and GoodWell provides a way towards continuous improvement in remedying these gaps. At first, many of these leaders believe they have fair pay across race and gender, but when the data comes back, they are surprised. As a result, GoodWell intends to provide an open source pay gap methodology so any size organization can easily apply the practices toward pay equity.
Servane: Have you got a cool success story to share?
Abigail Driscoll: GoodWell's first and largest certified organization is the City of Boise. Pete initially met with the Mayor, who wanted to ensure all of city council was on board with the process. After unanimous support from all council members and lots of data collection and analysis, the City passed. It is amazing to have the buy-in from a government who wants to be an example for its citizens and thousands of suppliers. Another powerful benefit with GoodWell is the ability to transform the supply chain.
Servane: What is your next challenge at GoodWell?
Abigail Driscoll: GoodWell is in the process of releasing a simple software platform for insights the leaders can own. It involves artificial intelligence and sentiment analysis to comb through subjective employee feedback. The current challenge is categorizing and training the platform to synthesize data from large organizations.
From Macro to Micro: How Team Synergy Begins With Personal Capacity Building
âSocial entrepreneurship is not an act of grandeur. There are little revolutionary acts every day that you can do.â
âHow can you be very clear about the incidents in your life that prevent you from making a rational decision or decisions that enable you to grow?â
Check my interview in the beautiful Rank and File Magazine
âHow Team Synergy Begins With Personal Capacity Buildingâ + get the Free guide to develop your social leadership.
I love this film because Martin reminds us that seeing your world through someone elseâs eyes triggers unexpected truths.
What makes you happy?
What is happiness?
Can you answer?
âMartin has not slept in a bed for many years. He doesn't consider himself homeless. He is one of the most content and happiest individuals I have ever met. This short documentary explores the development of our relationship over the last few years but more importantly the search for happiness and what it means to different people.â A film by Donal Moloney.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
Confidence = capacity to overcome obstacles and gain assurance (in a particular area)
âLack of confidenceâ is the mantra that drags us down and defines us in times of uncertainty, like the crash from a bad synthetic drug.
Confidence issues pop up when you start-up, when contracts are refused, when you canât measure your impact in ways that you would have liked. Confidence is shattered when someone else does it better than you, or when your health is breaking you apart.
Confidence questions also touch you when you are growing, when you are in front of investors, when your business expands, or when you no longer know if you are fit for purpose.
Our goal at Ogunte is to work with women so that they recognise themselves as genuine agents of change, exercising power and influence to change peopleâs worlds for the better.
Weâve found out that confidence is a volatile currency. When it is damaged, we must look deep inside ourselves to assess what is really going on and rebuild it.
One big mistake though is too believe that you are âsomeone who lacks confidenceâ.
Itâs impossible.
The truth is most of you, your brain, your body is confident about something. What may drag you down is one area (or two) in your life, and that makes you feel⌠maybe not at your best. But it is not definitive. And it certainly shouldnât define you.
This is why in our sessions with women in social enterprises, we include exercises that enable you to explore your personal foundations and grow that confidence.
How to avoid a sustainability crisis in your social venture
Servane Mouazan
Viability and ongoing sustainability: the capacity for living, developing, or germinating under favourable conditions.
In a recent interview for Ogunte, Chinwe Ohajuruka, founder and CEO of Comprehensive Design Services, says that the struggle for many social entrepreneurs is to, âdeliver a socially impactful service profitablyâ.Â
If you are not on top of this struggle you are not leading a social enterprise, but a generous project that â if not robustly addressed - will eventually have a sustainability crisis, putting your beneficiaries at risk of no longer being supported, and you at risk of burning out and having to go and sign on.
At Ogunte, we facilitate interventions that help women contribute to welfare in the community of their choice. We also help women to review their design and operational practices in order to be more sustainable.
In our support programmes (for groups or individuals), we focus on the elements you need to put in place for a viable and sustainable venture. Here is a list of questions that we share with our clients, it is not exhaustive! Check through the list and see whether youâve got everything covered:
That leadership conversation you havenât had yet
By Servane Mouazan
âA ten-year plan is absurd. A ten-year commitment is precisely whatâs required if you want to be sure to make an impactâ Seth Godin
 In our #5Pillars series, we are highlighting elements of the roadmap that make women in social enterprises succeed and more likely to deliver. But success is not just about impacting positively upon your immediate beneficiaries, or clients, it also means paving the way for future generations. Itâs about triggering lasting change, shifting attitudes, and accepting that eventually your social enterprise should be made redundant. You are working 24/7 to make yourself disappear.
So how can you define successful leadership in this context? What strategies do you need to singlemindedly promote your cause whilst also engaging with the rest of the world?
How can you talk about your achievements whilst staying humble and acknowledging that you are only been contributing a part to the solution, not solving it all? Or not yet, at least.
How can you align your actions during the day, with what is going through your head, and your actions in private?
âThere is nothing more negligent than attempting to address a problem one finds on a branch than by censoring the leaves.âÂ
Saul Williams
I was asked one day: why do you talk about a âsense of connectednessâ? Isnât it about your networking skills? Get good contacts for your business, know when and where to show up, and grow your business with all the knowledge, the wisdom and the opportunities you have gathered?
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
How social entrepreneurs can best equip themselves and their ventures to survive tough times and serve their communities.
by Servane Mouazan
There are opportunities even in the most difficult moments. Â Wangari Maathai
As many countries are experiencing tough and uncertain times, there is no self-indulgence in taking a step back to explore how you can learn better, grow your impact, and take care of yourself (yes, take time for yourself) and others (the people you support) better.
Itâs worth remembering that social enterprise ecosystems flourish when:
1) there are many issues in the community that need solving. Places with optimal well-being and prosperity (though they are rare) see fewer social enterprises popping up, donât they?
2) individuals take focused actions, professionalize their activism, and use economic tools to create viable solutions.
3) there is a will among various stakeholder groups, including the state, to reduce red tape, break silos, and push for creative solutions on the ground.
âThereâs nothing self-indulgent about taking care of the world, since itâs a part of ourselvesâ.
âWe live in a world that is being driven up the wall by a very specific type of economy: the economy of loneliness. That economy is the result of a huge disconnect, articulated at global, community, and individual level. This is what prevents us from making, let alone maximising our impact...â
Read my article about how to hack in the economy of loneliness in the Global Coaching Perspectives journal from the Association for Coaching, page 26-27.
In this interview on Pioneers Post, Servane Mouazan, CEO Ogunte CIC discusses with June Oâ Sullivan from London Early Years Foundation and breaks down the arguments.
âBecause investment panels are not supposed to be âdude festsâ! Â Letâs reframe the question: why would a panel that is supposed to make a judgment on the capacity of a company to make future financial and social returns base its decisions solely on the views of an unrepresentative sample of the population?
What is the best thing that I love about my work? I enjoy seeing women changemakers becoming brave enough to explore a different way top operate at work and in life, which helps them delivering more impact.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
The things that change our lives (and the lives of others) are rarely the long-scheduled events, the much-practiced speeches or the annual gala.
No, it's almost certain that the next chance you have to leap will come out of nowhere in particular, and you'll discover it because you're ready for it. Someone to inspire, to connect with, to lead. A system to transform. An idea to share.
Responsibility is often just lying around, waiting for someone to take it.