Community or Enterprise?

Over the last few months a number of people have said to me,
‘the trouble with Sirolli and Enterprise Facilitation® is that people have you in the wrong box’.
Half of the people go on to say,
‘They have you in the ‘Enterprise box’ and you are all about community development – you should be working with the community people.’
The other half say,
‘They have you in the ‘Community box’ and you are all about enterprise and entrepreneurship – you should be working with the enterprise people'.
We only go ‘where we are invited’ and sometimes we are invited by people interested in community development and sometimes we are invited by people interested in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship.
It is worrying how difficult it can be to break down the barriers between these silos with public sector funders and planners.
It is encouraging that once working ‘on the ground’ with local people they soon recognise that these are two sides of the same coin – enterprise is a social phenomena and it thrives in effective communities.