Sirolli in Dundee

We had a great few days with communities and agencies working in Dundee, Scotland last week. At the invitation of the Scottish Executive, Scottish Enterprise and Communities Scotland we got to meet with a wide range of people including Dundee Council, business leaders (good luck to those of you who are starting the new Dundee Chamber of Commerce)and local community groups including the Stobswell Forum amongst others.

Communities in Dundee have the opportunity to bid for funding to bring an Enterprise Facilitation® project to their neighbourhood. More information can be found at:
Scottish Centre for Regeneration
and
Sirolli UK Site

It was great also to see friends from Enterprising East Perthshire who continue to make steady progress on their aprenticeship with the Sirolli Institute.

Blogging from the Lone Star State

North Texas Enterprise Project: Our (small) Steps

Great to see a Sirolli Apprentice Community using a BLOG to increase visibility and accessibility of the project. Visit the North Texas BLOG to meet Melvin Hall, the Enterprise Facilitator, and get a sense of the progress that they have been making.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T from Isla Mujeres

Just returned from the usual 10 day break in Mexico and Isla Mujeres, the Island of the Women, exerted the usual healing and regenerative powers leaving me to readjust, nearly painfully, to “normal” life here at home in Sacramento. What’s wrong with me? Why can I do on a beach in Mexico what I can never do here at home? Maybe it is because what I do on a beach in Mexico is NOTHING and here at home I had 482 emails waiting for me!

The regenerative powers of doing nothing have to do, possibly, with the way our brain works and the fact that, when we are silent, we allow thoughts to bubble up from a different place. Once I heard somebody describe meditation as shutting down the computer’ terminal as to be able to communicate directly with the mainframe!

And one thought did bubble up from the mainframe! It came to me that the fundamental, distinguishing feature of our work is that we respond to people and to communities. By responding I mean truly respond not like responding to famine or to poverty, in the abstract, like an NGO in Africa for instance. Everywhere you look these days you see people doing good work. Social enterprises, philanthropic organizations, Bono at the White House, even famous actresses adopt African orphans. The difference with us is that we only go where invited! What’s the big deal about it? Well actually it is a very big deal.

To be invited by the local people you have to deserve it, you have to have done something that makes people wanting you to be there. To show up uninvited is easy; it only requires the belief that you are better than the local people and that you have something to offer them. And don’t we western people, by definition, are better than anybody else’ in the world?

There is uneasiness with unrequited charitable work. People question the wisdom of past and modern “missionary” work. And I am not talking about the “Poisonwood Bible” here. I am talking about the criticism by many people, including African people, of aid that pours into their countries creating more problems than it solves. Andrew M. Mwenda’ article “Foreign Aid Sabotages Reform” in the International Herald Tribune is just one of the examples of what I am describing here.

The fundamental principle of aid is respect. If you don’t respect people how can you help them? And to show up uninvited, no matter how well intentioned, in somebody else’ home is not respectful. To conceive what to do in a village without being invited there is not respectful. To conceive what to do in a community without being invited there is not respectful, and to conceive what to do to a country or to an entire continent without consulting the local people and being invited there is still not respectful no matter how well intentioned you may be and how much money you are bringing.

Much more bubbled up on that beautiful beach on the Island of the Women, but I don’t want to bore you…after all you haven’t asked me to talk to you!

Ernesto Sirolli
5 January 2007

Reframing the Future 2006: Dr Ernesto Sirolli

In November 2006 Ernesto was invited back to Australia to provide a key note at a conference in Sydney for vocational education and training (VET) professionals.
The 45 minute speech is now available on the internet and as a podcast on i-tunes.

We would love to hear your comments on this wonderfully recorded presentation.

http://talkingvte.blogspot.com/2006/12/reframing-future-2006-dr-ernesto.html

If people are paid to do nothing, that's exactly what they'll do

Just before Christmas, Jeff Randall, a leading Industrial Correspondent in the UK, wrote an article outlining the need for fresh policies to reduce the number of people in the UK who are fit to work - but instead 'choose' to live on state welfare. The language that Randall uses to describe the problem is powerful.

'at least 100 000 scroungers...locked into a culture of can work, won't work...gimme-gimme-gimme attitude of some welfare claimants...reform the eternal layabout...loafers...require rockets up their backsides as well as alarm clocks in their bedrooms...an embarrassing surfeit of work-shy locals...welfare junkies...2.7 million recipients of incapacity benefits, about one million of whom the government believes are fit to work...those whose indolence makes a mockery of his work ethic...'

The language promotes a lack of connection, a separateness between us and the million or so who choose not to work. We are good people, they are bad. We pay our taxes and they devour them.

But how can this separation, this disconnectedness between them and the working population help? What purpose does it serve?

If they really are eternal layabouts and loafers then it absolves us of any responsibility to engage with the problem and offer them help. Why would we waste our time helping bad people?

One of the central beliefs underpinning our work is that all people, at their core, are essentially good. And, unless we hold them in 'unconditional positive regard' we will be powerless to really help them to help themselves. We may be able to force them to find different ways of funding their lifestyles by closing down benefits - but we will not be able to help them with the real challenges of personal and economic development.

The language of separation and blame is commonplace. The language of understanding and compassion much less so. However without understanding and compassion we are reduced to policing the problem, Jackass management by 'stick and carrot' rather than any possibility of meaningful development.

You can read the original Jeff Randall article here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/12/22/do2201.xml

Economic Gardening

Economic Gardening is a process of economic and community development that works on the premise that sustainable development starts from where a community is at. Everything that the community requires for its own development is already present in the community - intelligence, passion, commitment and motivation. Development happens by nurturing these resources and helping them to flourish. Economic gardening is about looking for, and building on, the assets that the community already has. It is an asset based approach that seeks to create jobs and opportunities by supporting companies, actual and latent entrepreneurs that are already in the community.

Economic Gardening contrasts with 'Economic Hunting' - trying to attract companies from other communities. This is a 'deficit based' approach to development. It assumes that development depends on attracting something that is missing (an employer) into the community. Such 'Inward Investment' strategies are usually both expensive and risky. We have seen inward investors negotiate tremendous deals from local governments and then continue to request support to keep their business in the community. They usually have no real loyalty to the community - they are simply there because of an inward investment offer that was put on the table. Even when the inward investor is successful and is retained in the community - usually the profits generated are not retained locally but go back to shareholders elsewhere.

In our experience the gardening approach to community and economic development is lower risk, lower cost and leads to more sustainable long term economic development than inward investment and economic hunting strategies. It also promotes the development of local people in pursuit of their own passions, dreams and interests, rather than as the labour market 'cannon fodder' of the new employer. It also fits with our own values and beliefs. First you grow people. Then they grow communities, social enterprises, businesses and economies.

Season's Greetings From Everyone at the Sirolli Institute

Welcome to the very first post of the Sirolli Institute Weblog. We have just completed a planning meeting in San Francisco and are working hard on the development of the Institute.

2006 has been a very busy year for us with significant development underway in the UK, Australia and North America. 2007 looks to be even busier and we hope to establish a record number of new communities for the Institute and to find time for Ernesto to make progress on writing the new book. This will further develop our understanding of the Trinity of Management®.

Key actions arising from the meeting include:

• Improving the level of service that we offer existing and new communities in the implementation and development of Enterprise Facilitation®;
• Developing the capacity of the Institute by partnering with graduate communities to build their capacity to promote Enterprise Facilitation® and to train new communities in how to make it work;
• Increasing business development activity through better use of communications;
• Improved internal communication through regular teleconferences.

Our passion for the work of the Institute is higher than ever. It comes from two sources. Firstly the beauty of the work itself - seeing the ideas put into practice and communities making great progress. Secondly it comes from the people that we get to work with who show such commitment and love for their own community and the potential that exists within it.