Social Is

Guess who's back! Guess who's back, guess who's back, guess who's back, duh na na da ni da de woo. That's right, I'm back.

Today we've got some more on what social is. Bright B. Simons, stationed in Ghana, and writing for HBR, remarked:

When social entrepreneurs say that they want to "work themselves out of a job" they are not making a glib statement to sound cool. They are merely stating the obvious — they want to fundamentally solve the problem that their solution is designed to address.

He adresses one of the fundamental attributes of SocEnters – they want to solve problems – not keep that problem alive and milk it for all its worth. He goes on: 

True, some commercial/traditional entrepreneurs invest substantially in research too. But only to assure themselves that someone will pay enough to make the development of the solution worthwhile. That the person paying the price sufficiently benefits is actually secondary. What matters is that he's willing to pay.

The difference in results between profit seekers and change seekers is apparent. Traditional entrepreneurs go wherever the money is SocEnters go wherever the change is. 

That being said, SocEnt isn't all sunny days and happy time, even though there are a whole lot of superheros. Liam Black, renowned British Socenter, pointed seven deadly sins of the field in the Social Enterprise Conference 2012.

Deadly sin #1: the belief that speaking at conferences, blogging, and tweeting are entrepreneurial activities 

They're not. Don't be fooled into thinking that the blog you wrote last week that garnered a few dozen hits after you posted it on Facebook is making the tiniest dent in the problem you're trying to solve. This stuff is background noise, and it's important – but it's not going to change the world.

Yep, with this first one he cut me to the quick. With the Luminary Discussion Group just starting up we are trying to walk the line between action and discussion, more so even since we feel like our primary product is in fact discussion. As of yet we are trying to certify that our discussion is discussion with a particular end in mind, and that our action is action well planned and precise – nothing worse than wasting resources.

Check out the rest of the My-Own-Words Sin List (Feel free to commit any of them, they're not religious.)

Deadly sin #2 Too much jargon, not enough purpose (We empower you to shift from your unsustainable paradigm, and crowd-source user-lead activities to punch someone) 

#3 Unwillingness or inability to prove impact (Nobody can make me show my numbers!) 

#4 Not nailing basic business tactics (Like, you know . . . paying your employees) 

#5 It actually being all about your Ego (I'm the Messiah, Superman, and Stalin all at the same time– Worship me!) 

#6 Not understanding the customer (I just want to help you, I don't need to understand what you need help with) 

#7 Social enterprise vs Private sector mindset ("We've got the best intentions and the biggest hearts, we're changing the world, we're for the poor ... unlike the [dirtbags] over there in the private sector, who want to screw you into the ground, fleece you for as much as they can, and destroy the earth.") 

Pretty good list, eh?

Lastly, we find the fact that even the biggest corporations can no longer flee from the impact of SocEnt. Verizon will hold a $10 million competition "seeking innovative solutions to some of the world's biggest challenges." I'm pretty sure all of those words fall under sin #2.

The competition, to be called the Powerful Answers Award, will be a year-long effort to challenge the best minds in the technology industry to develop wireless, wireline or cloud-based solutions addressing issues involving education, health care and sustainability.

Remember, the world's a wild place – have fun out there.