What is a social enterprise?

Here in New Zealand, this question has been discussed, debated and defined many times over without conclusion. And with so much unresolved talk in this space, many people have started to feel discouraged and disengaged with the notion.

But after listening to Peter Holbrook, CEO of Social Enterprise UK at The Kitchen late last month, it feels like there has been a shift in thinking, after he reminded us that the real meaning of Social Enterprise lies in action rather than definitions.

Peter did define Social Enterprise as: “Organisations whose stated primary objective is to achieve social impact rather than generating profit for owners and shareholders”.

However, in the hour that he spent talking with us, he focused little of his attention on the definition, instead spending most of his time on real examples.

He shared stories. He shared statistics. He shared the reality of creating change; the good, the hard and the inevitable.

He reminded us that Social Enterprise already exists here in New Zealand, and that people running organisations that achieve social impact rather than generating profit, will be just getting on and doing it; not talking about doing it.

He also reminded us that for Social Enterprise to become a recognised sector, with the attention and support that it deserves, we need to quantify the impact, record the success, and get more people right from grass-roots community to goverment and business to understand the importance of Social Enterprise.

But again, we won’t do this by simply talking about it. And we certainly won’t do it by simply defining the sector.  We’ll do it by showing people tangible change.  

This means that we need to find and champion real examples. We need to learn from what already exists both here in New Zealand and abroad. And ultimately we need to create more examples of social impact rather than profit.

And to do this, we need to be truly enterprising. We need to think like businessmen, but with the heart of the community. We need to seek out and create opportunities. And we need to invest profit into the growth of community instead of the growth of individuals.  

So let’s stop talking about the definitions, and let’s start talking about real examples. Let’s talk about the impact. And let’s create change.

Thanks to British Council and the Office of Ethnic Affairs for organising the event, The Kitchen for hosting the presentation, and Peter Holbrook himself for giving us a boost of enthusiasm and showing us that change can happen. 

Work hard, play hard, and don’t forget to keep on learning.

We are definitely not afraid of hard work, and we’re lucky to enjoy the work that we do, which makes it easy to put in the hours to deliver the polish of quality that we strive for.

But we know (and we’re often reminded by friends and family) that all work and no play, isn’t healthy. And while you need some pure play time, you also need to allow room to grow and learn.

So, how do you fit in all of the working, playing and learning to make sure that you’re living a well-balanced life?

It might seem dorky, but we have colour co-ordinated calendars marked with ‘meetings’, ‘working’, ‘playing’ and ‘learning’. It’s a little like putting together a balanced meal, with a good variety of delicious colour on the plate; we’re always trying to make sure that there is a nice mix of colour in our calendar.

And this week, is one of those precariously balanced weeks which is filled to the brim with each or our staples. (Don’t worry Mum Tang and Mum Helm, we’ve factored in time to sleep!)

If you’re in need of some play-time or some mind-food to balance your working week, join us at the Opening celebration of The Kitchen on Thursday night, or get an early start at CreativeMornings on Friday to listen to Cut Collective walk us through their Splore 2012 project.

Who are the people in your neighbourhood?

Working in a co-working space, like The Kitchen, means that there’s always new faces in the building, and new neighbours sitting at the desk next to you. To make the space feel inviting, safe, collaborative and full of energy, we all really need to make the effort to get to know one-another. So, this week Murray instigated a shared lunch where we ate, talked, laughed and before long we were engrossed in discussions about solving the worlds problems. 

Our shared lunch showed us how easy it is to break down the barriers that we put up between ourselves and ‘strangers’. And it also served as a timely reminder that knowing your neighbours matters. 

A couple of years ago now, Rebecca Harrington, a self confessed community advocate, realised that many people today feel they are isolated from their neighbours, yet are unsure what to do about it. So, with the support of a number of agencies, she set about to change this through Neighbours Day; a campaign which aims to get kiwis to go one step further to know their neighbours. 

Driven by the simple belief that great neighbours make great neighbourhoods, the campaign is about turning streets into neighbourhoods, strangers into friends and every street in New Zealand into a fun, friendly, safe and resilient place to live. 

So, when our friends at the Mental Health Foundation & Lifewise asked if we could help share what Neighbours Day means, we were all too happy to help. And in the spirit of neighbourliness we roped in some of our own neighbours and friends, including our wonderful photographer and editor Kaan Hiini, to bring it all to life in this little video.  

A big thank you to all the wonderful people who bought their energy and enthusiasm to this clip. We had so much fun making it, and learned a lot about the importance of a good neighbourhood.  Please feel free to share the video with your friends and family, and get involved with Neighbours Day too!  

The Kitchen may not be a neighbourhood as such, but we share the principals of Neighbours Day, and appreciate the power of getting to know one-another. And, just imagine what could happen, if all of the neighbourhoods in New Zealand start conversations about solving the worlds problems, like we did over our shared lunch!

Thanks to Morna Haist for the photos of our shared lunch!