Part cafe, part gallery, part immersion in global electronica, W2 is an internationally connected media arts centre. What appears at first as a coffee shop par excellence is but the first step into an ambitious organization.

W2 Media Café is a euro-styled coffee house experience—a large scale space that has already begun to host and curate diverse social and cultural activity. On this weekend alone, W2 will play host to a Pride World Dance Party, an Artist Talk & Presentation by Pia Massie, and the launch of the Surge Festival of Urban Digital Culture. The café itself is an open, modern and welcoming space, where people can connect with stories, art, ideas and each other. (And fabulous coffee and food, or course!)

W2 will engage people from throughout its Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, and from other communities across the city. Local residents will be able to access media and arts tools and support, to discover compelling arts experiences, to decide for themselves the programming W2 will deliver—co-creating the centre’s work. Some of the anticipated programs include instruction in social and digital media; a micro-enterprise incubator, where aspiring social entrepreneurs can learn from experienced mentors; access to the ideas and work of artists who will take up residence at W2 from time to time; and training and access to a letter press machine that once belonged to the Woodwards store.

W2 is located where the renowned Woodwards store used to stand. Vancouverites tend to associate Woodwards either with the great shopping experiences of the 70s and 80s, or with Woodsquat, the activist occupancy of Woodwards, in protest of housing policies and programs in the Downtown Eastside. W2 Media Café sits today at a symbolic meeting point—where Vancouver’s world class waterfront meets the working class neighbourhood that’s so significantly misunderstood by so many Vancouver residents.

W2 is determined to address some of these misunderstandings, and to bring people and communities together. Today is the beginning of another important chapter in W2. Why not join us there for a cup of coffee and a conversation about the city we all love?

Octopus Strategies has been proud to work with W2 during the past few months, in the leadup to this opening. We heartily congratulate the team for all their hard work, their perseverance, and for holding so closely to the intent of the collaborative that formed eight years ago to achieve the vision that today is opening its doors to the city.

As the riot itself unfolded on live television, the riot’s instigators and youth caught up in the fray made countless posts to Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, recording and documenting their activities. Some of the images they posted were bizarrely compelling; others were undoubtedly evidence of criminal activity. (The ‘social media vigilantism’ of the following week has also been an interesting topic of vibrant discussion.) News of the riot quickly spread around the world, making cover stories in Australia, India and elsewhere. Vancouverites collectively hung their heads in shame that their fair city—which had received accolades for its positive celebrations during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games just 12 months before—should again showcase an ugly side.

Yet at the same time as the riot was unfolding, so too was the Clean Up Vancouver campaign. Launched on the night of the riots on Facebook, this simple campaign invited positive Vancouverites to come downtown the following morning to help clean up after their not-so-positive fellow citizens. By 7:00am, hundreds of people were downtown with brooms and dustpans; by noon, some reports suggested more than 10,000 had joined the Clean Up. Plywood boarding over the broken windows of one major retailer became the ‘Love Wall,’ on which people wrote messages of apology and respect.

This Jekyll and Hyde capacity of social media is both powerful and puzzling. It’s powerful in its capacity to rally thousands of people to positive action. Yet, it’s puzzling, because it as easily can be used to drive disruption. However and organization might choose to use social media and its unparalleled reach, posts and other content are there forever, for anyone to see. And it is precisely this unprecedented transparency that gives organizations pause. Should we open up?

In a recent keynote at the Institute of Fundraising‘s National Convention in London, UK, I spoke about one organization that seized the potential advantage of transparency—somewhat to its own surprise.

Charity: Water is a US NGO that provides clean drinking water to rural areas in some of the world’s poorest countries. They dig wells in countries of sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. Each year, they run a ‘September Campaign’ to celebrate the anniversary of their founding (September 7). A key feature of the campaign is the live, online broadcast of Charity: Water’s latest well drilling project. For their first three years, this had been a tremendous morale- and awareness-building opportunity.

September 7, 2010, also happened to be Charity: Water founder Scott Morrison’s 35th birthday. So he was excited to be drilling a new well—to be broadcast live, online—in Moale, Central African Republic. Geologists had identified a perfect spot, where water was anticipated to be accessible between 500 and 700′ below the surface. A special drill was brought in that was capable of drilling to 800′, cameras were set up, and drilling began. It takes hours and hours to drill that far into the ground, but by 9:00pm, the drill had penetrated some 300′ into the ground. That’s when disaster struck.

The bore hole collapsed on itself. During the live broadcast. Supporters and donors around the world saw Charity: Water fail at their core service. The funds they’d donated went completely to waste. And there was no hiding from the damage.

The Charity: Water team began again, and worked through the night to make a second attempt. It also failed. And the following morning, Morrison stood in front of the camera—still broadcasting live—and shared his disappointment openly and honestly with his viewers. He expected to be rebuked, to lose key funders, and to suffer criticism from supporters. The opposite turned out to be true.

“We appreciate your transparency,” said one Twitter contact. “I think this is perhaps even more important than sharing your successes,” said a Facebook post. “Even with the best planning, scientific data and equipment, you can have a myriad of problems… thank you for sharing your challenges,” said a field engineer that supports Charity: Water’s work.

Rather than punishment, Charity: Water was congratulated for their hard work, and for honestly sharing that 5% of their well-drilling attempts do fail. They aren’t infallible.

Their website received more traffic that day than in the history of Charity: Water. Their support solidified even further. And their donations took a positive, upward turn.

This sort of transparency is daunting to many. The ‘old school’ public relations approach would be to bury a story like this: Failures were not to be shared; they were to be shunned! But that was never realistic. And today, ‘keeping a lid’ on such a story is impossible: Just one Tweet from one field operator at Charity: Water would make the story public. Rather than hiding from this transparency, Morrison and Charity: Water seized it as an opportunity to forge valuable connections with important stakeholders around the world. What may have appeared to be risky was really just an exercise in openness and honesty.

Every organization—in business, in the social sector, and otherwise—must acknowledge that this transparency is the new reality. Hiding from it is an ostrich-like, self-defeating exercise. Opening to it, and seizing its advantages is one way to build relationships of trust and goodwill.

Ultimately, transparency is about respect. As Scott Morrison said, “Perhaps people wanted us to fail…. I don’t think so. I think people just want to know the truth.”

Hosted at Hollyhock, June 8 – 12, SCI brought together a group of 55 remarkably diverse individuals, each of whom is working on one or more of the most significant challenges we face: From the need to rethink our organizations and how they’re structured, to unification of distinct generations in service of challenges bigger than each of them, to the recognition that adaptation to climate change will be as challenging as reversing it, the questions posed at SCI required both widely expansive thinking and deep, personal engagement. And it is precisely there that the greatest lessons of SCI 2011 began.

To engage our biggest challenges (global climate change, violent revolution and conflict, urban poverty and degradation, and so many others), each individual must engage far beyond themselves—and far beyond their individual organizations. For no individual or single organization has the answers. Yet to engage others and to develop coalitions and collaborations, we must first be intimately connected with ourselves: We must know our own strengths and limitations; we must be ready to evolve, change and learn; and we must be aware that important, powerful work requires energized, objective perspectives. It’s all too easy to get lost in the big picture.

The ‘excruciating joy’ of SCI came from the conference’s remarkable design: Over the course of five days, the cohort moved from abstract, theoretical, big picture thinking to strategic discussions of organizational capacity and design, to focused ‘inner work.’ The alignment of purpose and passion in these successive layers of complexity was exciting and inspiring but also challenging. The expertise and dedication of conveners Stina Brown, Joel Solomon and Cara Pike made possible rare conversations and connections. Putting the personal into the organizational context, and the organizational into the global was a massive shifting of perspective for some. Many left Hollyhock humbled beyond belief, inspired beyond words, and ready to take up new modes of thinking, working and collaborating.

Collaboration itself was another key theme. In the face of the most complex problems mankind has ever confronted, simple answers don’t exist. Instead, effective resolutions require careful study and sensitive responses; “emergent practices” will present themselves as they percolate up out of wide-reaching collaborations. Yet, collaboration itself is elusive: As western mindsets continue to push for control of leadership, management and strategy, we simultaneously forestall inclusive and appropriate adaptations. As we explored together what those adaptations might be, we explored history, philosophy, management practices, group psychology, and so much more. The vast integrations made for densely scheduled days, and long, energized nights.

Sometimes, the adaptations we need will appear in enduring organizations—the ‘red dwarves’ that burn long and bright, fading only as their energy expires. (A metaphor presented in the opening plenary by Purpose’s Alnoor Ladha.) At other times, they’ll flash into being like ‘super novae,’ momentarily catalyzing massive change and evolution, before being shuttered, and allowing the energy that created them to move on to the next big thing. The very recognition that our organizations may or may not be required to endure—that strategy can be short term or long term, and indeed is stronger for this perspective—was a vital lesson for many at Social Change Institute.

As I return from Hollyhock into my work, I’m struggling to reconcile the seemingly boundless capacity of the SCI delegates with the every day minutiae of running a company. But I’m inspired and energized by the ‘Positive Mammals’ who showed up, and I’m grateful for our community.

It’s been nearly three years since I first visited Hollyhock—for Social Venture Institute, an experience about which I’ve posted before. Then, I was amazed and grateful to find a deeply like-minded group of individuals who were driven to unite the value of business with the business of values, to use our companies for the collective good. On returning from SCI this week, I have encountered (or realized) a new version of myself—one infinitely more comfortable in complexity, and spectacularly more effective. As is often the case, we knew when leaving Hollyhock that ‘reentry’ might be difficult. It is. It’s excruciating. Excruciating and joyful.

Octopus Strategies is proud to sponsor Social Change Institute and Social Venture Institute. Join us at Hollyhock in September for what promises to be another breakthrough gathering of visionary leaders and social entrepreneurs.

This morning’s piece focused on Jeff Skoll, the multi-billionaire who was the third person to join eBay. After helping to build that firm, and in the process, reinventing how commerce happens, Skoll has dedicated his time and his fortune to a focused, complementary group of companies and initiatives that collectively are working to address some of humanity’s and Earth’s most pressing problems.

After having the privilege to attend the 2011 Skoll World Forum, I can only echo the article’s implicit sentiment: Jeff Skoll is an important philanthropist. I share the article here for three reasons:

1. Skoll sets an important example to other wealthy individuals, demonstrating how they can effectively leverage their assets and positions for the common good.
2. Mentorship and storytelling are as important as charity and grant making. Skoll’s Participant Media arguably has done more to lift climate change awareness than any other public relations campaign. And the Skoll Centre’s focus on emerging social entrepreneurs is an astounding example of leverage in action.
3. Humility, once again, proves to be one of the most important leadership lessons. I didn’t have the pleasure to meet Jeff in person at this year’s Forum, but by all accounts his openness, approachability and warmth set another powerful example.

As we work to face some of the most vexing and complex problems humanity has ever encountered, it’s foolishly naive to believe any one individual—or organization, or government—can have the answers. What we need is the capacity to open ourselves to new communities, new ideas and new approaches. We need deep, values-driven leadership, including the capacity to collaborate across organizations, national boundaries and cultures. And we need people like Jeff Skoll to show us how its done.

Tuesday June 7, 3:30 – 5:00 PM

Followed by a social reception with 1% for the Planet Members, 5:00 – 7:00 PM

Cross Media Lab at W2 Media Cafe

111 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

Join us at the newly opened W2 Media Café for an interactive session with Mountain Equipment Co-op and 1% for the Planet. 1% for the Planet members are located in 44 countries, and each of their 1,400 business members donate at least one percent of revenues to environmental causes.

Led by BC-based businesses like Mountain Equipment Co-op, Sterling Lorence, Saul Good Gift Co., Horne Coupar, and Hemp and Company, 1% members have given over $3.2 million to Canadian NGOs like CPAWS, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, the David Suzuki Foundation and dozens more since 2002.

Hear from 1% staff and MEC sustainability team about the 1% model and business value in being part of a network of companies investing over $20 million annually in grassroots environmental work and sustainability issues. After the meeting, please stick around for an informal cocktail reception with 1% members, NGOs, and fellow Vancouver business leaders

Please let us know if you’re planning to attend by emailing Danny: danny@onepercentfortheplanet.org. Questions? Contact Danny at 802-496-5408.

We hope to see you on June 7. Please spread the word!

P.S. Interested in learning more about 1% before the event? Please check out their short film, [one percent] of the story

— Nils Daulaire – Former CEO and President, Global Health Council.

In Africa, millions of people are dying from easily-preventable diseases because health workers do not have the reliable transport to reach them. By ensuring health workers have access to vehicles that never break down, Riders for Health is making sure millions of people across Africa receive regular, reliable health care, often for the first time in their lives.

Net Impact’s Vancouver Professional Chapter is pleased to welcome co-founders Andrea and Barry Coleman. Join us to hear about Riders for Health’s pioneering business, about their self-sustaining business model, and about key challenges they’ve faced while building this award-winning social enterprise.

The presentation and Q&A is sponsored by Octopus Strategies, and will be held at the Tides Renewal Centre in Vancouver.

For registration and location details, follow this link.

We hope to see you there.

Larry Brilliant at Skoll. Image used with permission of Skoll World Forum.

Many of the challenges social enterprise aims to resolve are the greatest challenges faced by humanity: Poverty. Climate change. Conflict. And each is made more challenging by its interweaving with the others. Resolution of these global challenges requires us to “rejoice in complexity,” as was suggested by Stephan Chambers, Director of the MBA degrees at Oxford University’s Saїd Business School, during the opening plenary of the 2011 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.

The Forum’s theme for this year was, “”Large Scale Change — ecosystems, networks and collaborative action.” Laudable on its face, the theme gave rise to a series of dialogues over the Forum’s three days that made clear big problems require big solutions. Social enterprise, and in particular its “undisputed star,” microfinance, has demonstrated its capacity to deliver that change, exemplifying Einstein’s assertion that “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

The diversity of people, nations, ideas and enterprises present at the Skoll Forum certainly demonstrated our collective capacity to define new models and pursue new solutions. Yet few organizations have achieved scale without simultaneously diluting their impact. And therein lies the paradox:

As they grow, social enterprises’ capacity to be responsive and need-focused inevitably erodes.

In order to counter this trend away from responsiveness and toward defense of the new status quo, Professor Ngaire Woods outlines a series of important trends that she believes must continue if social enterprise is to deliver on its promise:

1. Forging Participation: The most successful social enterprises are those that are founded (or at least co-founded) by local people. The encouragement of local participation is one distinguishing factor between charity models and social enterprise. It also has the added benefits of optimizing solutions based on local customs and ideals, and encouraging local employment–key to lifting people out of poverty.
2. Demand-Driven Approach: Another flaw in the charity model has been charities’ penchant to foist solutions devised in far-flung offices on local people and populations. Rather than asking what’s wanted or needed, or including locals’ perspectives and aspirations in planning, too many failed aid organizations and social enterprises have presumed flawed solutions, or at least failed to anticipate challenges present in market areas that aren’t consistent with the enterprises’ home experience.
3. Results-based Legitimacy: Social enterprises must be judged not on their intent or some idealized vision, but on their success–on their capacity to deliver ongoing, positive outcomes. The continual asking of ‘What have you done for me lately?’ is the surest way to avoid the paradoxical reduction of impact as social enterprises scale.

So what does all this mean for the aspiring social entrepreneur?

As if the challenging balancing act of a ‘triple bottom line’ weren’t enough, the unrelenting march of transparency and responsibility (both good things!) is making the field of social enterprise yet more challenging. Operators are being held to the same high standards as their traditionally corporate counterparts, despite arguably more complex business models and far-reaching ambitions. This presents unprecedented challenges to leaders and their teams. We suggest five key leadership skills essential to social entrepreneurs:

1. Ongoing personal development: Self-motivated leaders must be aware of their own strengths, values and limitations, while also taking responsibility for their own development. This clarity of capacity is essential if leaders are to maximize their own contributory value.
2. Foster others’ development: Engaging leaders support others–their colleagues and teams–in their own personal and professional development. They must create environments of learning and reflection, where teams constantly adapt. Innovation is the result of personal and team development.
3. Insist on collaboration: Highly complex problems rarely, if ever, are solved by individual actors operating in isolation. Instead, they’re the result of a consistent, concerted team effort. Collaboration is a vital aspect of organizational life in the 21st century. Learning to collaborate is among a leader’s (and a leadership team’s) foremost requirements.
4. Uncommit when necessary: While leaders must of course set a clear direction for their teams and organizations, they must also act quickly in response to evidence that contravenes their chosen direction. To be willing to ‘uncommit’ is essential. Missions, visions and operating plans must be flexible to respond to valid evidence–whether positive or negative in implication. The willingness to admit failure, to reconsider evidence, and to commit afresh to a new direction is not to be criticized; rather, the humbling admission that “we were wrong” must be held up as a simple fact of organizational life. No leader was ever right every time. Nor will tomorrow’s social entrepreneurs be right on every project, program or enterprise.
5. Champion change: Successful leaders act as champions for and orchestrators of the “change they wish to see in the world.” As champions, they rally others around them, providing the inspiration to persevere when the going gets tough. As orchestrators, they effectively unite disparate ideas, players and organizations, aligning them with their vision and mission.

Social enterprises are at once looking at ways to make micro-impacts on local populations, while also working to shift entire systems of production, consumption and even government. They require inestimably high quality leaders, and remarkably flexible business models. Social entrepreneurs are far from being an obscure subset of organizational leaders. Their willingness to face up to humanity’s biggest problems, and to continue adapting and adjusting their work to resolve those issues makes them some of our most important individuals and teams.

Archbishop Tutu. Image used with permission of Skoll World Forum

“Large Scale Change – ecosystems, networks and collaborative action.” This was the theme for the 2011 Skoll World Forum, March 30 to April 1, in Oxford, UK. The diversity of delegates’ nationalities, organizations, missions and ideas was matched only by the diversity of plenary, breakout and workshop session topics. Yet at least a couple of common threads united the conversations of the 900 assembled delegates.

One of these was the question of leadership, and more specifically its role in the development of large scale change.

Amid more than enough academic study, philosophical waxing and journalistic opining, ‘leadership’ has devolved in the past few years to nothing more than another example of rampant organizational rhetoric. Yet at Skoll, the profound insights of unquestionable leaders—Queen Noor of Jordan, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and our convener, Jeff Skoll himself—shed new light on the emerging revitalization of leadership. This dialogue was perhaps captured best by the question posed in one popular session:

Is Heroism Obsolete?

It’s a powerful question. And it immediately set off a fruitful debate at the apartment I’d rented with Climate Smart‘s Elizabeth Sheehan: “Aren’t heroes just leaders, by another name?” she asked. Or are they distinct, and vital to inspire a new generation of societal visionaries? In a time when our ‘heroes’ have devolved to those who occupy the media spotlight on any given day—film stars and music divas—the question’s poignancy is yet more clear. Who are the examples we would want our children to admire? Whose example would we have them aspire to follow?

We all have heroes. We all look to role models, mentors, exemplars of the character and commitment we’d wish to emulate in the world. They’re shining examples of ethics, dedication, commitment and passion. The Skoll dialogue (links to subsequent BBC World Service broadcast of the panel discussion) identified seven specific elements of heroism:

1. Humility. Every one of the panelists held up humility as a unifying characteristic of heroes. Their capacity to admit failure, to share credit, and to openly admit they do not have all the answers ensures they’re able to convene and collaborate with those who would support them and their cause. “I was only noticed,” said Archbishop Tutu, “because I was held so high on the shoulders of all those who were with me.”
2. Risk: Many (all?) of our heroes accept and embrace a degree of personal risk—financial, social or personal—as they pursue their work. Consider the lives, trials and tribulations of Nelson Mandela, of Rosa Parkes, even of Neil Armstrong. Each of these unquestionable heroes put their safety at risk in service of a mission far bigger than themselves.
3. Persistence: The unwavering commitment to keep pushing along the right path also unites heroes. Sir Winston Churchill argued for a decade or more that the rise of German Naziism ought not to be tolerated. Yet it took a decade for his country and the rest of Europe to realize the threat. Likewise, modern day heroes like Muhammad Yunus have dedicated their lives to a vision of social change that has lifted countless millions out of poverty.
4. Inspirational Influence: Heroes’ ethics, approach and effort is mimicked by others, who in effect amplify their work. Gandhi‘s example is exceptional in this respect: His peaceful ethos galvanized a nation to become what is now the world’s biggest democracy.
5. Activation: Heroes assume responsibility for the ‘change they wish to see in the world.’ They set examples of success. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Our heroes seem to grasp this mantra intuitively, and so set for us all shining and inspiring examples.
6. Transparency: Our heroes have nothing to hide. They are open and communicative in their aims, their actions and their aspirations. “I have a dream,” said Dr. King. And he proceeded to open his heart to a nation, catalyzing a movement and an unprecedented generational change in America. His was not a hidden plan, but an open, welcoming dialogue with his countrymen.
7. Accessibility: Churchill liked his whiskey. Questions arose (perhaps maliciously) that Dr. King had extramarital liaisons. JFK almost certainly did. Yet we largely forgive our heroes for their indiscretions and their flaws. In fact, it helps us accept that they’re human, like the rest of us, which only makes their examples more valuable: If they can do it, why can’t we?

I’m fortunate to have heroes in my life: My father, for his infinite patience, his unquestionable ethics, and for a dedication to family he shares with my wife, another hero of mine. These people are not my ‘leaders,’ but they set an example for me that I try to emulate every day. Beyond my family, historical figures like Churchill and Gandhi have inspired my commitment to human rights and positive engagement. While they were leaders in their time, they are not my leaders today. No, something else is at play here.

Heroes are vital. They are exemplars for humanity. They demonstrate in words and in action the infinite capacity of human endeavour. They show us our nobility. And they reveal for us the possibilities for a just, connected, and supportive world.