Matthew's RSA blog

second thoughts

This week in Fellowship...

Wow, it's been a busy one, my feet have barely touched the floor.

Last week's event at the Baltic in Newcastle went well; I met lots of interesting enthusiastic people, several of whom promised they would check out the Networks platform after I had demonstrated it, and were excited by the opportunity to contact more Fellows and be more involved, unhindered by geographical distance.

I also got winked at by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Then I got lost trying to find the station and had to jump in a taxi. But I managed to impress the driver with my knowledge of Sunderland's success under manager Roy Keane.

Back at home, I have started a social sciences course with the Open University. They are the biggest university in the UK, and the course 'Understanding Social Change' is their most popular and my tutor said that applications for the course had doubled since last year. Maybe this marks a growing appetite for social innovation and progress? Let's hope so.

It's the end of the day here, and now I'm going to do my homework. Hmm, voluntarily increasing my work load...what was I thinking?

Until next time

Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.

(Photographs by me - this one of my insightful note taking skills)

Beginnings...

Freshly back from the bank holiday weekend – and it feels that spring has definitely sprung, and the cobwebs are clearing.

The past few weeks have shown enormous promise and progress in terms of the Newtworks project, and much us this is down to the enthusiasm of Fellows.

With this in mind I hope you won’t find it too self serving if I start this weeks blog with this fantastic contribution from FRSA Tessy Britton.

Six months after the launch of the Networks project I feel more enthusiastic about it than ever. This is not because the practicalities seem easier, but the importance of what is being attempted is genuinely quite thrilling.

The RSA Fellowship is made up of extraordinary people, drawn to the RSA undoubtedly because of the organisation’s uniqueness and breadth of vision.

Where the RSA networks project adds to our Fellowship enormously is the invitation to participate. The shift in paradigm from being an interested but largely passive member to valued contributor is a really significant one.

It changes the questions from ‘what is the society doing for me?’, to ‘how can I contribute?’, it challenges our passions, time, imaginations and our commitments. It even challenges our abilities. It shakes us up, sometimes uncomfortably, to examine how, on a very personal level, we can not only talk about social change, but do social change.

The RSA is now saying to us that it is holding open a new sort of space for our ideas to be heard, to be animated by conversation with others and to be supported in many different ways. This is an incredibly inspiring thing to do, mostly because the long-term success of the developing network is dependent almost entirely on the interest and enthusiasm of Fellows to enter this space.

By these actions and attitudes the RSA is exposing the possibilities that are energised by individual generosity. It is rejecting the reductionist, remedial view of society and humanity and is firmly putting its trust and confidence into our innate capacity for collective good.  What could be brighter or more optimistic?

Take this paradigm out of the RSA into local government for a moment.  Imagine a local council where they put real value into their members – all of them.  What would happen if those members were stimulated, inspired, encouraged and supported to form connections and groups in those communities for positive social change?

It can be hard not to envy the nimbleness that other innovation groups can offer, especially in these early stages. However, the RSA comprises a disciplinary diversity and geographic penetration that is wholly unique – and it is through its determination to create these connective opportunities, these equalities and freedoms across disciplinary, social and regional boundaries that I feel some of the most exciting projects will emerge over time.

While others may surely look for evidence of innovation in the output of social projects already, I am simply delighting in watching and helping the process, which for me is the real innovation.   And it is amazing.

piping up

This week in Fellowship...

I suspect it's been rather calm, because I wasn't there. I'm currently catching up with everything, so it feels like a week of bits and pieces.

On the recommendation of Val, the longest-standing member of the Fellowship office, we went for lunch in the newly renovated cafe in the crypt at St Martins in the Fields. She is a source of grounded advice on most things in life, and in return we eat all the pecans from variety nut packets, because she doesn't like them.

We're off to Newcastle tomorrow for a new Fellows evening in Gateshead, which I'm looking forward to. It's the first regional event I've attended, and following the buzz on the Networks platform, I'm keen to find out about what's been going on.

And as part of the revamp of internal communications, we're getting a new intranet, which is due to go live in a few weeks time. We got to see the test site last week, and it's going to be an enormous help enabling us to pull together and share the huge amount of diverse information that is floating around in this building.

Until next time...

Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.

(Photographs by me - this one of the organ in St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square)

We do

Last night we had a great lecture from Charlie Leadbeater discussing his new book We Think. The book has got interest and praise, not just for its content but also how it was written – collaboratively, via Charlie’s website. It may well be the first wiki-book

One connection I made was between Charlie’s thesis and Brooke Harrington who spoke here last week on her book Pop Finance. I asked Brooke whether Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and the foremost exponent of the breakdown in social capital, was interested in the 20 million Americans taking part in investment clubs.

Brooke surmised that Putman didn’t investigate this on the grounds that investment clubs aim to make money. But, as she points out in her book, there’s no correlation between the financial success of the club and its long term future. There are clubs which make no money but are still meeting and investing, just as there are some clubs which are financially successful, but break-up due to personality clashes. In the final analysis, it’s all about people voluntarily doing stuff together.

I similarly asked Charlie what he thought about Putnam’s thesis. Does the rise of forms of on-line collaboration like Wikipedia and Linux disprove social capital theory.

The answer in part is Putnam was looking at distinct forms of social capital, arguing that the capital communities most need is the type that is declining fastest. So for instance, in deprived communities, what’s needed is ‘bridging capital’; people who are not in work having contact with those who are and thus creating opportunities through networks and connections.

The problem with the simplistic social capital thesis is that it seems to imply that after 150,000 years of human evolution in which we have been hard wired as a social species we have suddenly decided to retreat from the public sphere.

What I take from both Charlie and Brooke is that Putnam was mapping less a fundamental shift in human nature and more was the decline of old collectivist institutions. These institutions – think political parties, think trade unions, think established churches - are characteristically bureaucratic, rigidly hierarchical, and culturally self-denying (‘you have boring meetings to make the world a better place’).

What Putnam didn’t see was that alongside the decline of these institutions what would occur is the emergence of ‘new collectivist’ institutions – like investment clubs and on-line social networks - which are less bureaucratic, more dispersed, more subtly hierarchical, and more self-actualising (or what ordinary people tend to call ‘fun’).

Human beings do still want to do good stuff together, but because our lives and our expectations have changed we want to work together differently. This is what we’re trying to do here at the Society. RSA Networks is one way of doing that, but there will no doubt be others – such as this blog. One way of defining my mission for the RSA is to build on the great traditions of this old collectivist institution, but work with Fellows to turn it into an exemplar of a new collectivist spirit. 

RSA Networks Exchange

A few RSA colleagues went to the Social Innovation Camp a couple of weekends ago. This brought together technologists and innovators to develop new ways to meet social need.

Next month, the Innovation Exchange for the third sector is holding two 'festivals of ideas' that aim to bring together social innovators with commissioners of services in the hope that fresh approaches to old problems will emerge.

In a similar vein, as part of the RSA Networks project, we're now building up to our next big Fellows' event on the evening of 28 April - the RSA Networks Exchange.

This will be a bit like the ideas equivalent of a 'bring and buy' sale. You bring a project; you offer help in developing other people's projects.

We've already had a great response, with people saying they want to talk about subjects ranging from reducing the loneliness of freelancing, to initiatives designed to help people dealing with alcohol and drug abuse get back on track.

There is more about the event on the Networks platform, and you can get involved by registering your interest.

In reflecting on the buzz around these kinds of events currently, two things strike me.

First, the power of new technology to make visible a form of 'gift economy' that has until recently remained fairly hidden. If participating is easy, and feedback is quick and positive, people are willing to give their time and expertise to others and the greater good (a theme that will no doubt be taken up by Charles Leadbeater in his talk here next week). 

And second, perhaps an important reminder for us here, that the fuel of any gift economy is passion. Without passion, people have little reason to give up precious time. So part of what we need to do here is unlock people's passion for social progress, and help them to find others who share that passion.

With those reflections in mind, we've been busy inviting people via the OpenRSA Facebook group and the Networks platform. We'll see how it works, and feed any lessons into our plans for regular events of this kind in London and around the country.

Hope to see you there!

push the button

This week in Fellowship...

Wayne came back from a couple of weeks away in Grenada and brought in guava jelly, peanut crunch, and coconut fudge for us all. The resulting sugar rush tripled production in the Fellowship office until the crash at about 3pm when we could barely talk to each other. We have learnt the lesson of moderation.

In other news: as we are working towards a more networked Fellowship and revising our communications strategy to provide more relevant information we've come to realise that the data we hold on Fellows, and the way we can access it isn't always the most efficient. So we're changing the questions on the application form, and the search fields on the Fellowship directory, and our data inputting processes, and how information links into the profiles held on the Networks page, and how the website and the database talk to each other.

But the good news is that, after some blood, sweat and tears, and plenty more guava jelly, we'll have better quality data held in such a way that makes it much easier for staff and Fellows alike to search the database so we can better link people to each other, to Networks projects, to calls for expertise, and to lectures and events.

Then we'll tackle the database roll out across the organisation. (Where's that button gone?)

Until next time...

Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.

(Photographs by me - this one sat at my desk very early one morning)

Fail better

In Chichester last night for an open space event with South East Region committee members, Fellows and guests. It was great to see so many people taking time out on a Monday evening to discuss how the RSA could make a greater impact and be a stronger network. The evening came up with some good ideas and a real desire to grow RSA networks and activities.

I emphasised two points in my opening comments. The first was that while we need to get continual feedback from Fellows as we take forward our ambitions for Fellowship, we need to give as much time to the change we want to achieve in the world outside as to the changes we need internally. There has been lots of debate in the OpenRSA facebook group and our RSA Networks platform about the change process, and we are learning some valuable lessons, many of which will soon be seen in a series of adaptations leading up to a re-launch of RSA Networks platform. But I sense that Fellows are now impatient to focus more on the real world projects that might emerge from our new forms of engagement.

This takes me to my second point. If we are to turn more outwards we need to make sure that the ideas we have are robust and add value to what is out there already. A networking approach, whether delivered online through the Networks platform, or locally in events and emerging relationships like those being fostered in the South East and North West, offers a fast track to testing and developing ideas.

Being an RSA Fellow offers an invaluable opportunity to test out an idea with a group of well-connected, intelligent and diversely talented colleagues. These ideas can come from many different sources. Just today I have been asked to join RSA Network discussions about education reform (instigated by the authors of a fascinating letter in the Journal) and the growing debate about failure (again building on a Journal article). When our new all-singing-all-dancing website goes live soon, it will provide lots of new sources for ideas and debate. For example, our videos of RSA lectures will offer links through to discussion forums about the lecture and from that, possibly, to network initiatives seeking to turn ideas in actions. 

The ideas that past muster will then have access to insight, support and participation from Fellows as well as various forms of support from RSA HQ (and our soon-to-be-appointed field work team). But, speaking as someone who has a new idea every week and a good one roughly every three months, it is just as valuable to find out quickly that one’s idea doesn’t quite make the grade. There is nothing worse than putting lots of time and commitment into a brainwave only to find out it has a fatal flaw, that someone is doing it already, or that no one shares your enthusiasm.

When ideas are floated in the RSA Fellowship (whether on or off-line, whether in national local forums) they should get feedback not just from Fellows but from other people and organisations we invite because they have expertise and experience in the area under discussion. A strength of the RSA brand is that busy important people usually respond with enthusiasm to requests from us to offer advice. This way we avoid re-inventing the wheel or, worse, re-inventing the Sinclair C5.   

If one in thirty of the ideas floated in emerging Fellowship networks - whether on-line or in off-line sessions like Chichester last night - gets through to the stage of becoming a developed proposal it will be a good hit rate.  As Mitchell Sava points out in the Journal, failure can be as creative as success. 

Getting these new ways of working right is about resources, systems, participation but also vitally about culture. We need working methods and norms that encapsulate the right combination of challenge and support. RSA Fellows should be seen as the kind of people who have commitment and ideas but also the kind who thrive on constructive criticism. 

flying the colours

Last week in Fellowship...

We all trooped down to the Thames to watch the RAF fly past and I gave Ann the willies by sitting on the edge of the wall to get a better shot.

We've also started work on developing and improving our recruitment materials. And it's much more complicated than it seemed at first. We want to have better data on our Fellows, so that we can contact you with relevant information and help fulfill your networking requests. So we need to change some of the information on the application form, which means a redesign, and a reprint, and that impacts on the database capacity and search functions, and the data entry protocols, and the links between the new website and the database, and the deadlines for other design work....

These are the sorts of internal grindings going on in just one department, to support and develop the vision of a networked Fellowship, which isn't always obvious on the outside. There's been some frustration recently, both internally and from Fellows, with the progress of the Networks platform and organisational change within the RSA - particularly from the point of view of staff participation in the online section. But, without getting too mushy, I just wanted to 'fly the colours' for the project. This place has undergone a sea change since I joined 18 months ago, and there is an awful lot of work going on internally to enable us to really collaborate with the Fellowship, and we're still moving forward (slowly but surely).

Until next time...

Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.

(Photographs by me - this one of the RAF flypast over the Thames on the 1st April)

Some RSA news from India

The RSA in India is delighted to report that the Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt Sheila Dikshit has become an Honorary Fellow of the RSA. The President of the Society in India, Lady Stagg, will be celebrating this milestone in the Delhi chapter’s short history on 12th April.

Sheila Dikshit’s devotion to the Union State of Delhi has earned her the respect of the people whom she has tirelessly served for nearly a decade. Ms Dikshit has proven to be a champion of environmental issues, women’s rights and the needs of the poor.

On the same evening the RSA in India will announce the winner of the RSA in India / University of the Arts scholarship and the RSA in India grant award scheme. As India continues its rapid growth the demand for internationally trained designers ever increases. These award schemes reflect our commitment to design development in India.

The RSA in India

thursday night fever

This week in Fellowship...

We didn't have John Travolta in white flares, but we did have an eardrum busting samba band. What am I talking about..? The Young Achievers Trust awards ceremony of course! Yours truly was presenting the community category and it was fantastic to be able to give these young people the congratulations and recognition they deserve for all their hard work.

Projects included a football club to engage hard to reach youngsters, an anti-bullying competition, a music event for homeless artists, and an ecology education programme for primary school children. All initiated and led by young people, who have often overcome their own difficult circumstances to achieve such fantastic results. But I don't want to give too much away yet, because there'll be more in our next Journal.

I am hoping that all of these young people will take up our offer to join the RSA, and we'll be looking for advisors and mentors for them amongst the Fellowship. Do email me laura.billings@rsa.org.uk if you'd like to know more about this.

In other news, we've been re-carpeted and re-painted on the 3rd floor. So apologies if you found it hard to contact us either side of the Easter break, but we were all either roaming the building like lost lambs searching for a spare workstation, or like me, working from home and consuming double the normal amount of tea. Everything is back in its proper place now.

Until next time...

Information on how to join the RSA Fellowship, and how to nominate others here.

(Photographs by me - this one taken at the awards ceremony at The Bridge SE1)