Well that was a different week. In truth every day and every week is different when you run a small social enterprise.
That variety may not work for everyone, but I discovered very early on in my career that I struggle with repetition and too much structure. I can take no credit for ending up in a role where ever day is so new and so challenging and which suits my lack of concentration very well.
So a week jetting about, literally, to Dublin and Edinburgh, felt not just like an amazing opportunity, but a luxury and enterprise adventure too.
To justify it I did quite a lot of homework. I researched all the people I’d be meeting, made notes on what I wanted to get out of it and further live notes whilst there.
In Dublin at the Carnegie Accelerator Programme I definitely made progress on our Big Idea for digital skills inclusion. It has generated a number of actions and ideas to implement.
And in Edinburgh at the Social Enterprise World Forum, I was inspired and met new interesting people doing new interesting things.
As the ‘lonely at the top’ adage goes, hearing some familiar stories and challenges, but with solutions too, was also some solace. Whilst able to hold my own in workshops, I felt like a minnow in a very large oceon as entrepreneurs from across the planet told of the incredible things they were doing.
You knew there was a ‘but’ coming didn’t you? For all it was a brilliant and anomalous week, I really wanted to get back to the The Training Flat. I miss the ‘real’ work and the inspiration within our own team. I want to put the ideas into practice and I want us to be better!
