The OnP column: News, views & inspiration

David Puttergill, October 2014 Associate, shares this fortnight’s highlights from the social enterprise scene, plus some insider news from the On Purpose programme.

Want awesome staff? Give them a sense of meaning

Performance is highest when people achieve a state of flow, being “in the zone”, or “in the groove”. This sounds great for the X Games, but how do you achieve it at work? McKinsey just released a paper suggesting three things matter most, role clarity, quality interactions in the team, and most importantly a sense that the work matters. See the paper for some tips on how to make it work.

BSC’s social investment sector update

This week saw BSC release their third annual statement. It’s a treasure trove of social investment information, but the numbers that are hard to hide are after three years, £359m has been committed and signed, but only £104m has been drawn down, £36m of it BSC’s money (the rest from partners). This compares to the £305m BSC has available to invest. There’s a long way to go in the market still.

Venture philanthropy in The Economist

For those in search of validation from the free market’s mouthpiece, this is your week. The Economist ran an article profiling the rise of Venture Philanthropy, and its parallels with the return hungry investment markets.

What we learned last week:

It’s careers time at On Purpose. The October 2014 cohort are starting to acknowledge that there will be life after the programme. Luckily Leon Richards from Good Talent and Andy Meikle, Head of People at Just Giving, were there to give us their top tips.

From our network:

On Purpose is electing a representative from the Fellows to advise the board, good luck to Candice Motran and Catherine You who were shortlisted by the Fellows in a vote and now go to the board for approval.