Lessons

Really interesting if demanding week….

Last Sunday I did the “Y toY” 26 mile marathon charity walk from Guildford Y to RedhillY, in aid of the work of Redhill Y with children and young people with disabilities. We started at 9.00 am and got in at 6.30 pm which is pretty good going, though the CEO of RedhillY ran it in 4.5 hours! I did not have any blisters or aches, and raised £450 so was pleased, - a big thank you to my sponsors.

I then met up with the County Council’s Head for Services to Young People at 8.30 am on Monday morning for a private chat, which has to be...private.

I went to the induction session for the new Lord Lieutenant’s cadets, both civil and military on Tuesday evening at County Hall, and was struck by the maturity and assurance of these young people, aged 16-18.

Our incorporation as a company has come through this week in the nick of time for our intended 1 April start, so having both this and our Pqasso award we are well placed to present ourselves as a well organized charity that is focused on Innovation and Impact in 2011/12.

I went to a late afternoon NCVYS session in London on leadership featuring Charlie Mayfield, the CEO of the John Lewis Partnership. He gave a very interesting talk. Famously the JLP is a mutual founded some 75 years ago and owned by the 75,000 staff.
There were some key learning points:

• The importance of values in setting culture 
• That culture was about staff (“partner” in JLP terms) Rights –to information, accountability of managers, transparency, and Responsibility – meaning constant self criticism and improvement
• Famously all “partners” benefit from the company profits, and all got 18% this year…..from top to bottom
• Pay is set (in the original Trust documents) so that the maximum the CEO can get is 75 times that of the lowest pay grade

Lots  of lessons for banks. I was very impressed by his matter of fact style, and lack of bravado.

In different vein, there have been several useful reports from New Philanthropy Capital recently which we’ll put up on our website next week, including one on Preparing for Cuts, which we discussed at yesterday’s Community Foundation, Surrey policy committee. I am constantly arguing that there needs to be a “new settlement” which sees a close triangular relationship between: Central and local government – the voluntary sector- corporates/ social finance/ philanthropists.

And tomorrow, Saturday,  is our Celebration of Youth and Volunteering, so more about that next week.

Mike