The background of this article has been a journey. Like the story goes, overnight popstars are not born overnight — and this story takes a similar twist.
Late last year (2018), I was able to spend some time at Substation 33 (https://substation33.com.au/) a social enterprise initiative in Logan City Council. And whilst I was there, I had a chat with Tony Sharp — a fantastic person helping spread the word — have more conversations. Here’s a couple of the video chats we had.
This first one here is about Substation33 itself and what do their do with eWaste. The eWaste is a way of them focusing on a tangible outcome. What they do with the materials and how they use creative sources to re-invent from eWaste is inspiring.
This second one is about YFS and the social enterprise link to Substation33. The people that bring into the space and the structure that they have creates an environment to share and learn from each other. A tangible output is the ability to create job opportunities elsewhere in the community.
There a couple of videos of us talking more at RedThunder Youtube Channel (https://bit.ly/2MvsQX5). The interesting part of this is:
How did I did I find myself in Logan City sitting at Substation 33 with Tony Sharp and why were we doing this?
As you can clearly see, the path for us getting together was simple. From its root, the time frame of some of these relationships were decades (from my perspective growing that from red to green to blue to what it is today) and others are months old (less than 18 months). Some of the relationships span different communities — healthcare innovation & informatics, industry associations, corporate, higher education, telecommunications, small business, startups, social enterprise, local government. Each of these relationships are also multi-dimensional and multi-discipline — some benefits of the side-hustle.
Why Do This? The title of this article is to scale the impact. There are a few parts to this and it relates to the network effect that we have.
- Know Yourself (I’ve tried to figure out what best describes what I mean — that’s the best and least corny thing to say) — When participating this network, are you working as an individual or as part of organisation whether it be a small business, startup, government, university, corporate. At times, it may be one or the other or both.
- Know Your Ask and Know Your Give — This is about understanding the need / ask and understanding our own capability to give. There is a load of different aspects to this. This is an ever evolving space. As we learn, we grow is what we can give and know what to ask.
- Add Value To This Network — Everyone needs something that someone else can help with. We do not work in an environment where we do everything ourselves. The value and success of the environment is based upon adding value (and not just taking from it).
- Diversity — By different people / organisations coming together with the preceding parts in check then we have that understanding of what we can do together. Not everyone will make sense to work together (right time, right team, right idea) … but maybe … We all have a superpower.
- Increase The Market — Based upon the preceding parts, adding more people to this community (building opportunities, building the network, building awareness).
There are fantastic organisations and people here. Similarly others that are doing their thing.
Here is my ask:
Whoever you are or wherever you work (organisation or location), and you want to scale this impact — let me know.
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