Mapping Support to Social Enterprises

Activity mapping via a facilitated workshop.

• Used post-its to gather details of the support that each individual GSEP member thought the partnership offered.
• Worked with the attendees to cluster the post-its into meaningful groups and subgroups, and to name the clusters.
• The clustering activity allowed all the members to discuss their ideas and refine the wording so that they were all happy that the output properly reflected their offer.
• My challenge was to guide the discussion, so that the clusters were neither too high or low level.

The Greenwich Social Enterprise Partnership (GSEP) supports people running social businesses.

The Partnership wants to ensure that local social enterprises get the right support. But the partners involved are multi-agency, with different viewpoints. We were asked to help clarify their offer.

• The client now has a succinct and well-structured single page summary that describes the support they offer to local social enterprises
• A supplementary paper was also provided based on draft scripts of questions for use with businesses of different maturities in determining what support they might need

• The clustering led to a common understanding of the key activities and purpose of the GSEP, which had not previously been apparent.
• The output was used straight away after the workshop. Having everything on a single-page helped.
• The framework of headings and detail can be used as a basis for a range of activities – including external communications, internal training, development and recruitment, and business planning. It can be easily updated and refined, and could work in a variety of formats.