The Barriers to Building

Social entrepreneurs are builders.  Sure, they don't tend to carry around hammer, nails and jack hammers, but they build.  They build people, they build communities and most of all they build hope.  The act of building comes with a cost.  It's not easy work.  Builders work hard.  Social entrepreneurs work even harder.  So what is it that stands in the way of building?  Let me share 3 great barriers to building:  entropy, gravity and bureaucracy. Let's look at these 3 obstacles to all building.

entropy

entropy is the natural process of moving from organisation to disorganisation. Think about your house.  It doesn't clean or organise itself;  in fact, it seems to go feral without your input (insert here: blame spouse and children!!)  But it's more than that.  Entropy is a natural process of decay and disintegration (2nd law of thermodynamics).   Leave something alone, let it stand untouched, and it will naturally become useless.  Park your car out in the desert for a few months, without touching it, it will become a useless piece of metal mass.  

When a builder builds he or she fights entropy.  For this reason, we don't build houses that stand the test of time out of paper mache.  Nonetheless, even the highest quality ediface has a lifespan.

Communities face the entropy problem as well.  Left alone, communities will naturally move from a state of organisation to disorganisation.  They must be maintained, actively sustained, even reogorganised in order to survive the insidious decay.  This sustaining comes through developing social services and enterprises which are pertinent to that community at that moment in time.  

What does that mean?  It means Social entrepreneurs need to know when to terminate certain projects (yes, even when they may have been running for a very long, historic time), when to start new innovative programmes and when to make key changes to existing ones.  This is not an easy task.  The community is in a state of constant change and flux.  That's why building is so difficult. 

gravity

We fight gravity every day of our lives. We walk up stairs. We lie on the sofa.  We lift heavy objects.  Each of these activities involves fighting gravity. Our bodies are fighting gravity until the day we die (look in the mirror, second thought, don't!) 

Builders fight gravity every day of their lives.  Hammers and equipment are heavy.  It's much easier to build a six-room one floor house than a six-room, six-floor house.  Roofing has got to be a harder job than working on a foundation.  Just getting the materials to site would be difficult if you are working on multistory building.

It takes great effort and perseverance to fight gravity.  For this reason, many builders leave the industry before middle age.  And for this reason, many social entrepreneurs give up before their hoped-for task is completed.  Perseverance is the antidote to gravity, to giving up.  Perseverance is the resolve found within a person to continue on when it's not easy to do so.

Social entrepreneurs need to be strong people.  Physically? yes, it helps.  Emotionally? even more so.  Mentally? like steel!  Because without inner strength gravity will pull down the best laid plans and dreams.

bureaucracy

When I first visited Switzerland I saw something strange.  I often noticed strange arrays of posts sticking out of the ground on hillsides.  These weird constructs certainly didn't seem permanent and made no sense to me.  What were they?  I discovered they were the outline of someone's future home.  According to local Swiss law the builder had to erect, months before approval, an outline of the proposed building.  Anyone who had a complaint, who felt the building would block a view or pose an eyesore, could protest.  It sounded like good bureaucracy.  But it certainly slowed the building process.

Not all bureaucracy is good, though.  Local councils can go crazy with rules and regulations.  Doors, windows, walls and floors all have a myriad of laws to be obeyed.  Yes, it's in the name of health and safety but building it full of bureaucratic red tape.

Every social entrepreneur knows the bureaucratic nightmare of red-tape and government compliance.  But there is something even more difficult and project-stopping than governmental bureaucracy.  Relational bureaucracy.

Doing the "right thing" relationally is sometimes so time-consuming that we feel we ought to short-circuit this bureaucratic route.  Later, we usually regret taking the short course.  Taking time to build relationships, care for people and connect with key gate-keepers is a slow, humble, sometimes painful, process that is necessary to building.  Social entrepreneurs want to get the project moving forward, sometimes quickly.  But taking the time, delaying the project, in order to build relationships is so necessary.  In fact, it is not just necessary, it's part of the project itself and needs to be written into the blueprints.

So there you have it.  Building is an exciting process.  But building is not easy.  Have fun but be aware that the barriers to building quickly and efficiently awaits you!

Ronaldo

9 May 2009