It’s more than just being on a list and receiving updates. It’s about committing to a standard of consultancy that goes beyond the traditional approaches to business support. It’s a network for consultants who have the knowledge skills and commitment to provide high quality and effective support to third sector organisations (our definition of third sector includes social enterprises, charities and voluntary/community organisations), particularly those operating in more challenging and disadvantaged situations, for example bme organisations.
It's a network where members discuss and explore big ideas and big issues in order to promote learning in a field of work that often creates huge amounts of learning and best practice but in the past hasn’t always shared this learning or reflected on it.
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What’s the gap? When we think of business we don’t often think of those businesses that have a social mission or aim – usually described as ‘not for profit’.However, it doesn’t matter whether you make a profit or not – you have to run your business both efficiently and effectively.Often those who support business development don’t understand third sector businesses. They don’t realise that they have to earn income and that very few rely on grants.
Working with third sector businesses require a different set of skills:
• An understanding of the third sector and its market
• Understanding of social policy and the funding environment
• Understanding of the political environment in which organisations operate
• And an understanding of the potential challenges and disadvantages faced by some types of third sector organisations – such as bme or women
Brap believes that the skills and expertise required to deliver robust business support in the third sector can be understood and promoted under the umbrella term, cultural capability.
What’s cultural capability? Cultural capability is more than being nice to people, understanding their religion and knowing what food they eat; it’s about understanding that there isn’t always a level playing field for some of us and recognising that the traditional ways of doing things could be part of the problem.
Cultural capability starts with you, and can be simply described as:
“The ability to recognise that each of us and our society is shaped by values and systems that have both positive and negative consequences for some people.Once you acknowledge this, you will begin to challenge your own thinking and behaviour in the journey towards cultural capability. This will enable you to act in ways that recognise and affirm the value of all human beings.Once on this journey you will be astute enough to recognise that: any action you take has reaction/consequences for others; doing nothing means you collude with the status quo; you will never complete your learning and this means having an ongoing commitment to acquiring the skills and knowledge you need.”
