5 Scaling Up Tips from Social Impact & Growth Day
15 May 2015 - Lisa Baumgartel

On Sunday, April 26th, Impact Hub Stockholm launched the first ever Social Impact & Growth Day. A one-day conference dedicated to helping Swedens rising social entrepreneurship stars accelerate their impact and reach out globally to work for a better world.

It’s a bright Sunday afternoon at Impact Hub Stockholm, and a lively, eclectic group of people is seated around a circle spanning the entire lounge area. We are social entrepreneurs, investors, professional coaches, media hackers, and Impact Hub Scaling Program managers from 8 cities around Europe. Our common purpose is to explore a single question:

What does it take to make something grow?

With the help of co-creative processes facilitated by Art of Hosting, we embark on our focused day-long mission. Although we are all coming from different backgrounds and experiences, and would ultimately each walk away with unique learnings, the day would also reveal some broader, recurring lessons about what it means to grow, or scale-up— insights that anyone could apply to their own desire for growth, whether as a social enterprise or an individual.

1. Start with a Clear Vision
Upon reflection, after exchanging our own scaling success stories, we realized one thing they all had in common was a clear vision. Whether you’re growing strawberries, building a community-based initiative, or expanding your business abroad, a clear vision of your end goal— what you wish to achieve or create— is the fuel that drives you forward, serving even as a magnet attracting others to join your mission.

2. Get Inspired by Success Stories
In addition to exchanging our own scaling success stories, we were lucky to listen to Ulf Stenerhag share his own story of how he came to develop Not for Sale Ale to help fight human trafficking. It’s stories like these that remind us of what’s possible when we’re brave, and committed to seeing our visions through.

3. Open Yourself to New Ideas
During the “Pro-Action Cafe” segment of the day, 10 entrepreneurs were invited to open up about their specific challenges and let attendees take a crack at them via a series of guided co-creation sessions. The process required a good deal of vulnerability and open-mindedness, but the result was 10 break-through next-steps and lots of smiles. Sometimes the key to breaking down barriers to growth is getting out of your own head and exposing your challenges to fresh perspectives. 

4. Collaborate with Likeminded People
More often than not, scaling up requires joining up with more people. One entrepreneur shared their experience of choosing a partner to collaborate with. The person they chose appeared to possess all the desired attributes, yet as their partnership progressed a key non-negotiable difference came to surface— a difference in values. They both basically wanted the same thing, yet held different ideals and even moral standards when it came to how it would be created. Taking the time to map out and communicate both your vision and the guiding values with which it will be built will do a lot to ensure that you attract likeminded collaborators to your mission.

5. Trust the Process
At the start of the day, we did an exercise as a group, which involved the creation and subsequent detangling of a gigantic knot, with each group member keeping their hands glued to their respective end of the rope. As a team member, you learned to anticipate when it was time to act and when it was time to wait. You learned that even doing nothing could be considered a valuable action. You learned not ot get panicked by the maybe hopeless intricacy of the knot, but to let your underlying vision of a successful outcome anchor your focus on the now.

It’s a lesson that was echoed even by the stories of success shared during the day— any process is going to have its ups and downs, seemingly hopeless barriers or unexpected delays. Often it’s only by looking back that we realize how all the bumps and detours along the way contributed to where we are standing now. In short? Trust the process, and keep your eyes on the horizon.

Interested in scaling up your idea? Check out Impact Hub’s Scaling programs. Would you like to come to similar event at the Impact Hub Stockholm? Check out our Events page regularly for updates.

Author

Lisa Baumgartel is a Copywriter and Communications Consultant, and Founder of a Communications Agency.