Impact schmimpact reports and leadership in tough times

Curb your enthusiasm

Anyone involved in any kind of business trying to drive social change (whatever you call it - impact, purpose, social enterprise, B Corp) knows that it is always one step forward, two steps backwards, and it’s often messy, contingent, full of contested data, confirmation biases and unintended consequences.

I’m sent many so-called ‘impact reports’ full of photos of groups of carefully cast diverse, shiny, happy people and impressive stats and pie charts. But if there aren’t at least three examples included of where the company has missed the mark or cocked it up, I take everything else with a pinch of organic sea salt.

If there is no wince inducing honesty, my inner Larry David emerges, eyebrows raised. Truth is such genuinely transparent impact reports are disappearingly rare. Access is one of the best hype free efforts at genuine transparency and accountability I’ve seen recently. It’s data rich and open about its missed targets. But too many public reports are carefully spun exercises in cherry picking.

I was particularly interested - as a former executive chairman and current club member - in the report from The Conduit. According to Paul Van Zyl, The Conduit’s co-founder and CEO, 2023 was a ‘fantastic year’.

2023 was certainly a fantastically busy twelve months for the private members club in Covent Garden. Multiple high profile conferences with world class speakers and ‘change the world’ celebrities such as Greta Thunberg. Hundreds of events but little to challenge the world view of the Guardian or New York Times reader. Many thousands of people have visited the Covent Garden property to eat, drink, work and be inspired. A second property was opened in Oslo. The Conduit report is for sure an impressive blast of numbers and activity. Remarkable, given the club is only three years old.

But does the report provide the transparency and accountability promised in Paul’s introduction? As Larry might say, “Meh, not so much.”

The lead report shares many of the flaws of such communications. It’s backward looking and already out of date and it asks no hard questions or owns up to targets missed and business or people mistakes made. It reads like a sales and marketing brochure designed to attract new members and impress potential investors and commercial partners.

Tucked away in the GRI report linked to the report is the more interesting and challenging and wince making stuff. There we find a 300% staff turnover in the year under review but no narrative as to why it was so eye wateringly high and what they’ll do about it. This is ten times the industry average in London. There is little or no mention in the main report about the employees as part of our community. Why not?

The Conduit kept no records on the racial diversity of the staff team. There is no legal requirement to do this but it is a huge miss when diversity has been one of the key themes of the club’s event cycle .

We are told that there were 2,474 members in 23/24. This is 300 fewer than in 2022 (as reported in that year’s report which I helped produce). Why? Is this good news or bad? What was the target? Without this context it is a meaningless number.

I value highly some of the connections I have made through the club and there are some powerful testimonials in the report from members about how useful membership has been for them. But the report has nothing from the people who didn’t renew membership. Why not and what has the club learned from those who have left? What is the renewal rate and is it on plan?

If the goal of The Conduit is to create a mature and engaged community of changemakers, activists and leaders then we need to know about all aspects of the community we are expected to be a part of, not simply as consumers of food and drink and content, but active and engaged members who are big and ugly enough to engage with a more honest assessment of The Conduit’s hit and miss impacts.

Discussing the report with other members, I’ve been teased for being too idealistic and naive expecting warts and all honesty from a privately held company reliant on wealthy investors and corporates like Barclays. Maybe they’re right. The Conduit relies on a range of global investors to fund its ambitious growth plans - Madison Avenue in New York is next - and on convincing thousands more people to join as members. Too much transparency and accountability may be bad for business.

Our member newsletter is called the Radical Realist. I look forward to some radical realism in The Conduit’s future attempts to make sense of and communicate the complexities and contradictions of creating a global movement for change built around a private members club business.

“You’re genuinely never not at work”

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kerrie Jones - clinician, and former dancer and PR - about how she leads, how she deals wth the relentlessness of the demands on her as she tries to build a healthcare company called Orri to change the way eating disorders are treated in this country.

Kerrie is wise, funny, honest and insightful. I admire her greatly. She talked candidly with me about the highs and lows of taking personal responsibility as a leader, the ‘oh s***’ moments when investors say “we’ve bought into you.” and how, as a founder and CEO, you’re “genuinely never not at work”. Listen here.

Pete, one of my mentees, is a first time CEO in fast growing tech business and he asks very good, thoughtful, questions. At our last session he asked: “Is the trick to being a CEO simply about how I live with anxiety and uncertainty?”

At start up and scale up phases, especially when the purpose is to change the world for the better, daily worries and trying to cope with insufficient resources and knowledge are big parts of the job. If you have a partner and kids, the pressure and guilt about not doing anything as well as you want to can feel overwhelming sometimes.

Times are indeed tough. Charities drawing from wells which are running dry as demand far outstrips supply. Investors sitting on money, with low risk appetites and expecting quicker returns. Public sector procurers even more confused and confusing than ever. In the corporate world how many leaders are there who aren’t feeling exhausted and uncertain? At a national level, well, bloody hell. I’m available to give our Prime Minister free mentoring on public speaking and finding a voice which engages an audience and a story which inspires it. Please tell him.

If you tried everything to cope and you’re still feeling it’s all too much, this Mick Flannery song is very much for you. Goes very well with a glass of Bushmills. F*** Off World.

Shameless festive upsell

My excellent book makes for a fabulous Christmas gift for that special purpose driven leader in your life. Available in all formats. The audio version is read brilliantly by Larry David . Only joking (but wouldn’t that be great?). It’s read by the only person I could afford - me. Buy here.

Three other books which I’ve enjoyed and learned from this year:

May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans is essential reading on how stories, statistics and research exploit our biases (see most ‘impact reports’!)

The List of Suspicious Things is the best selling debut by my friend and former colleague Jennie Godfrey. I can’t better Zoe Ball’s description: 'Such a beautiful story about friendship, community and family and secrets and what’s going on underneath'

Shattered by Hanif Kureshi is a powerful memoir about creativity, love and suffering dictated from his hospital bed after a devastating accident.

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May you enjoy a relaxed and restorative festive break. God knows we all need one. See you in 2025.

Peace on earth, love and profit.

Liam x