A self-reflection for social enterprise founders, intrapreneurs or decision makers
Are you sustaining the change, or subsidising it?
Great to have you here. This is a two-part self-reflection, and you can take the sections in whatever order you prefer. If you're more factual and logical, you might like to start with Part 2. Part 1 starts with what you're already doing well: how you lead the change, and how you stay true to why. And honestly? If you're keeping a social enterprise going, you're already drawing on more of these strengths than you probably give yourself credit for.
Before we start, the important bit: we're not tracking you. Nothing you type here is recorded or saved on our system. Your answers stay on this page and nowhere else, and the moment you close or refresh the tab, they're gone. At the end you'll have a one-page plan you can print, save or screenshot to keep. What you do with it is entirely yours.
Take your time. Read them and pick just one to really sit with rather than rushing all six. You're simply noticing where it feels strong to you and where you're feeling stretched. If it helps, talk it over with someone you trust.
The six strengths
01
Leading real change
Some problems have a clear fix. Others need people to change how they work, and those can't be sorted with a new rule or by quietly doing it yourself. This is about differentiating the two, keeping the pressure bearable while people adjust, and handing the work back to the people who need to own it.
Rooted in: adaptive leadership (Heifetz & Linsky)
iExample in practice
A café that trains and employs young people who've been homeless keeps having missed shifts. The quick fix is a stricter roster rule. The real work is helping supervisors see that missed shifts often come from unstable housing and building the team's ability to respond with both support and clear limits, not sackings. Instead of sorting it alone, the founder hands the problem to the shift leaders to work out together.
Sit with thisAre you trying to fix something with a rule or a workaround, when it really needs people to change how they work? What are you avoiding asking of others because it feels hard?
iWhat that can look like
The better move isn't a roster rule. It could be bringing everyone together and co-designing a solution: reviewing the opening and closing hours, or the staffing structure, to work out how the café can operate and stay viable while still working in the way people actually need.
02
Change the how, keep the why
Knowing the one thing you must never give up, the difference you're here to make, and being willing to change almost everything else: the product, the method, the plan. It's making a smart change of direction rather than slowly drifting off purpose or quietly giving up.
Rooted in: the difference between a real pivot and purpose drift
iExample in practice
A catering business that trains and employs women from refugee backgrounds loses its corporate events work because their major client wants a more 'professionalised' service, so it switches to frozen grab-and-go ready meals. What it doesn't give up is the purpose: paid training, satisfying work and an income pathway. That's a smart change of direction that keeps on purpose. Drifting would have been keeping the events brand going by quietly swapping the trainees for experienced chefs to keep sales.
Sit with thisWhat must you never give up? What are you holding onto out of habit or emotion that you could perhaps let go? What's one thing you could do differently to make better progress?
iWhat that can look like
The 'made fresh every day' promise felt central, but it was really just habit. Letting it go opened up the frozen-meal line, which employs more women. The purpose was never fresh food, it was jobs.
03
Sharing the power
Building power with others rather than holding it yourself: growing new leaders and treating the community you serve as partners who share in decision making, not just people you help. We often think we're helping, but are we trying to be a hero instead?
Rooted in: distributed leadership · nothing about us without us
iExample in practice
A First Nations bush-foods enterprise could grow faster if the founder made all the buying and pricing calls. Instead, they make those decisions with the Elders and harvesters who hold the knowledge and the connection to Country. It might grow more slowly, but it does so at the pace of real agreement and shared benefit that doesn't rest on one person.
Sit with thisWhere are you holding onto decisions that would be better made with others? Who is most affected by the work, but isn't in the room when those decisions get made?
iWhat that can look like
A youth-employment enterprise looks at its advisory group and sees it's all funders and no young people representing the clients they serve. Two youth program graduates are invited onto an advisory board to help shape the services.
04
Learning as you go
Stepping back to see the bigger pattern and being willing to question the assumptions underneath a problem, not just patch the surface. It's being someone who can genuinely change their mind when the evidence says to.
A packaging business that employs people with intellectual disability keeps missing deadlines. Adding more checks just patches the surface. The deeper question is whether the contracts were priced and timed appropriately. The real fix is renegotiating the deadlines and what the customer expects. Getting the first model wrong is information, not failure.
Sit with thisWhen did you last change your mind about something important? Where might you be patching a problem instead of asking what's really causing it?
iWhat that can look like
A mental-health peer service had assumed clinical staff must lead everything. When the workers with lived experience got far better results, the founder changed that assumption, even though it was uncomfortable to let go of.
05
Working without all the answers
Staying able to act and try things when the path ahead isn't clear, instead of freezing or forcing a false certainty. It's being able to run small experiments and live with not knowing yet.
Rooted in: negative capability (Keats) · working with emergence
iExample in practice
A clothing-reuse business sees its export market for second-hand clothes collapse, with no obvious replacement. Rather than freezing or betting everything on one new idea, the founder tries three small things at once, a repair service, an upcycled range, and school workshops, and waits to see which one shows promise.
Sit with thisWhere are you forcing an answer or a plan before it's really there? What might become clearer if you ran a few small experiments instead?
iWhat that can look like
A community-energy founder had been demanding a five-year plan from a policy world that changes every budget. Switching to a rolling twelve-month plan freed the team to actually get moving.
06
Your why, and keeping hope alive
Staying connected to why these matter to you, noticing what the work is turning you into, and finding ways to refill your hope, so you can keep going and help others keep going too, especially when it's hard.
Rooted in: purpose and vocation · hope as a practice
iExample in practice
A sewing business started by a survivor of family violence, employing other survivors, is having a hard year of lost contracts. The founder's reason for doing this is tied to their own story, which gives energy but also takes a toll. Keeping going here means reconnecting with the women whose lives have changed, sharing the weight of the story with the team so it isn't carried alone, and protecting their own recovery rather than pouring it all back in.
Sit with thisWhat is this work turning you into, and who are you when things are going badly? Where do you go to refill your hope?
iWhat that can look like
A disability-arts founder noticed that when things go badly, they become someone who can't accept help. Just naming that was the first step to leading in a healthier way.
A quick, honest check on whether you can keep it up. Think of it like a fuel gauge for the four reserves you draw on. Rate where each one sits today, notice what's running low, and set one goal to aim for so you can refill your tank.
A reminder: if you want to save this, you'll need to print it. It stays on this page and disappears the moment you close or refresh the tab.
Step 1 · Which seat are you in?
Your four reserves — fills as you rate below
Step 2 · Rate where each part sits today
Running lowPatchySolid
Step 3 · Set your goal
My marker of sustaining this
Your plan
Here's what you've got
When you're done: print, save or take a screenshot now to keep your plan. Once you close or refresh this page it disappears.
Founder sustainability