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Training for the Chamber

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Yesterday I trained a group of around 20 managers all of whom were members of the Chamber of Commerce.

It was a free ‘taster’ session – a 2 hour glimpse into the power of real management development to improve performance and relationships at work.

Feedback from the group was VERY positive!  There was consensus that if we used the ideas discussed consistently and courageously we could probably expect productivity gains in the region of 25 – 40%.

Yet some of those who attended felt they could never put these ideas into practice:

‘Our directors want us to spend less time managing and more time working.  They want to see nothing get in the way of production’.

‘Our directors have cut budgets for training and development – we even had a hard time getting away for free training sessions like this one.’

‘I have a member of staff who always hits targets, but she does it at the expense of her colleagues.  She lies and cheats and upsets everybody.  I have tried to give her feedback and would like to fire her – but because she sell so well my boss won’t hear of it.’

‘In my job customers ring up and often shout and swear at me.  My boss says I just need to be more assertive’.

This is the reality of working life for many in SMEs in the UK.  This is why so many SMEs erode quality of life and wellbeing rather than contribute to it for their employees.

This reflects the somewhat sorry state of management and enterprise education in the UK today. Why don’t we do a better job of helping more SME entrepreneurs to manage more effectively?

Why do so many businesses avoid learning how to manage constructively?  Why do people choose to work for such poor bosses?

Are we turning into The Apprentice on a national scale?  Rude, brutish, short-sighted and backstabbing?

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

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It seems like I am being taken seriously, by some at least, when I say that enterprise and entrepreneurship are not the same.  If we want a more enterprising culture we need to start with enterprise and (in most cases) not entrepreneurship.

Enterprising individuals and communities understand their current position and have a good idea of what ‘better’ looks like.

They also have the courage, confidence, skills, organisation and support to take action to narrow the gap.

If we want to encourage communities to be more enterprising our starting point should not be:

  • Have you got a great business idea? but,
  • What does better look like to you? and
  • What is stopping you making things better? and
  • How can I help?

This way we might get a much larger stock of constructively enterprising people, some of whom might just go on to entrepreneurship.

Industry Day Dawns in North Leeds

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Today is Year 10 industry day for my daughter.

We had a wonderful discussion last night about ‘what to wear’.  Seems that school guidance of black trousers or skirt with a white blouse leaves lots of room for self expression.  My daughter intends to see just how far the ‘business like’ dress code can be pushed.  Just like real work then!

This morning she gets an extra half hour in bed as Industry day starts later than normal.  And she gets to be home by lunch-time.  Anyone for an ‘Industry half day’?

She has been told that she needs to behave in a ‘business like manner’.  I have force fed her on ‘The Apprentice’ and ‘Dragons Den’, with a smattering of ‘Secret Millionaire’, ‘Last Millionaire Standing’ .  To leanr what ‘business like behaviour’ means.

I have taught her some of the best business cliches.

Last night I picked up a new one – “I can taste success in my spit“.  Some last minute cramming should get that into her vocabulary for the day.  Screw – ‘winning friends and influencing people’. Bah!

  • Backstab
  • Blameshift
  • Slip under the radar
  • Avoid failure (“losses are inconcievable” – Alan Sugar),
  • Eschew creativity (we will serve canapes in togas!),
  • Look for suckers to fleece with a hit and run operation (start at £60 a head and drop to £15 without changing the service specification).
  • Wrap honesty and dishonesty under a shield of rudeness.
  • look out for number one – exploit the weak and the poor – this IS the real world – learn the rules and play by them – HARD

Oh yes.  Industry day.

We enterprise educators can be proud!

Find Their Enterprising Soul

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Enterprise is not the same as entrepreneurship.

Being enterprising has little to do with starting businesses.

Enterprise is ALL about:

  • recognising how things are,
  • recognising how you would prefer them to be
  • having the self confidence, ideas, plans and taking action that helps to narrow the gap.

If we start from this premise we will find that we can engage far more people in learning the skills of enterprise than if we start with the tired old ‘Have you got  a great business idea?‘ line.

We enterprise professionals might even find that we get taken seriously by educators and community activists.  We might even find that we have something really powerful to offer to the social and economic development of communities.

And if we engage  people in ‘finding their enterprising soul’ then there is a good chance that some of them will go on to start businesses and social enterprises as they start to exercise their enterprise muscles.

Sounds exciting?  Then PLEASE leave a comment, get touch and ask others to the same.

Let’s reclaim enterprise from the ‘men in suits’.

Unlocking the Talent

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Just re-read the Unlocking the Talent paper from HMG March 2008.

Here are some of the bits that have stuck with me.

This is a government committed to unlocking the talents, not of some of the people, but of all of the people. We want to see every region, city, town and neighbourhood do well, not just the few. Our national prosperity and competitiveness depend on our ability to tap into the creativity, energy, ingenuity and skills of the British people.

Well yes – but we have got more prosperous over the last 30 years but much less happy.  The drivers for this are not purely economic…

We need to unlock the talents of the British people, so that each of us may rise to our full potential, for the benefit of all of us.

But this is about more than individual fulfilment and success – it is about our place in the new world developing around us. Britain can no longer be a country held back by disadvantage and unfairness, but instead be a nation firing on all cylinders, and ready to embrace the future. With the rise of the economies of China and India, we need to unlock British talent so we can be competitive in this rapidly changing global economy.

Ditto comments above – this is not all about global competitiveness and ‘laggards’ holding us back.  The rationale for fulfilling potential is not about prosperity – it is about humanity, becoming, identity etc.

Government at all levels must be focused, imaginative and courageous to create opportunities for people to flourish. A key element of this is to forge more influence, control and ownership by local people of local services such as employment, health, education and transport.

To tap into the talents of all of the people, not merely the few, we need to involve people actively in:

  • improving deprived areas through regeneration and promoting work and enterprise
  • encouraging active citizenship, and reviving civic society and local democracy
  • improving local public services by involving local users and consumers; and
  • strengthening local accountability.

Community empowerment is the process of enabling people to shape and choose the services they use on a personal basis, so that they can influence the way those services are delivered. It is often used in the same context as community engagement, which refers to the practical techniques of involving local people in local decisions and especially reaching out to those who feel distanced from public decisions.

Interesting that this empowerment stuff is only targeted at ‘deprived areas’.  Strikes me that doing this in some of the more affluent communities could produce remarkable results too.  This is about fulfilling human potential – everywhere.

Promoting work and enterprise and strengthening the economic base of an area – and so connecting the supply and demand sides for labour – will be central to reversing decline.

Yawn…..This is not about providing employment fodder…..

Effective regeneration:

  • relies absolutely on the active participation and engagement of local people and communities, and not on just the articulate and organised, but on the broad majority of residents and groups traditionally excluded from consultation exercises
  • creates lasting solutions by giving local people the power to control their destinies, create enterprises, channel investment and income, and to involve local people in social enterprises, mutuals, and co-operative ventures
  • tackles the underlying causes, rather than the symptoms of decline. Regeneration strategies will need to tackle market failures that act as barriers to economic growth and employment as a means to reversing decline. Evidence shows that those in employment are happier, healthier, and less likely to be involved in crime; conversely poor health can prevent people getting into work
  • targets investment at the appropriate spatial level, with effective co-ordination between neighbourhood, local, sub-regional and regional levels, as well as between national agencies
  • takes account of the fact that successful regeneration will require private sector investment, for example in delivering new homes and in creating jobs.