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Are You Biased Towards the Present?

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A paper published by the UK Government’s Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology provides a useful reminder that people do not always/often make rational decisions, and that one of the reasons for the irrationality is a bias for the present.

In short this means that we put off or never do things that are in our own best interest simply because we see the pay-off being to far away in the future.  Hence we stay fat and smoke – because any benefits of giving up won’t be experienced for ages.

It transpires that the poorer you are the more likely you are to show this bias for the present over the future.

This bias would seem to be important for enterprise professionals to :

  • recognise,
  • understand and
  • overcome

Any tips you want to share for helping cleints overcome their bias towards the present?

You can read the full OST paper on Delaying Gratification here.

Community Inspired Regeneration: BURA Awards

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The Chair of the Judging Panel Dan Sequerra was clear that “real regeneration comes through people living in communities” and that “people, not buildings, should be recognised”. Whilst there is no guarantee that any specific community project will succeed in the long term, supporting innovative community projects is what will make a difference; “…we should risk investing in our communities,” he said.

Read more here .

Please don’t build with bricks and mortar or steel and glass.

Invest in people.

Social Capital Works!

“…we should risk investing in our communities,”

Fascinating and Frightening in Equal Measures?

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Kanya King is a remarkable woman.  More precisely she is a very unremarkable woman with a remarkable story.  We all have the potential to do remarkable things.  She is best known for re-mortgaging her house to see her dream – The MOBO Awards – become a reality.

She is passionate about giving young people the opportunity to experience enterprise.   To inspire a new generation of business entrepreneurs.

To further this passion she has teamed up with Thomson Local – the database people – to challenge school children (16+) to develop business ideas that will benefit their local community.

The best will secure a  bursary of £100 and mentoring from a ‘business hero’.

Thomson will also build them a web site – apparently whether their business idea demands one – or not.  It might have been more interesting if Thomson helped them to develop a strategy to get to market.  The default position of ‘I need a website’ is not always the best one.

The overall competition winners will win a ‘money can’t buy prize’.  VIP experience at the next MOBOs perhaps?

I love the fact that this kind of stuff happens.  That people care about enterprise.

But I worry too;

  • I worry that they cite research (unreferenced) suggesting that 81% of British children want to run their own business – can this be true?  On what basis has this want developed?
  • I worry that combining the forces of a for profit like Thomson with a business planning competition will further distort what educationalists percieve enterprise education to be all about.
  • I worry that the emphasis on ‘pitching your ideas’ – letting others attach their valuation to your business dream – will emphasise an external locus of control that is unhelpful to the entrepreneur.
  • I worry that asking young people to focus on making things better in their community – perhaps before they have learned how to make things better for themselves might inculcate lessons of selflessness that could be unhelpful.
  • I worry that this type of scheme will attract those who are already destined for an enterprising future and turn off those who think that school based competitions are uncool and that business is for geeks.
  • I worry about the language of supplying ‘business hero’ mentors.
  • I worry about the volume of work that such projects place on students and their teachers at a really busy time in the their school life.
  • I worry about further strengthening the perception that enterprise = business and more teachers resisting the enterprise agenda as a capitalist plot to brainwash young people.
  • I worry about the fact that the website that is the home of the competition appears to have no RSS feed.  I am invited to ‘check back’ for updates!  As if web 2.0 had not happened!!

So I have signed up to offer to be a business hero – notwithstanding considerable reservations.

Let’s see where this takes us!

Is It Cuckoo Time Yet?

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cuckoo

Is it weird how we hate magpies but love the first cuckoo of Spring?  Perhaps it is because the cuckoo perpetrates evil out of sight, all the time making re-assuring calls, while the magpies are just so brazen in their squawking murder and destruction.

In my experience many enterprise capital investment projects are a lot like cuckoos.  Beautiful eggs are laid in the carefully constructed nests of loving parents.  Shiny new enterprise centres owned and managed by the community for the community.

But it soon becomes apparent that these fledglings have tremendous appetites for cash.  That two person reception desk costs a lot to staff.  Then we have hosts, caretakers and security to pay for.  There are rates, insurances, fuel bills and marketing costs.

There are the costs of low occupancy and repairs.

Suddenly the loving parents are run ragged just trying to get enough cash to keep the beast alive.  “Forget the social purpose – we just have to pay the bills.”

The revenue streams that were written into the business plan from leases on community cafes and gyms, from rent paying tenants and the conference trade just don’t materialise as forecast.

Equipment gets stolen or broken and there is just not the cash to replace it.  The shine starts to come off.

Money that could be spent elsewhere gets gobbled up by a project that is “too politically important, too symbolic”, to be allowed to fail.  Other projects die so that the ‘special one’ can survive for another year.

And what of the original cuckoo – the funders that helped lay the egg?  “Well you must understand – there is only so much we can do. The ‘business plan’ assured us it would be viable by now.  No we can’t offer any more funding.  Perhaps it can be sold?”

Now ALL fledglings go through periods when they cause their parents grief.

  • Will this ugly duckling ever become a beautiful swan?
  • Will it survive its maiden flight?
  • Will it ever learn how to sustain itself without becoming  a capricious scavenger like the magpie?

The sad truth is that some of them never do.

Because from the very beginning they were cuckoos.

The cuckoo she’s a pretty bird
She sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings
And tells us no lies

She sucks all sweet flowers
To make her voice clear
She never sings cuckoo
Till summer is near

She flies the hills over
She flies the world about
She flies back to the mountain
She mourns for her love

The cuckoo she’s a pretty bird
She sings as she flies
She brings us glad tidings
And tells us no lies

The Problem is not the People

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Most of our attempts to develop an enterprise culture are all about fixing individuals.  Giving them support (because they are not strong enough), providing them with advice (because they are not clever enough) etc.  It is all about fixing faults.

Very few attempts take seriously the social context in which we expect enterprise to develop.  Enterprise is a social phenomena- a product of community and relationships – it is not about fixing individuals.

It is about building communities.