enterprise education

Stating the Bleedin’ Obvious…(unless you are policy wonk or their lackey…)

July 5, 2011 by admin

Not every small business or micro-enterprise owner needs a mentor.
Mentoring is NOT the only helping relationship.
Good mentors are rarely trained in ‘mentoring’, nor are they picked from a register.
Successful mentors are usually selected from within the pre-existing network of the mentee. They are spotted and developed as someone from whom the mentee really wants to learn.
Mentoring is an intermittent rather than a continuous relationship.
Access to good mentors is usually restricted and respectful rather than a tradeable commodity.
The success of the mentorship is usually down to the mentee rather than the mentor. Good mentees know how to choose a mentor and manage the relationship with them to get the learning and the introductions that they need.
The commoditisation of mentoring is not a good thing.
Mentors are not coaches, advisers, consultants, counsellors or facilitators. People looking to learn and develop themselves and/or their organisations should think carefully about the kind of ‘help’ they need.
We should help people explore what they want to learn and how they are going to learn it – rather than prescribe yet another ‘cure-all’ that happens to be ‘affordable’.
We should focus our efforts on building social learning contexts and helping people manage their learning processes rather than setting up registers and schemes.
If the national association of image consultants got their lobbying act together I am sure we might all end up being encouraged to use a national register of image consultants in pursuit of GDP.

If you are interested in implementing ill thought through policy and exploiting it as way to make a few bob please do not get in touch. If on the other you are serious about building a context in which people can really learn then I would love to hear from you.

Just leave a comment below.

Towards the Enterprising Community

May 20, 2011 by admin

No-one can agree on a community. Is it defined by political geography? Physical geography? Economic geography? Interest, practice, culture? So how do we use such an elusive, slippery yet, for some of us, attractive and powerful concept?

Well, personally I have given up worrying about how ‘communities’ are defined by outsiders (politicians, funders, missionaries of various kinds, what Paul Theroux calls the Dark Angels of Virtue). The only thing that matters for me is the individual, or the usually small group sat in front of me, and their perception of their community, defined their way. Any other attempt to work with the concept for me is just hot air. We all define community personally and, very probably, uniquely.

But that does not make the concept useless. Quite the opposite.

I spend a lot of time helping people to look at the relationships and contexts that they are a part of and the extent to which they help or hinder them to become the kind of person that they wish to become, accomplishing the things that they most wish to accomplish. And I will spend time working with them on how they can get more of the support that they need from their ‘community’. I spend a lot of time and energy building networks of people who just love to ‘help’. Many of these networks are a blend of face to face and online – mediated through blogs and social networks as well as through a range of meetings, gatherings and parties. And I try to connect individuals from one network into individuals from another, so that help can start to flow across and between different groups.

So first we have to find self interest. That which really matters personally. That which shapes who we are. That on which our identity is based and through which it can be constructively shaped.

Then we have to find common cause and build networks and relationships where we can successfully negotiate our self interest. We then forge connections between these networks to build a diverse, resourceful ‘community’ of individuals who are helping and being helped as part of their daily practice. Surely this puts us firmly on the trail of the enterprising community?

And for great things to happen people have to learn to help each other. The stereotype of the selfish backstabbing ‘Apprentice’ does not thrive in an enterprising community – though they may do well in The City. Successful citizens in the enterprising community learn to associate, collaborate, cooperate and mutualise. To find those with whom there is a common cause. And they understand that giving hep to others is as important as getting help themselves. The have theGo-Giver mindset and they express it through their actions. They live it.

So, as those who attended Enterprising Community: Big Conversation explored, enterprising community is not a place or a neighbourhood but a philosophy, that can be summed up as ‘Concentrate on yourself and helping your neighbour’.

And where does entrepreneurship fit into this practice? How does this help the start up rate? Well the more powerful and enterprising individuals we have, embedded in enterprising communities the more great start-ups we will have, borne into a context where they may well enjoy the support of a wide web of community. We are truly building a community where enterprise and entrepreneurship may thrive.

Breaking the Stranglehold on Enterprise

May 9, 2011 by admin

For a few years now I seem to have been living in Groundhog Day. Not everyday, but enough to be disconcerting.

I will be chatting with an enterprise professional, perhaps a lecturer in a University, an enterprise coach in a ‘deprived’ community, a start-up business adviser or a bureaucrat managing an enterprise project. In our conversations about enterprise we will recognise how it is not all about business. How enterprise can be expressed in a seemingly infinite number of ways. Sure, for a significant and important minority, it is about commercial endeavour. Business, profit, and social impact in some combination. In order to express their enterprising soul a minority have to start a business.

But for the majority being enterprising, being proactive in pursuit of a better future, does not mean starting up a business. It may mean making a phone call, having a conversation, calling a meeting or writing a letter. Taking some action that increases agency and power in pursuing a preferred future. It may be taking the opportunity to reflect on ‘The direction in which progress lies‘, or ‘What are the next steps that I can take to make progress?‘ or ‘What options have I got?‘

We will reflect on how some of the most enterprising people we know may work in the Council, or the University, or organise festivals and campaigns in the community. That the enterprising soul finds its expressions in many forms and not just in entrepreneurship.

We will agree that the real point of leverage in our communities lies not in providing start-up advice with those who are already minded to start a business, although of course this IS important. The real leverage lies in helping more people to establish the direction in which progress lies for them and their loved ones and helping them to plan and execute actions designed to move them in that direction.

If we can significantly increase the stock of enterprising people then, as sure as eggs is eggs, we will also increase the stock of entrepreneurial people. And we will not lose so many who are completely turned off by enterprise because of the Gordon Gecko or Victorian perceptions of enterprise nurtured by the reality TV shows and newspaper headlines.

We will also increase the survival rate of new businesses as people make natural progress into entrepreneurship instead of being persuaded to start a business (‘all you need is the idea and the determination to succeed’) when they have not yet gained the real skills or capital that they will need to succeed.

In our conversations we will agree on these things. And then almost invariably they will head off to run another course on ‘Marketing and Sales’ or ‘Business Planning’ or to look at monitoring returns that count bums on seats and business start-up rates.

If ever there was an industry that needed to innovate and re-invent itself and its role in modern Britain it is the enterprise industry. If we really want to build a much more enterprising Britain then we need to break the stranglehold that the business start-up industry has on enterprise policy.

This might be just one of the ideas we can explore at Enterprising Communities: The Big Conversation in Leeds on May 19th.

Enterprising Communities: The Big Conversation

March 4, 2011 by admin

‘Enterprising Communities: The Big Conversation‘ will bring together policy makers and practitioners to explore the challenges of developing and sustaining enterprising communities.

Using ‘Open Space’ methodologies The Big Conversation will give you the chance to say what you need to say, exchange ideas with others and build your networks from across the UK.

Topics for exploration might include:

Enterprise – more than just business: enterprise for well being and community
The competent community: the role of peers in supporting enterprise
Fresh approaches to enterprise development: what could innovation in our industry look like?
Opportunities and threats to enterprising communities: what are they and how can we respond?
Enterprising communities: Do we know them when we see them?
Connecting communities: the role of enterprise in building bridges between and within communities
Enterprise and the economy: from enterprise to wealth creation.
Sharing interesting practice: a showcase for innovative approaches.
The Enterprising Campus: lessons for, and from, education
The Coaching Community: can a coaching culture drive community?
Is Capital still King?: the role of knowledge, social capital and finance in creating enterprising communities
Nurturing enterprise: the impact of social media

But this is your conference. Bring your own ideas for discussion. Perhaps even a short presentation.

Who Should Attend?

If you want to discuss and explore the challenges involved in creating and sustaining enterprising communities with your peers in a participative and creative environment then this event will be right for you.

Enterprising Communities: The Big Conversation is being organised by Mike Chitty with support from Leeds City Council.

Interested?

Find out and book your place here http://bigconversation.eventbrite.com

Dock Street Market – and the role of the Leeds communities

November 23, 2010 by admin

I went to a very wonderful opening for Dock Street Market last Friday. It used to be a decent enough shop that had many fans and reportedly turned over a million a year. But still it could not survive.

Now the shop has been taken over by a number of local artisan producers and entrepreneurs, all of whom offer a phenomenal product. We have fish and chips reinvented by the wonderful Fish &, excellent north Italian coffee and more from Bottega Milanese, superb breads from the Riverside Sourdough Bakery and more. The people behind these businesses are phenomenally hard working and focussed on quality, service and value. They are doing their bit to make the collaborative project a success.

But my interest is in the role of the rest of us. The fine citizens of Leeds. Of the 700 000 plus people that live in the city, my guess is that the vast majority will not even know that the Dock St Market exists. They are ‘strangers’ to the market. Perhaps 10 ooo or so are aware of the market and certainly a couple of hundred rocked up at the opening last week. These constitute ‘prospects’. People who know the market exists and may become customers.

But customers so far, by definition, are a smaller group. Having only just opened not many of us have had the chance to spend our cash in Dock Street Market yet….

A large part of the success of the market will depend on the rate at which strangers are turned in to prospects, prospects are turned into customers, and customers are turned into loyal supporters of the brand.

Historically this process of marketing and sales would be down to the entrepreneurs. This is their job. But I am interested in the role of the rest of us. Those who are already prospects and customers, and our ability to help in the sales and marketing process. Our power to influence others to check out and support the development of the great independent traders in Dock Street Market.

Because the ability of a community to support great business is perhaps as important in developing an enterprise culture as the development of the entrepreneur.

Social media has amplified the voice of the prospect and the customer. It can help to reach the strangers. As can word of mouth strategies based on good quality referrals and introductions.

So of course let us keep giving the entrepreneurs the training and skills that they need. But let us also consider how we can equip the rest of us to properly support businesses in our community.

Good luck to all behind the Dock St Market venture. And let’s see just how much the rest of us can do to really support the kind of independent, artisan based businesses that many of us say we want to see thriving in Leeds.

You can find Dock St just south of the river. It is well worth checking out!

More on Dock Street Market. And More…from Bronchia