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Teaching Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (or any other Significant Learning)

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When I did my teacher training back in 1986 I remember having my world rocked by a book called ‘Teaching as a Subversive Activity’ by Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner.   They make reference to a piece by Carl Rogers in ‘On Becoming a Person’.

“Rogers concludes:

  1. My experience has been that I cannot teach another person how to teach.
  2. It seems to me that anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential, and has little or no significant impact on behavior.
  3. I realize increasingly that I am only interested in learnings which significantly influence behavior
  4. I have come to feel that the only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self appropriated learning.
  5. Such self-discovered, truth that has been personally appropriated and assimilated in experience, cannot be directly communicated to another.
  6. As a consequence I have realised that I have lost interest in being a teacher

Rogers goes on to state that the outcomes of trying to teach are either unimportant or hurtful and that he is only interested in being a learner.  Some of our students react to this statement snidely, claiming that Rogers feels this way because he is a bad teacher.  Honest, but bad.  Others seem deeply disturbed by it and seek clarification on what Rogers means by ‘significant learning’.  We then produce Roger’s definition of the term, which is stated in the form of specific behaviours.  They include:

The person comes to see himself differently.

He accepts himself and his feelings more fully.

He becomes more self-confident and self directing.

He becomes more the person he would like to be.

He becomes more flexible, less rigid in his perceptions.

He adopts more realistic goals for himself.

He behaves in a more mature fashion.

He becomes more open to the evidence, both of what is going on outside of himself and what is going on inside of himself.”

Powerful stuff.  What Rogers seems to be saying is that what we can teach, in the traditional sense is more or less trivial.  However what the student can learn from the process is potentially transformational.

I think Rogers was onto something here, something that is particularlypowerful for those of us charges with ‘teaching enterprise’.  If we really want to develop more enterprising students then perhaps we should focus less on classes about marketing, branding, cash flow and taxation and more on providing and reviewing experiences that are designed to develop ‘Significant Learning’.

Because Rogers’ definition of  ‘Significant Learning’  looks a lot like ‘more enterprising’ to me. 

Thoughts?

The Information Problem…

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Todd Hannula has blogged about the possibility of an open source information platform for social entrepreneurs.  He posits that such a platform might help more social entrepreneurs get the information that they need at the right time.  Sounds like the kind of idea that the public purse might get interested in investing in.

But does it stack up?

  • Is the Internet not an open source information platform?
  • Is it possible to provide any more information within a few clicks?
  • Is the supply side of business support not already rammed full to the gunnels with information and workshops?

I think that the answer to the information question lies in an exploration of the ‘demand side’  for information rather than thinking about how we can develop the information ‘supply side’.

If entrepreneurs REALLY want to succeed (rather than look and feel good for a while) they should get the right team in place before they start.  A team that is as obsessed about financial management and marketing and sales as it is about saving the world.  With a balanced team seeking information and ‘better practice’ in each of these domains they are much less likely to fail as a business and the demand side of the information market place will be more robust.

So let’s have less encouragement to individual entrepreneurs to change the world single handed and more encouragement to them to build powerful and balanced teams.

Todd suggests that the realisation for most social entrepreneurs that they are ‘not very good’ at business comes ‘just too late’.  This is an unpalatable (and therefore largely unspoken) truth for nearly all entrepreneurs – social or otherwise.

They nearly all get a massive shock at some point.

  • They run out of money.
  • Customers get angry.
  • Products and services don’t work as well as was planned.

The question is how to respond?

  • Are they prepared for the shock?
  • Did they know it was likely to come along?
  • Do they have the networks and resources to work through the shock and to learn from it?
  • Or do they bail out thinking – ‘I am not cut out for this’?

How do ‘support agencies’ make sure that they are ready to face these traumas when they almost inevitably come?

Because the painful traumas of business start-up might discourage some people from starting, they are often swept under the carpet.

We might use some euphemism, like ‘You need to do a little more work on your business plan’, but we rarely help the client to explore the unvarnished truth; No matter how much planning they do they will never be ready.  There will be nasty and uncomfortable surprises.  It is the ability to deal with these shocks and their ramifications that will separate the entrepreneurs from the wannabes.

I choose to consistently focus clients on the possible downsides of their business as much as on the upsides.  I usually beg them to find some less risky way of following their dream other than starting their own business.  I make them explore the things that might go wrong – and of the devastating impact that they could have on finances, relationships and reputations.

People say to me ‘Mike, they will never start a business if you keep pointing out all of the downsides…’

Well I make no apologies.

If someone is put off starting a business by a good exploration of the possible downsides then they are probably making exactly the right decision.

It is not more businesses that we need, but better businesses.  Businesses that have a pragmatic understanding of the risks that they face (bankruptcy, debt, damaged relationships etc) – and are still prepared to take them.  Businesses whose antennae are tuned to both problems and opportunities.  You can’t stop a business like this from avidly consuming information.  They seek it out.  They devour it.  Even if it is hard to find or ambiguous.

Instead we often find ourselves trying to resource dozens of ‘wannabe’ hopefuls buoyed up by a raft of interventions to promote enterprise on a sea of support agencies whose criteria for success is based on counting start-ups rather than survival rates.  And then we have to find ways to spoon feed them information like medicine that might keep their business off the rocks – and we wonder if there is not some better way of shaping the information supply side.

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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!

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

A Truth About Enterprise and Entrepreneurship?

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So here is my contribution to Enterprise Week.

DO NOT START UP YOUR OWN BUSINESS – UNLESS YOU HAVE TO.

Not the message that is usually put out, especially by national, regional and local government, but after 25 years of running and supporting small businesses, that is my best advice.  Don’t do it – unless you have to. Unless of course you have money to burn.

Because the truth is that small business is a really hard game.  You have to provide a great product or service – and one miscalculation, or one bad debt, can put you out of the game and into the bankruptcy courts. Few people succeed in business the first time they try.

It takes resilience, persistence, self confidence and courage.

The chances of success are slim and the levels of commitment and hard work required are, in most cases, enormous.

Your business will almost certainly steal you away from friends and family at least for the first few years, and many successful entrepreneurs talk about how much their business has cost them in terms of their relationships and health, as well as cash.

This is the reality of entrepreneurship that needs to be taught.  (Policy makers please take note.  If we were this honest about the nature of entrepreneurship we might not get as many people involved in enterprise week – but a far higher percentage that did get involved would go on to be successful entrepreneurs.)

Those that ‘have to’ start a business fall into two very different camps.  The first ‘have to’ because they have no other economic option for survival.  Enterprise is their ONLY option.  It is the only way they can make a living.  For those whom enterprise is a forced choice the outcome is rarely great.

The second group ‘have to’ because it is the only way that they can have the freedom to do what they have to do, to be the person that they have to be and provide the products and services that they really have to provide.  Enterprise provides them with a way of becoming the person that they feel they have to be.  It is about their own identity as a human being.

So the rallying call for enterprise week should be,

‘DO NOT DO IT- UNLESS YOU HAVE TO!

Unless it is the only way for you to become the person that you really want to be’.

And if we invested our energy into helping people to really understand who or what they want to become we might find that all of a sudden ‘enterprise’ starts to look after itself.

Of course for those that ‘have to’ enterprise can be a wonderfully powerful vehicle to achieve remarkable results.  I am not anti enterprise – quite the opposite.  I just wish we could present it honestly as the double edged sword that it truly is.