{"id":764,"date":"2009-06-12T09:55:06","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T09:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=764"},"modified":"2009-06-12T09:55:06","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T09:55:06","slug":"never-discourage-anyone-but-dont-motivate-them-either","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2009\/06\/12\/never-discourage-anyone-but-dont-motivate-them-either\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Discourage Anyone…But Don’t Motivate Them Either"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never discourage anyone … who continually makes progress, no matter how slow. – Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Never.\u00a0 NEVER!\u00a0 NEVER!<\/p>\n

I wish the judges of enterprise competitions would understand the importance of this.<\/p>\n

At the grand finals of a recent dragon’s den type event (which included the usual cocktail of local business people, ‘would have been’ apprentices and celebrity millionaires on the judging panel) 6 finalists were asked to pitch their ideas.<\/p>\n

The setting was the enormous stage in the Main Hall of a local University.\u00a0 Powerpoint, radio mics, lapel mics, comperes.\u00a0 It had the lot.<\/p>\n

The audience?\u00a0 A couple of hundred family and friends, enterprise professionals and housing types.\u00a0 Some of the finalists took to this platform like a duck to water.\u00a0 For others it was more like lambs to the slaughter.\u00a0 I suspect for none of them was this a situation that could REALLY be justified as a legitimate and essential part of their ‘enterprise education’.\u00a0 For most it was certainly not timely.<\/p>\n

The task?\u00a0 Deliver a 6 minute pitch about your business\/start up idea and then face 6 minutes of questionning, while dealing with problems with both sound and AV systems of farcical proportions.\u00a0 These were so acute I began to think they were deliberatley staged to test participants’ ability to think on their feet.\u00a0 I am still not sure if the computer maintenance business sabotaged their own powerpoint to make some sort of point?<\/p>\n

And the judges seemed to have available to them one of two responses.\u00a0 The first were variations of\u00a0 ‘You have something’<\/em>, ‘You will make this work’<\/em>, ‘Whatever you try you will find a way’<\/em>.\u00a0 At least one of the judges seemed to be able form this response based on just what people looked like!<\/p>\n

The second was ‘You have got a problem’<\/em>, ‘You have got nothing’<\/em>, ‘It is terribly confused’<\/em>, ‘Your name doesn’t work’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It is hard to know which of these is responses is more dangerous.<\/p>\n

I am sure the event and the competition that led upto it was a great success for funders.\u00a0 Lots of PR, a big dinner etc.\u00a0 But can we really say this is community engagement in enterprise?<\/p>\n

I suspect that some of the competitors found the whole process deeply discouraging.<\/p>\n

Interestingly the winner and runner up were both graduates.\u00a0 Another wonderful example of enterprise skimming?<\/p>\n

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