Intrapreneurship, Positive Social Change and Social Entrepreneurship - more inclusive skill building invitations on campuses?

Who can be entrepreneurial?  WE can.

Yes, I just published a little writing about entrepreneurship and a common rebuttal within higher education is, "Why are we involved in this entrepreneurship fad - sure, lots of people say they want to have their own business, but do you know how few people are actually "real" entrepreneurs responsible for significant job creation?"

When some people think of entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurial individuals, only legends like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg come to mind, but ...

1. Do small businesses and large organizations need people who are capable of solving yet-to-be-solved-problems and/or creating yet-to-be-created-solutions?  Intrapreneurship
2. Have we solved all of the humanitarian issues that matter to us?  Positive Social Change
3. What do you think of generous people who start organizations contributing to individuals, groups and/or society going beyond profit motives?  Social Entrepreneurship

For those who are unmoved by discussions of entrepreneurship or see that as a topic limited to business departments, perhaps intrapreneurship, positive social change and social entrepreneurship invite more participation in developing the entrepreneurial skills of students and creating more entrepreneurial practices in college systems?

Skills and traits associated with entrepreneurship are transferrable and valuable in a variety of contexts.  

You can easily find a plethora of popular and scholarly lists of entrepreneurial traits and skills.  For example, according to a 1/6/16 article published by Inc. (link below), the five most important skills for an entrepreneur are:  sales, planning, communication, customer focus and curiosity.  An 11/26/13 article published by Forbes (link below) asserted the following "top skills" for entrepreneurs:  resiliency, focus, investment for the long term, finding/managing people, selling, learning, self-reflection and self-reliance. 

An article by David Siefert, of Sinclair Community College, available on the NACCE website (link below) lists the following 25 traits associated with entrepreneurs and I agree with him that the entrepreneur within each of us can be awakened ... this is an interdisciplinary opportunity for higher education to prepare our students, the workforce, for success in an ever-changing global economy:

 

1. Achievement Orientated

2. Ambitious

3. Business Acumen

4. Communicator (clear thinker and communicator)

5. Competitive

6. Creative

7. Critical Thinker

8. Customer Oriented

9. Decisive

10. Enthusiastic

11. Flexible

12. Focused (able to)

13. Goal Oriented

14. Implementer

15. Independent

16. Innovative

17. Learner (Continuous learning and experimenter)

18. Opportunistic

19. Passionate

20. Persistent

21. Problem Solver

22. Risk Taker (calculated)

23. Self-Confident

24. Self-Disciplined

25. Strategic Thinker

 

 

Who can be entrepreneurial?  WE can.

 

David Siefert article available at NACCE:
http://www.nacce.com/news/35132/

Inc Article:
http://www.inc.com/murray-newlands/5-most-important-business-skills-every-entrepreneur-must-have.html

Forbes Article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/aileron/2013/11/26/the-top-skills-every-entrepreneur-needs/

Why not straight to entrepreneur?

When I think of higher education conversations about infusing entrepreneurship into the system, I think of three related continuums.  1) From creator to entrepreneur for students and 2) From teacher centered to student centered models of teaching and learning for faculty and 3) From bureaucracy to entrepreneurship for organizations.  I'm not usually a fan of linear models, but I think these linear continuums are illustrative as we work toward implementing meaningful entrepreneurship initiatives.   

A student continuum

It's hard to change and move along a continuum that involves well established mindsets and behaviors.  One way to nudge progress is to take steps in the right direction without being overwhelmed by how far we still have to go.  So, for example with students, rather than beginning with, "what kind of start up do you have planned?", we might begin with "what creative endeavor would you like to experience?" and this could take place in a class representing any discipline.  In asking students what they are good at during the first week of classes, I have found that many students are at a loss.  A good starting place on this student continuum is to help students see what they are capable of creating and remind them that being a creative person is not limited to being skilled in the arts.

A faculty continuum

As I think of my students' future careers, I want to be part of creating an entrepreneurial context so that my classes offer students learning experiences without limits - studio or incubator type experiences that are facilitated but not controlled by me as the teacher.  I'll call this "taking the top off the syllabus."  I can get students to check the boxes of my stale teacher centered assignments and earn an "A" for convergent thinking about course content, but what if they engage in divergent thinking and design part of their learning experience that represents their own goals?

While I'm part of teams that want to produce and support entrepreneurs (and I do, too!), I believe all of our students will be more marketable (e.g., intrapreneurs) and have a better chance of directing their lives if we reduce (not eliminate) our passive learning models and increase active learning that builds students' identity around their skills and awareness of their potential role in their success while increasing the likelihood that we capture their attention and intrinsic motivation leading to their personal accomplishments of meaningful goals.  For example, I have students who wrote and performed a play about gender for a psychology and gender class where participants clearly felt the creative endeavor was a meaningful achievement.  The students demonstrated a variety of academic and entrepreneurial skills as they explored and debated course content.  This could be contrasted with more typical successes you hear on campuses such as, "Thank God, I got a 91% on my multiple-choice test."

An organizational continuum

We may work in a largely bureaucratic context (it's safe and predictable compared to working for a start up organization), but that does not keep us from offering interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary opportunities so that our students, and our colleges, can move on a continuum toward more entrepreneurial thinking and behavior.  In other words, before we open an incubator or find the next 21 year old who is going to sell their new technology for 6 billion dollars, why not offer all of our students a chance to take a step along the continuum - even if they aren't signed up for business classes?  This is a first step, and a very easy step, for colleges to become more entrepreneurial because our students are likely to help us expand our ideas of what really is possible when we give them these opportunities.  

So, why not straight to entrepreneur?

Some will say that entrepreneurs are born, not made.  If so, then we should encourage these genetically blessed individuals to skip school and not waste time and investment dollars on our classes - with their entrepreneurial thinking and behaviors they can get what they need without us.  But, if higher education has a role in the teaching and learning of entrepreneurial thinking and behavior, then we should be prepared for students to come to us anywhere along the relevant continuums.  And, if we are good at what we do, then we can be part of helping today's creators become tomorrow's entrepreneurs.

Seed Spot - East & West Creativity and Social Entrepreneurship

Earlier this week, my culture class discussed the assertion that Western creativity might be more about novelty and breakthrough ideas while Eastern creativity may be better described as representing incremental change and usefulness.  Today I felt like I got to watch (and feel part of) East meets West creativity through the organizational pitches at Seed Spot - a social entrepreneurship incubator in Phoenix.  I was in a culture of innovation.

There was novelty, usefulness, incremental change and breakthrough thinking present at Seed Spot.  It reminded me that if I find myself sitting within the oppression of conformity and conventional wisdom, I can look to the east, west, north or south and choose to change my environment ... find and/or create contexts that support your dreams and success!

Seed Spot
2828 N Central Ave
Phoenix AZ
* Friday pitches are 11-1 (RSVP so they order enough pizza)
** May 19th is Demo Day at the Herberger Theater - great event and tickets are available now!
https://www.facebook.com/SEEDspot


PS - Dear Students of Psychology - Did you notice that "find and/or create contexts that support your dreams and success" can be considered a combination of a cognitive and behavioral approach to creating change - addressing the fourth goal of psychology?

Considering Kindness: An Elegant Approach

Oxford Dictionaries defines elegance as "the quality of being graceful and stylish in appearance or manner."  In Ian Glynn's book, Elegance in Science: The Beauty of Simplicity, Glynn asserts that in addition to simplicity, elegance involves ingeniousness, conciseness and persuasiveness.  

Today a simple thought ... consider kindness.  Regardless of our choice of definitions, kindness is elegant.

Suggested Reading to support the case for Kindness as Elegance

• Baker, W.F., & O'Malley, M. (2008). Leading with kindness: How good people consistently get superior results. New York: Amacom.

The Kauffman Foundation and A Look at Today's Entrepreneurs ...

After serving in the Navy during World War II, Ewing Marion Kauffman started his career as a pharmaceutical salesperson before founding his own pharmaceutical company in his basement.  His company, Marion Laboratories, grew to become a global healthcare company until he sold it to Merrell Dow in 1989.  In addition to founding and growing a pharmaceutical company, Kauffman bought the Royals and moved them to his hometown of Kansas City.  

Through Kauffman's generosity and commitment to education & entrepreneurship, the Kauffman Foundation began its work.  The vision of the foundation is: a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens contributing to the improvement of their communities.  

The Kauffman Foundation website offers a variety of information about entrepreneurship - I thought I would offer it as a resource and direct you to a couple of related links.  The first link below will take you to the Kauffman Foundation website and a quick & entertaining look at a description of today's entrepreneurs from Amy Wilkinson, author of The Creator's Code. The second link will take you to Amy's Youtube video that shares some entrepreneurial wisdom from the interviews she conducted that led to her book:  

Link 1
http://www.kauffman.org/multimedia/sketchbook/kauffman-sketchbook-cracking-the-code


Link 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6R3kNn461Xs

This information is hot off the press ... see Kauffman's "Newsroom" from this week! As you visit the Kauffman website and watch Amy's videos, are you imagining yourself as an entrenpreneur?   

Blooming in Higher Education

It has been quite some time since I have written anything on my blog.  Because I am returning from a long absence, I will share something I have been playing with for quite some time that helps describe where my current passion is with regard to college students ... Bloom's Taxonomy.  If any of my current students are reading this, they may be sighing, "oh no, not Bloom's Taxonomy again!"

But, it takes many impressions to close a sale and we understand concepts intellectually before we can apply them to our daily lives, so I'm still promoting Bloom:

The theory was born of educational psychology in the 1940s and 1950s, but we are still trying to effectively live the wisdom of Bloom's Taxonomy in higher education today.  Since the theory's pivotal assertion in 1956, it has gone through modifications and, as with virtually all theories, there are ongoing critiques of its validity.  I have included a picture of the modification I discuss most often with my students where create inhabits the top spot.  A key element of my passion is to assist students with their own experiences of creating.

This topic relates to a key concern I have within higher education today.  I believe that many academics were indoctrinated into a system of remembering which is causing a cultural block to offering students transformational educational experiences.  If we ask students to conform to a daily droning of lectures and algorithmic assignments where they sit well controlled, waiting to be spoon fed and hand held toward enlightenment, it should not surprise us that employers today are finding recent college graduates passive and under-prepared. How can we expect to send creators and innovators into the workforce if we just ask students to conform and remember their way through college?  And, if we are not facilitating the development of intrapreneurs, how can we even have a chance at protecting or expanding a culture of American entrepreneurship?

I am confident that students are getting plenty of information to remember as they complete coursework at American community colleges and universities.  I also know that students on every college campus are directly, and indirectly, offered opportunities to build skills and create yet many students are participating in college just hoping to check the required boxes and get their diploma without putting much thought into how that diploma will help them achieve their life aspirations.  

Two hopes for "blooming" with creativity in Higher Education:  

1)  We, who are employed in higher education, will keep challenging traditional paradigms so that we can innovate and continue to improve the value of higher education for students who are trusting us to prepare them for post-graduation life in a dynamic world that continues to unfold.

2)  Students will not accept the status quo and will actively seek value - becoming aware of what they want and need ... even creating their own transformational college experiences when we fall short as well intentioned individuals and members of well established cultures/systems.

Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and ... CREATE !  

Are you buying Bloom yet?

Customer Service: No Problem or My Pleasure?

Years ago when my former college roommate and lifelong friend, Valerie, worked for the Ritz Carlton she taught me about their customer service response of "my pleasure."  While responding to a thank you with "no problem" is socially acceptable in casual conversation, would you rather have someone say its not a problem to help you or that it is a pleasure to help you?

Chick-Filet has adopted the "my pleasure" response in their customer service training and I've had the pleasure of visiting the 83rd Avenue and Bell Road location in Peoria, Arizona several times within the last month.  It seems that my daughter is craving their chicken nuggets drenched in Chick-Filet sauce.

In the spirit of "catching someone doing something right", on our most recent visit I sat at our table and watched the front counter for several minutes.  While it was just another night at Chick-Filet, their customer service was so outstanding they could have made a customer service training video with the interactions taking place.  It wasn't just one person serving customers at the counter who demonstrated excellence, it was all three. This is the type of scene that makes me want to meet the leaders of the organization and talk with employees about their experience of working within this environment.  How would they describe the secrets to their success?

If we all took care of each other and showed our family members, constituents and customers it is "our pleasure" to serve them, how might it help our families, communities and businesses thrive?