Design thinking Leadership Sustainable
entrepreneurship Sustainable
The training package will be organised in Chapters and the contents will be accessible online according to a common organisation of the related visualisation based on:
- Hypertext describing the main concepts
- Supplementary links to images, videos and sources to in depth the main concepts
- Training scenarios / Lesson Plans being step-by-step guidelines and practical tips for an immediate application in the classroom of the skills acquired
The contents of the training package will be based on the entrecomp framework and on how to train VET students making full use of learners centred, problem based training approaches and interactive digital based methods on themes such as:
Chapter 1: The competences of entrecomp framework working on the ideas and opportunities, the resources, and going into action.
Chapter 2: Design thinking (to emphasise, to define, to bring the ideas in action, to prototype and to evaluate) using different approaches like the walt disney, 5 why, 635, Hemmingway notebook to define and create the business idea and tools like Sustainability canvas model, business plan, and post mortem to prototype and evaluate
Chapter 3: Leadership: using different approaches and methodologies to work positive intelligence and leadership skills.
The information and opinions set out in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the institutions and bodies of the European Union nor any person acting on their behalf can be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Chapters
01 02
EntreComp Framework The process of transformation from idea to reality
03
Leadership
Javi Indy
Jannoon028
EntreComp Framework
The competences of the EntreComp Framework: working on ideas and opportunities, resources and taking action.
The “EntreComp” framework, also known as the Entrepreneurship Competence Framework, is an initiative developed by the European Commission. It aims to promote entrepreneurship education and the development of entrepreneurial competences across Europe. The framework provides a common language and reference point for understanding and fostering entrepreneurial skills and attitudes. EntreComp consists of three interrelated competence areas and a set of 15 competences. Here are the three competence areas:
“Ideas and Opportunities” - This area focuses on recognizing and seizing opportunities, generating ideas, and developing entrepreneurial intentions. It involves skills such as creativity, opportunity identification, and risk-taking.
“Resources” - This area deals with gathering and managing resources necessary for entrepreneurial activities. It includes competences related to financial management, mobilizing resources, and networking.
“Into Action” - This area encompasses the skills required to turn ideas into action and manage entrepreneurial processes. It involves competences such as planning and management, perseverance, and learning from experience.
Each of these competence areas is further divided into five competences, resulting in a total of 15 competences. These competences provide a comprehensive overview of the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes that individuals need to succeed in various contexts.
The EntreComp framework serves as a guide for educators, policy-makers, and entrepreneurs to understand and develop entrepreneurial competences. It can be used to design entrepreneurship education programs, assess individual entrepreneurial capabilities, and foster an entrepreneurial mindset in different sectors and settings.
Entre Comp Entre Comp
Levels of proficiency
Spotting opportunities
Creativity
Ideas and opportunities
Vision
Resources
Valuing ideas
Learners" can find opportunities to generate value for others.
Learners can develop multiple ideas that create value for others.
Learners can imagine a desirable future.
Learners can understand and appreciate the value of ideas.
Ethical and sustainable thinking
Self-awareness and self-efficacy
Motivation and perseverance
Learners can recognise the impact of their choices and behaviours, both within the community and the environment.
Learners trust their own ability to generate value for others.
Learners want to follow their passion and create value for others.
Learners can recognise opportunities to address needs that have not been met.
Learners can test and refine ideas that create value for others.
Learners can build an inspiring vision that engages others.
Learners understand that ideas can have different types of value, which can be used in different ways.
Learners are driven by ethics and sustainability when making decisions.
Learners can make the most of their strengths and weaknesses.
Learners are willing to put effort and resources into following their passion and create value for others.
Learners can seize and shape opportunities to respond to challenges and create value for others.
Learners can transform ideas into solutions that create value for others.
Learners can use their vision to guide future. that engages others. strategic decision-making.
Learners can develop strategies to make the most of the value generated by ideas.
Learners act to make sure that their ethical and sustainability goals are met.
Learners can compensate for their weaknesses by teaming up with others and by further developing their strengths.
Learners can stay focused on their passion and keep creating value despite setbacks.
Mobilising resources
Learners can find and use resources responsibly.
Financial and economic literacy
MMobilising others
Learners can draw up the budget for a simple activity.
Learners can communicate their ideas clearly and with enthusiasm.
Learners can gather and manage different types of resources to create value for others.
Learners can find funding options and manage a budget for their value creating activity.
Learners can persuade, involve and inspire others in valuecreating activities.
Learners can define strategies to mobilise the resources they need to generate value for others.
Learners can make a plan for the financial sustainability of a valuecreating activity.
Learners can inspire others and get them on board for value-creating activities.
Taking the iniciative
Planning and management
Learners are willing to have a go at solving problems that affect their communities.
Learners can define the goals for a simple valuecreating activity.
Levels of proficiency
Area Competence Foundation Intermediate Advanced Into
Coping with uncertainty, ambiguity and risk
Working with others
Learning through experience
Learners are not afraid of making while trying new things.
Learners can work in a team to create value.
Learners can recognise what they have learnt through taking part in value-creating activities.
Learners can initiate value-creating activities.
Learners can create an action plan, which identifies the priorities and milestones to achieve their goals.
Learners can evaluate the benefits and risks of alternative options and make choices that reflect their preferences.
Learners can work together with a wide range of individuals and groups to create value.
Learners can reflect and judge their achievements and failures and learn from these.
Learners can look for opportunities to take the initiative to add or create value.
Learners can refine priorities and plans to adjust to changing circumstances.
Learners can weigh up risks and make decisions despite uncertainty and ambiguity.
Learners can build a team and networks based on the needs of their value-creating activity.
Learners can improve their abilities to create value by building on their previous experiences and interactions with others.
CHAPTER 2
THE TRANSFORMATIVE PROCESS FROM IDEA TO REALITY
02
INTRODUCTION: Hello again! What a journey so far, right? If you are reading this, it means you have already equipped yourself with the necessary competencies to embark on a journey that will highlight your potential and make you understand how to transform it into something valuable for your community. For this chapter, we will go together stepby-step from exploring ideas to making them happen. Are you up for the challenge?
For this process we will use one of the most favorite methods used by each entrepreneur…. Design Thinking Methodology. What is Design Thinking?
• A framework to innovate and think differently;
• Ideology: When solving problems pragmatically, multidisciplinary and with focus on the user, you achieve innovation;
• A Process: to solve complex problems and innovate supported by certain tools inspired from designers’ practice;
• A Practice: the activity of designing a solution/product/service by studying and learning from the experiences and practices of end-users and stakeholders, articulating problems and solving for them;
One of the most important skills an entrepreneur should possess is the ability to think on their feet and make quick decisions. To do so, entrepreneurs can rely on design thinking. This is a popular problem solving strategy created by the design consulting firm IDEO. Its prime characteristic is a commitment to prioritizing consumer’s needs above everything else - by observing how people interact with environments and products and using those learning to innovate new solutions.
In the startup world, design thinking is a powerful tool for focusing on a real consumer need and bypassing costly hours and resources hypothesizing and experimenting with different solutions.
AirBnB and PillPack are well-known brands whose success can be attributed, in part, to an ‘aha’ moment inspired by design thinking processes.
Now we will go together through each of the five stages of design thinking, by completing a series of activities:
Stage 1: Empathize
In this stage, you want to gain a deeper understanding of your user base. For this, you can consult research experts or even conduct observations of the user’s environment. You can also organize personal interviews with some of your users through which you can put aside assumptions and get a detailed description of their problems.
1.1. Explore your habitat - part I
Learning objectives : to screen your community and understand what are its challenges, to understand what is your role in the community and how you could bring your skills and talents for the good use of your community; to identify what are your strengths and how to activate your network.
Duração : 180 min
Materials : flipchart papers, worksheets, pens, sticky notes; markers.
Description :
Step 1 : Your first goal is to analyse the local context and understand people around you. Think about your city /town. Use your “habitat” and explore a wide range of aspects. Here are some guiding questions:
• How do people get around?
• How are elderly people’s lives improved by technology?
• How are kids spending their time?
• What challenges do adults face when shopping?
• What businesses exist and why? What problems remain unsolved?
• Are people active citizens?
• What does the city’s cultural life look like?
• What are the green challenges of the community?
Then gather insights as follows:
Discover - As you try to remember, make a list of things that people are satisfied and dissatisfied with.
Unpack data - After gathering the information, it’s time to collate it. In 30 minutes transform your notes into headline quotes.
Extract insights - Find deeper connections that lead to insights.
Step 2 : Visualise the current state of the community and shape your desired reality. In this phase you will create a virtual tree, where the branches represent major challenges faced by local people. The inner branches represent the current state of the challenges - both positive and negative, and the external ones their future state, where you define your desired reality. Write down all your aspirations and dreams about what a better future for your local community should look like. At the end, reflect on the following questions: What new features appeared? Does one branch - perhaps a core feature of the future state of the world - get the bulk of the growth? Did an underused aspect (the inner or outer branches) become stronger? After completing the branches, you’ll have a clear image of how your community can grow into an environment that improves the lives of the people in it.
1.2. Explore your habitat - part 2
Duration : 180 min
Materials : flipchart papers, worksheets, pens, sticky notes; markers.
Step 3 : Define the roots by analyzing and mapping the personal strengths that can help you create your own future. Complete the following fields:
Your abilities and skills - Abilities are talents that emerge effortlessly, such as spatial orientation, group facilitation, empathy, and communication. Skills, on the other hand, are talents you’ve become better at through practice and study, such as project management, piano playing, and fundraising. Your interests - Interests are the things that excite you. They’re your most precious resource because they give you personal and professional satisfaction.
Personality - Your personality completes who you are. List descriptors, such as “emotional”, “intelligent”, “calm”, “thoughtful”, “energetic”, “detail- oriented”.
Personal and professional connections - List the people who have an impact on your personal and professional path - friends, teachers, family, anyone who is influential and can contribute to your growth.
Past experience - You might have professional or volunteering experience, a professional reputation or be recognised as a young leader in a specific field. Other tangible and intangible resources - These include any personal assets that are potentially useful to your work. Think about tools, clothing, money, property or anything else you own that can be used as an investment in your career.
Step 4 : Define the trunk by crafting your purpose statement. Many of us have goals in life: short, medium or long term. But how many of us have a real purpose? Keep in mind the elements that define your tree’s roots and define the trunk. To design your purpose statement, do five simple things:
1. Write down three to four activities you very much enjoy.
2. Briefly describe the people or groups you like spending time with.
3. On another piece of paper, write down how you intend to help others, using three to four verbs. Use the following sentence as the foundation for your purpose statement: “I would like to help these people using these activities”.
4. And now the acid test: can you confidently and proactively share your statement with others? If you lack confidence or feel embarrassed, you’ve got more work to do.
Stage 2: Define
Next, you study the data you collected to identify the problems in a user-centric manner and frame it in a way that is understandable for all your team members.
2.1. Get along with the challenge
Learning objective : To understand the whole process of creating a sustainable start-up, to explore different methods that can transform a “seed” (idea) into a prototype and to develop decision making, creativity skills.
Duration : 45 min
Materials : Worksheet of the matrix, sticky notes with the ideas generated previously.
Description : Time to decide on the problem in your local community you can best contribute to solving. In order to choose it, you have to discover which leaves from the branches of your tree are best nurtured by the roots - which challenges in your community you can best build solutions for, to make your desired reality come true. Your personal statement may lead you to solve challenges, but how do you know which ones? Map possible paths according to two factors: their potential, the impact and effort required to implement them. Now it’s time to filter each idea of your team using the Impact-Effort matrix handout. Please write down on sticky notes the challenges that keep you on the track defined by your Purpose Statement. Then place each idea on the matrix.
Now it’s time to make a commitment and to answer one more question: Which local challenge do you commit to solving, given your purpose statement and personal strengths? Write a clear, inspiring and memorable purpose statement , one that connects the group members and makes sure everyone is working in the same direction. A simple way to do this is to fill in the following model:
We
would like to help this target group - as specific as possible) by carrying out .............….................................................................................................... (these activ ities). You can always come back and adapt this, to keep it up to date with your development as a team.
Stage
3
: Ideate
Now that you know the problem, you must try to come up with solutions for it. You can hold ideation meetings with your team to bounce around every possible solution. Once you have collected all the ideas, you can then evaluate them to see whether they would be feasible.
3.1. Explore your original concepts
Learning objectives : to understand how creativity can be activated in a limited amount of time, to become familiar with a collection of creativity activation and brainstorming methods suitable for different typologies of teams.
Duration : 90 minutos
Materials : markers, sticky notes / jamboard
Description :
1. Warm-up - Divide the team into pairs, each person facing the other. In each pair, one person asks the other:
A. Three things - Divide the team into pairs, each person facing the other. In each pair, one person asks the other: “ Name three things that... ”, followed by the first thing that comes into their mind. The other comes up with three answers as quickly as possible. Switch roles and repeat at least ten times during a five-minute period. For example, if one says: “ Diga três coisas verdes ”, the other has to tell the first green things that come to mind, without overthinking and worrying about right or wrong answers. Just respond as fast as you can!
B. Object jam - Bring a random object into the brainstorming and give the team five minutes to come up with alternative uses for it, perhaps if it were bigger or smaller.
C. Round table story - Say the first sentence of a story, then ask each team member to continue with one sentence at a time. This should last a maximum of ten minutes. Now the team is ready to generate as many solutions as possible for the problem you want to solve. In order to start brainstorming, you need a guiding question. A good example would be: “ How is the team going to realize this specific objective? ”.
Focus on practical ideas at this stage. Spend the following 30 minutes coming up with ideas that answer this question, and make sure someone writes them down. Avoid discussing them, and aim to have around a hundred ideas by the end of the session. Your brainstorming session should be guided by the following principles. Write these down, and put them up somewhere visible.
Quality through quantity - The quality and effectiveness of the ideas partly depends on their quantity. The more you generate, the greater the chance of coming up with good ones.
Refrain from judging ideas - Criticism should not hinder the creative process and the generation of bold ideas. Focus on producing and developing them, and leave the evaluation to later.
Be bold - New ideas and perspectives lead to innovative solutions, so embrace them without letting criticism break the flow.
Combine and develop ideas - Brainstorming should be a 100 percent collaborative process. Any member of the team can combine, adapt and trans-form ideas, and split them into many others. It’s time to conclude. Cross out the ideas you don’t like: those that you all find unfeasible or require too many resources to do. Choose a maximum of ten that seem to have real potential. Check in the next step a selection of decision making tools.
3.2. Time to make decisions that last!
Learning objectives : ato learn a selection of decision making techniques to help you move forward with their start-up prototype, to learn to set parameters for decisional processes and to improve your decision making skills
Duration : 90 min
Materials : Folhas de trabalho com matrizes, notas adesivas, marcadores, folhas de flipchart/ folhas de trabalho digitais.
Descrição : During the last challenge you have listed a maximum of ten interesting and potentially successful ideas. Now it’s time to rank them and make a decision. The How-NowWow matrix is a selection tool in which a group weighs up each idea based on two parameters. You will filter your idea using the worksheet for the 2-by-2 matrix where the horizontal axis represents the originality of the idea while the vertical one shows how easy it is to implement.
The quadrants are labeled as follows:
Now - blue ideas : easy-to-implement ideas that solve problems and result in incremental benefits;
How - yellow ideas : those that are a breakthrough in terms of impact, but impossible to implement right now given your current resources;
Wow - green ideas : those that have the potential for orbit-shifting change and that you can implement given your resources.
After you have completed this stage, it is time to choose within your team what business idea you’ll build. Here’s what you have to do:
1. List the ideas you shortlisted during the previous phase on large pieces of paper stuck around the room.
2. Give each player three blue, three yellow and three green sticky notes, or three marker pens, one of each colour.
3. Ask each player to stand up and vote for the three best ideas in each category, by placing a sticky note under each idea they choose, or by making a mark with the coloured pens. Remember, blue means Now, yellow is How, and green is Wow.
4. Finally count the number of notes under each idea to categorize it. The highest number of notes of a certain colour categorises the idea under that colour. In case of a tie: if the number of blue notes is the same as the number of green ones, the idea is blue and if the yellow and green notes are equal, the idea is green. Place your ideas in the matrix according to their colour.
You now have a bucket of Wow, green ideas to work on further. If you don’t have any ideas in this quadrant, focus on the Now, blue ones. If you only have one idea in this quadrant, your choice is already made. Otherwise, let’s move on to decision-making techniques:
A. Dot voting - The same technique explained earlier. Give each team member a number of sticky notes or dot votes, and ask them to distribute these between the potential choices. The highest number of votes wins, as simple as that!
B. 100€ test - Put all of your ideas in a matrix with a space for a potential investment in each one. Give each team member a hypothetical €100 to invest as they prefer – either everything into one idea or divided between more than one. Get them to write down why they made this decision, since it can be great input for decision making. After doing this individually, share your investments with the group, see which idea has the most money and go for it!
C. Build your own criteria - This is difficult, but it can be the most effective decision making technique. Pick a set of criteria that your team would take into account when making this decision. Is money an issue? Is it time? Are you more focused on learning, maybe? What about fun? All you need to do is agree on a set of criteria and start your own matrix to achieve clarity and make your decision.
Stage 4: Prototype
Once you have narrowed down the solutions, you can create a prototype. A prototype is a scaled-down version of the final product you intend to release on the market. This version is meant to test the solution you came up with and find out any limitations and how to rectify them.
4.1. Sustainable Business Model Canvas
Learning objectives : to discover the sustainable business model canvas tool, to use the tool to prototype your own sustainable start-ups in a logical way and framework.
Duration : from 180 min to 240 min
Materials : Sustainable Business Model Canvas - printed or digital worksheet, sticky notes, markers
Description : Each team has the objective to create a business model starting from their selected idea. You are going to use the sustainable version of Alex Oster-Walder’s Business Model Canvas, a chart with nine + 2 sustainable blocks representing the fundamental aspects of a business.
The result of the canvas is a solid, coherent business model. Therefore, the model is translated into operational objectives – including milestones and more detailed plans for finance and communications. Both, business plan and canvas, remain modifiable supports for the implementation of the business idea. They serve as controlling instruments and basis for strategic decisions.
The nine + 2 blocks are the following:
1. Key partners : Who are the essential groups you will need to involve to deliver your programme? Do you need special access or permissions?
2. Key activities : What programme and non-programme activities will your organisation be carrying out?
3. Key resources : What resources will you need to run your activities? People, finance, access?
4. Value Proposition : How will you show that you are creating sustainable social impact? What do your customers want to get out of this initiative?
5. Customer Relationships : What type of relationship does each of our Customer Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them? Which ones have we established? How are they integrated with the rest of our business model? How costly are they?
6. Channel : How are you reaching your beneficiaries and customers? How does an enterprise communicate with, and reach its customer segments to deliver a value proposition?
7. Customer segments and 8. Customer structure : Who are the people/organizations that will pay to address this issue?
9. Revenue streams : Break down your revenue sources by %; For what values are our customers really willing to pay?
10. Eco-social costs : What ecological or social costs is our business model causing? Which Key Resources are non-renewable? Which Key Activities use a lot of resources?
11. Eco-social benefits . What ecological or social benefits is our business model generating? Who are the beneficiaries? Are they potential customers? Can we transform the benefits into a Value Proposition? If yes, for whom?
You will receive the model and you can start filling in each section according to these previous guiding questions.
4.2. Pre-mortem analysis
Learning objectives : to anticipate and identify factors that can lead to the failure of your idea; Duration : 60 min
Materials : previous papers used, sticky notes, markers, flipchart papers
Description : For this exercise we will have an imaginary journey. All of a sudden, you are informed that your business idea has failed spectacularly. Over the next few minutes every team member should independently write down every reason they can think of for the failure— especially the kinds of things they ordinarily wouldn’t mention as potential problems, for fear of being impolitic. For example, in a session held at one Fortune 50–size company, an executive suggested that a billion-dollar environmental sustainability project had “failed” because interest waned when the CEO retired. Next, each team member will share his/her reasons and everyone will take notes. Therefore, your team members’ task was to generate plausible reasons for the project’s failure and identify all together in an open discussion how you can prevent those issues to happen in the context of growing your business idea.
4.3. Design Sustainable Value
Learning objectives : To analyze the needs/pains/aspirations of the customers/beneficiaries of the start-up, to learn how to use Value Proposition Canvas to validate the profile of the customer.
Duration : 180 min
Materiais : Folha de cálculo do Value Proposition Canvas (ou versão digital)
Description :
Step 1 : Customer discovery and profile validation - Your next mission is to draw your first Customer Profile and to get acquainted with the Value Proposition Canvas. Starting from Value Proposition Canvas, fill in the Customer Profile, the right-hand part of the canvas, based on assumptions. Dig deeper into what you drafted in the Customer Segment section of your Sustainable Business Model Canvas. To complete this section, you should exercise empathy and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Meet your potential customers, and collect insights about them to enrich your customer profile and validate your initial assumptions.
Below are two exercises you can do to complete the profile. The main difference between observing and interviewing is that observation shows you objective reality and not the customers’ perception.
1. Interview your customers - Look at your assumptions and write down aspects of your customer profile you need to validate. List any doubts you have about the profile. Include everything you want to learn about the customer and create an interview format with specific questions. Interview five to ten people in your customer segment.
2. Observe your customer’s world - Shadow your customers from your local community for a day when you return home, and note down in detail every-thing that is relevant to your profile. Write down times, activities, pains and gains you observe and insights that come up. Put all this information in your profile. Use affinity mapping to find connections and patterns in what you’ve observed, and use sticky notes to represent your customers.
3. Customer Jobs - describes what customers are trying to get done in their work and lives, expressed in their own words.
Pains - describes outcomes, risks and obstacles related to the customer jobs. Gains - describes the specific outcomes customers want to achieve.
Step 2 : Value Map - Define your idea in the Value Map on the left-hand side of the canvas and ensure it fits with customers’ needs.
1. Design your value map : Products and Services should be a list of what your value proposition is built around. Pain Relievers describes how your products and services help with customer pains. Gain Creators details how they create customer gains.
2. Look for fit - Fit happens when your value proposition addresses your customers’ real pains and gains. As a result, they will be motivated and excited by your product or service and hopefully persuaded to buy it. There are three levels of fit to take into account:
A. Problem-solution fit : when you gather evidence of your customer segment’s jobs, pains and gains and design products or services to address them.
B. Product-market fit : when your customer segment gets excited about your value proposition and buys your product or service, bringing traction to your business.
C. Business model fit : when you can create a functional, profitable and scalable business model around your value proposition.
Step 3 : For this exercise, you will focus on Problem-solution fit - Compare your value map with the integrated customer profile you’ve built, and look for connections. Ideally, the map will have sticky notes that address important and specific customer pains and gains, helping them to get jobs done.
Congratulations, you’re almost done! Now it’s time to write down your value proposition in a clear way. This exercise will help you explain what you‘re building and make sure you’re aligned with the team. Fill in the following model and adapt it to your needs. This will be your start-up explanation!
Our ............................................................................................................. (products and services) help ( s ) ........................................................................................................ (customer segment) who want to ....................................................................................................... (jobs to be done) by ...................................................................................................................... (adressing pains) and .................................................................................................................. (enabling gains).
Stage 4: Test
FFinally, you can put together all the elements of your prototype and make it ready to be presented to a small segment of the user base to test the product out. The user base will get back to you with recommendations that you can implement and conduct further testing. While this is the end stage of the design thinking process, it usually isn’t the end of the project itself. For the project to reach completion, you will need to test and refine the product further.
5.1. Plan your sustainable startup
Learning objectives : to discover how to complete a plan for the start-up and break the timeline into small, realistic chunks, to learn how to prioritise resources and phases of the project, to understand how the whole ecosystem created around a start-up is connected.
Duration : 120 minutos
Materials : flipchart papers, markers, sticky notes
Description :
1. Organise a meeting with all your team members.
2. Beforehand, ask each member to think of all the actions that will be required to create the value you have defined for your customers, in your value proposition.
3. Draw a picture similar to the following on a wide sheet of paper. Display it on a wall and tell team members that the goal of the meeting is to reach agreement concerning specific tasks, required to create value for your customers.
4. Write the tasks to be discussed in the first column.
5. Go through every project and agree on the action required to accomplish it, recording this on sticky notes.
6. Based on the projects and action you have listed, agree a timeline and write the milestones in days, weeks, or months along the top row.
7. Assign responsibility for projects and actions to individual team members.
8. As you post the sticky notes, ask yourselves challenging questions about your plan: Does this have to happen first? Can we combine these two actions? Do actions in one project affect the progress or outcome of another?
5.2. Present your sustainable start-up:
Learning objectives : understand how to create a catchy and clear story of the start-up, to practise and improve your storytelling skills.
Duration : 180 min
Materials : flipchart papers, markers, sticky notes
Description :
Step 1 : Complete a simple fact sheet for your business idea, with the essential information that should be showcased in your pitch. Use the content you have developed with the Sustainable Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas, together with the conclusions from prototyping and testing. Enter the information in the following format:
1. Introduction - Who you are and what is the goal of this pitch;
2. Team - Who the team members are and their roles;
3. Problem - What problem or business opportunity you are addressing;
4. Solution - Your solution to the problem or business opportunity;
5. Product - How your product or service works;
6. Market - The size of your target market, and any research results;
7. Competition - Alternatives to your solution that are already on the market;
8. Your business model - How you plan to make money on the long term;
9. Resources needed - The money and other resources you need in order to grow;
10. Contact - How can people contact you?
Step 2 : Craft and pitch
Your goal is to create a presentation including all the points outlined in your business idea factsheet, and deliver it to potential investors, mentors or partners.
1. Build your presentation - Your presentation should include all the points outlined in your factsheet, in a simple, direct and visual format. Ideally you should use presentation software and have each point on a single slide. Don’t include too much text, make it visual and engaging, and give your speech structure and flavour.
2. Write your speech - Based on the factsheet, write and rehearse a speech and ask teammates for feedback. Your speech should feel natural and engaging to the audience. Practise different ways of delivering it to find what suits you best.
3. Pitch! - Find opportunities to pitch - either call people within your network or take advantage of pitching events. Make sure that your visual presentation and speech are adapted to your audience. They should always fit the context and the goal of the pitch: finding partners, investment or other resources.
Last message : Wow! What an intense journey you and your team had! The purpose of the challenges was to give you an idea of how entrepreneurial journeys can look and feel like. You have now reached your final challenge and I hope this journey was insightful and you developed yourself along the way. I have to tell you, though, this has only been the beginning! What’s next? In front of you is a new world. It’s now your turn to choose what path you want to follow next on your journey.
CHAPTER 3
LEADERSHIP
Now that you have decided on which business idea to further invest your energy and resources, our mission is to help you develop leadership skills that are required for your next steps in the business development stage.
However, the first step into this process is to do the inner work. To be able to lead the team through the challenging seas of the business world, you must first understand the strengths and weaknesses of yourself as a leader and of your team as a whole.
Stage 1 : Debate on Myths about leadership
Objective : This exercise is meant to introduce to you the concept of leadership and inner leadership, and to provide you the space to reflect regarding the profile of a leader.
Description : Based on the fish bowl methodology, you will organize a debate around some stereotypes, sayings, myths about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. Therefore, participants will form 2 groups (YES and NO) and 4 people will be added in the fish bowl (2 from Yes team and 2 from the NO team). Tha facilitator will project on the screen the statements one by one. You have 2 minutes per team to provide an argument why the team is true or false. If you don’t know the answer, the participants that are not in the fishbowl, but are from the same team can touch the shoulder of his colleague and enter in the fish bowl. The statements are the following:
Myth 1 : Leaders can’t show vulnerability.
Myth 2 : Extroverted leaders are preferred.
Myth 3 : Leadership is synonymous with management.
Myth 4 : Leaders know all the answers.
Myth 5 : The leader’s idea is best.
Myth 6 : Leaders don’t take breaks.
Myth 7 : Leaders aren’t followers.
Myth 8 : The leader is the loudest person in the room.
After this joint discussion, our invitation to you is to think all together what is the profile of a leader, based on the arguments that you have previously discussed. Please use e flipchart paper and write down all the features that you agree on.
Stage 2 : Now that you have decided on the profile of a great leader, the next concept that we would like to introduce to you is Positive Intelligence and its approach regarding saboteurs.
Phase 1 : What is positive intelligence?
Positive Intelligence, or “PQ”, is potentially the best predictor of how happy you are and how well you perform relative to your potential. Mental fitness is a measure of the strength of your positive mental muscles (Sage) versus the negative (Saboteur). The goal of Positive Intelligence is to develop an alert and calm, better balanced, sensory aware, creative mindset. According to Shirzad Chamine, the author of the book Positive Intelligence, your mind has two modes: positive and negative. Shirzad calls this positive mode, your Sage, and the negative mode, your Saboteurs.
Shirzad writes:
“A key to Mental Fitness is to weaken the internal Saboteurs who generate all your ‘negativity’ in the way they respond to challenges.
Your Saboteurs cause all your stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, regret, shame, guilt, and unhappiness. Saboteurs include the Judge, Controller, Avoider, Victim, Stickler and 5 others.
Your ‘Sage’ lives in an entirely different region of your brain and handles challenges in ways that produce positive emotions like curiosity, empathy, creativity, calm, and clear-headed laserfocused action. You’d perform better and feel happier.”.
Phase 2 : Saboteurs Quiz
To understand from which level you start this process, our invitation for each participant is to complete the following test to understand their own saboteurs using the following access link: https://assessment.positiveintelligence.com/saboteur/overview.
Phase 3 : PQ score
PQ (Positive Intelligence Quotient) measures the relative strength of your positive mental muscles (Sage) versus the negative (Saboteur). PQ is the most widely used measure of mental fitness.
Our kind request now is to take 10 more minutes to complete the quiz and calculate your PQ score that can be found at the following address: https://www.positiveintelligence.com/pqscore/
If you are comfortable, please share with your team’s members how you feel about the results. Are you surprised about the result? Was it expectable? What have you discovered about yourself while completing the test?
Phase 4 : How to strengthen your positive intelligence and weaken the Saboteurs
According to Shirzad, there are 3 key strategies to strengthen your Positive Intelligence and your score.
1. Weaken Saboteurs (the Saboteurs represent your internal enemies in your mind – the “negative” mode of your mind)
2. Strengthen Sage (the Sage is your wiser and deeper you – the “positive” mode of your mind)
3. Strengthen Your PQ Brain (by doing PQ Reps)
If your Saboteurs represent your internal enemies, your Sage represents the deeper and wiser part of you. It is the part of you that can rise above the grey and resist getting carried away by the drama and tension of the moment or falling victim to the lies of the Saboteurs.
4.1.
To strengthen the Sage you can use the 5 great powers
1. Explore - to Explore with great curiosity and an open mind.
2. Empathize - to Empathize with yourself and others and bring compassion and understanding to any situation.
3. Innovate - to Innovate and create new perspectives and outside-the-box solutions.
4. Navigate - to Navigate and choose a path that best aligns with your deeper underlying values and mission.
5. Activate - to Activate and take decisive action without the distress, interference, or distraction of the Saboteurs.
To shift into Sage mode, pay attention to when you get triggered or your Saboteurs are in control. Catch yourself in moments where you feel stress, anxiety, self-doubt, frustration, regret, shame, guilt, and unhappiness. Use these moments to Explore, Empathize, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate to strengthen your Sage and realize your full potential.
4.2. Weaken the Saboteurs by Observing and Labeling Them
Your Saboteurs will show up. Don’t fight them. Just observe and label them. This will take their power away. This will weaken your Saboteurs simply by bringing them into the light of awareness.
4.3. Strengthen Your PQ Brain Muscles with PQ Reps
Simple exercises could help soothe your anxiety, help you stay centered, and tap more of your mental powers and insights. We will call them Positive Intelligence reps. You do a PQ Rep by shifting your focus to your body and any of your five senses for ten seconds. Your five senses are: Sight, Sound, Smell, Feel, Taste. 10 Seconds for Each PQ Rep (or 3 Breaths). Keep in mind that each PQ rep is 10 seconds – or the equivalent of about three
breaths. If you want to really build and maintain your Positive Intelligence, practice 100 PQ reps a day
Daily PQ Reps:
• Daily Routines - You can turn many of your current daily routines into PQ musclebuilders. Next time you brush your teeth see if you can become laser-focused on one physical sensation of brushing for a minimum of ten seconds. For example, really feel the vibrations of the brush’s bristles against your teeth and bums, smell the toothpaste, feel the bubbles of toothpaste foam bursting in your mouth.
• Physical exercise - You can also turn your current physical exercise into an opportunity to do many PQ reps.
• Eating - The pleasure of eating can be significantly.
• Listening to music - Next time you are listening to a piece of music, zone in rather than zone out. See if you can spend at least a couple of minutes in full mindfulness of the music. For example, pick one instrument and pay close attention to the sounds it makes.
• Playing sports - Next time you play a sport, make a point of paying close attention to the sensations of your weight on your feet, the breeze on your face, grip on the club or racket, your foot against the ball. Pay close attention to both watching the ball’s spin and feeling the impact. Actively let go of thoughts as they come and sink into deeper and deeper body wisdom
Phase 5 : Individual or group activities
Now that we are more familiar with the theory, it is time to put it into practice. Here are a few recommendations on how to empower our Sage and be more prepared to identify our Saboteurs when they jeopardise our performance. You can choose if you want to test these methods individually or together with your team members.
• Write down three things the participants are grateful for on sticky notes and stick them on a flipchart paper that will be called “ The Gratitude Island ”.
• Write a positive message to someone in your social support network and show your appreciation for everything that you received.
• Take two minutes to describe in a journal the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours
Now you can keep these exercises in mind and introduce them as part of your culture. Once we have completed this step, it is time to move on to the next concept that is useful for the development of your team and business and improvement of your overall performance.
Stage 6 : As a leader, your priority is to help your team reach their full potential of productivity and weaken saboteurs who are winning some of the battles. As a leader, you want what is best for your team, so you are looking for efficient tools that will help you achieve your desired goal. One of them is The Circumplex model developed by the Human Synergetics team.
This practical visual device will help you:
• ‘see’ the thinking and behavioural styles that are driving the performance of people and groups in your organization, as well as the organization itself;
• have access to a common language that you can use to quantify and discuss individuals’, teams’, managers’, and leaders’ behavioral styles and approaches, as well as the culture of your organization;
• have a foundation for developing your people, improving performance, and enriching your culture.
How does it work?
The Circumplex breaks down the factors underlying performance effectiveness (at individual, group, and organizational levels) according to 12 behaviours or styles. These styles are further grouped according to three general clusters:
• Constructive styles encourage the attainment of organizational goals through people development; promote teamwork and synergy; and enhance individual, group, and organizational adaptability and effectiveness.
• Aggressive/Defensive styles lead people to focus on their own needs at the expense of those of their group and organization and lead to stress, turnover, and inconsistent performance.
• Passive/Defensive styles lead people to subordinate themselves to the organization, stifle creativity and initiative, and allow the organization to stagnate.
In order to access this test, it must be purchased from the official website of Human Synergetics. More details can be found here: https://www.humansynergistics.com/about-us/ the-circumplex.
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