Great article I read today...

http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/fearless_leadership_in_a_social_world#When:17:14:00Z

Check out this blog entry by Allison Fine. Completely worth your time. 

Organizations need "human" leaders. Not robots following programmed orders. Leaders that care more about people than perception. Leaders that understand how to use all the resources at their disposal to connect with their stakeholders. 

I Hereby Ban The Word "Process."

Is anyone else as sick as I am of hearing the word "process" all day long?

"We don't have a process."

                     "You're not following our process."

                                                "We need to establish a process."

                                                                         "It's not my job. I'm not part of the process."

                                      "The process should be the same for everyone."

                "Document the process."

                                     "Why isn't there a process?"

                                                                              "Who owns the process?"

I hereby ban the word "process." Forever. 

I suggest we replace it with the word "partnership."

Think about that...

             "We don't have a partnership."

                                                                                       "You're not following our partnership."

                               "We need to establish a partnership."

                                                            "It's not my job. I'm not part of the partnership."

      "The partnership should include everyone."

                                                                                        "Document the partnership."

                          "Why isn't there a partnership?"

                                                                       "Who is a part of the partnership?"

What if people stopped using process as a cop out and started focusing on the partnerships they should be building with cross-functional groups, vendors, and customers? Could we bridge gaps, meet internal and external stakeholder needs, and become more efficient by looking at things as partnerships, rather than just processes? It maintains your structure, but promotes its malleability.

Let's work together, instead of blaming everything on process.

#intrapreneurialattitudes

Are You An Intrapreneur?

image from Forbes.com

Every time I type the word "intrapreneur," spell checker underlines it in red... So I added it to my dictionary.

Clearly, the word is not used often enough, if spell checker in every program I use doesn't recognize it.

The purpose of this blog is to make "intrapreneur" a term more employees are aware of, because there are people out there who have the mind set to be an intrapreneur but have not yet identified themselves as such.

There are capable employees out there, with mind-blowing ideas, that may not know how to go about setting those ideas in motion.

Leaders need to be actively seeking these people within their organizations. THEY ALREADY EXIST.  Find them. Fund them. Reward them.

If you are an intrapreneur, what is your story? How did you become one, and who supported you?  

Do you believe "Transformative" is synonymous with "Subversive"?

Do you believe "Transformative" is synonymous with "Subversive"? 

Today I'm reverting my focus from social intrapreneurship to its big sister named social enterprise. Social enterprise sets out to use traditional business models to create profits, and then uses those profits to promote social change, instead of giving those profits to shareholders. It is rooted in the desire to eradicate suffering, and is often spear-headed by entrepreneurial dreamers and rebels. 

I'm reading Carl Frankel and Allen Bromberger's book, The Art of Social Enterprise: Business as if People Mattered. There's a chapter that addresses worldviews, and one of those views is whether social enterprise is subversive. According to Milton Friedman, social enterprise is subversive because it sets out to change the way business is conducted and takes primary focus off of generating profits I do think social enterprise is subversive, in all the right ways. It challenges traditional models and established systems that focus solely on profits for shareholders, and diverts that focus to the betterment of society. Therefore, it is both transformative and subversive. I love this snippet from the book: 

"...social enterprise arose out of what we've called the forward-looking mental model. This worldview is deeply transformative and arguably subversive. Treating every person on the planet as your brother or sister is as revolutionary as, well, Christ's message. And His message was totally subversive, if His fate is any indication (page 45).

      trouble-maker     rebel     agitator     revolutionary     change-maker     helper     leader     

Subversiveness has varying degrees. Social enterprise is not a bad guy that sets out to over-throw everything in its way. It's not about creating chaos. It's about creating change. Social intrapreneurship is the same in terms of subversion, but becomes very tricky to navigate in corporate environments. You can't set out to challenge management in a way that pits you against them. It has to be a partnership. There has to be a mutual benefit for the company and the targeted community. 

What am I supposed to do?

I received this response from a classmate this week, in regards to her limitations on doing anything intrapreneurial: 

"I for one do not work for a company that embraces any sort of group idea sharing or for that matter any type of social intrapreneur thought.  Our company is follows practices from the 1970's with regards to employee rewards, satisfaction, and communication.  What also amazes me about working for this company is that..... well besides the fact that I still have a a phone that is one step up from a rotary phone.... is that for the size of our company why does this company continue to live and work in the dark ages? 

The HR department well they do not communicate with you, in fact I only just spoke to the HR manager last week after working for a year in a department which is located about 15 steps from my office. Don't get me wrong, I like working there but it's very frustrating to employees when they are not heard nor vested in their company. 

So, what should one person do to start the ball rolling?"

****************************************************************************************************************************************

Getting the ball rolling can be hard under your circumstances. The key to intrapreneurial attitudes is having managerial support and encouragement to think outside the box. Sounds like this is your challenge.

In your case, ask big questions, but apply the answers on a small scale: What behavior changes am I seeking on the part of my targeted beneficiaries? Whose minds do you want to change, and how? Start with yours, then become contagious. Gain management support by going the extra mile.

In my opinion, intrapreneurial attitudes should be leveraged on many levels. Start with that HR business partner 15 steps away, and talk about small, but effective employee enrichment programs, and volunteer to organize or assist with one. I'm not sure how large your company is, but the holidays are coming up. Perfect time to implement small things that help employees have a great time. Happier employees = more productivity. One event can lead to others. This is what I consider the really small scale version of social intrapreneurship that starts with the company's own employees.

To go bigger, think about what your company could do with it's current capabilities that could benefit a larger part of the community. It takes a lot of work, but building strategies for helping communities by capitalizing on local businesses core capabilities is a way to be transformational in society. This is the core of social intrapreneurship. For example, I work for a leading consumer and office products company, which owns several of the most recognizable school brands. We have the means to partner with local organizations to supply school supplies to local teachers. We have employees that took on this initiative, and successfully gathered thousands of pieces of product for donation this year, simply from organizing a give-away in our building. This is a good start to paving a path for social intrapreneurship, because if taken to another level, it could lead to a steady stream of supplies being provided to local teachers over a long period of time, which transforms the initiative from one focused upon charity, to one focused on long-term provision. Teachers then help promote our products, which drives additional business for the company. It benefits the community and the bottom line.

To go even bigger with social intrapreneurship, you identify a need within your community, or within a community that your company operates, and innovate products or practices so that the community benefits from that innovation. An example of intrapreneurship could be sticky notes. 3M wasn't trying to make sticky notes, they were going for something totally different, but sometimes accidents turn in to extremely successful innovations. An example of social intrapreneurship is the same sort of thing, but it's intentional, and benefits society as well as the company.