Blue-sky gets grounded!
Amanda MacDonald
Organisational Culture | Co-Founder of ASZO | M.Ed., Māori Education | Ngāti Apakura
Jade Thomas and I are doing things a little differently, or staying true to who we are (hah), having started the business first; we are now undertaking an Entrepreneurship Micro-credential at AcademyEx to support my blue-sky thinking with Jade's grounded systems approach.
Each week we have been encouraged to journal our learning. So, here we go! Week 1: Orientation & Entrepreneurship Essentials. I have managed to log in, read the notes, and attend the Zoom. Now I'm doing the homework (this journal). Who am I?!
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First step, what is an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur can be defined by its French origin 'to undertake' or more literally, as someone who starts or owns a business. It can be grouped by its skill set such as creativity, networking, communication, leadership, perseverance, resilience, problem-solving, and time management.
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Or as the founder and CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky , said entrepreneurs (or whatever we choose to call them) live a little bit differently, "they have the audacity to believe they can do it" with "the ability to convince other people to go on that journey with them".
So, where to start the entrepreneurial journey? Week 1 introduced Simon Sinek , for me, no introduction was needed. Simon puts forward the golden circles to help us understand why we do what we do, he argues you start with the "why" then move out to the "how" and then "what".
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Additionally, Simon talks about having an infinite mindset, rather than a finite one. The short take is, seek to be better, embrace challenges, nurture a culture of belonging, and aim to improve everyone's lives.
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What was new learning for me was Michel Bachmann 's suggestion of evolving the golden circles to a golden spiral that starts with "who". He offered the following four questions when spiralling:
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The nature of a spiral means it is not a linear process, and you will continue to come back to the who, why, how, and what. While I don't have all the answers to those questions YET, what I know to be true is that Jade and I are incredibly passionate about diversity and inclusion.
We met in education and bonded over our love of cheese, wine, inclusive education, making learning fun, and our beautiful neurodivergent children. Over a flurry of text messages, phone calls, and one face-to-face meeting, on the 26th of February, we birthed ASZO : Happy Child, Happy Life.
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This week, Huw Jones , was our guest presenter. Besides being amazing to listen to, he highlighted the "everyone is a genius…" quote. I thought, great timing with it being Neurodiversity Celebration Week. As far as genius fish go, Jade and I are each other's opposites, I am dynamo and she is tempo. Dynamos are 'head in the clouds' whereas tempos are 'ear to the ground'.
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This means together we are unstoppable, however, dynamos, aka Amanda's, are great at starting things but not so good at finishing, and tempos, aka Jade's, are grounded but often get lost in activity. We didn’t need a test to tell us this. Hence, this entrepreneurship micro-credential is providing some much-needed "guidance" to keep us on track and not into the bush.
"Fall in love with the problem, not the solution." was included in this week's notes. So, here is the thing, I do love the problem because:
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There were three focus questions linked to this quote, that I need to digest with Jade is:
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So, what is the best approach? According to the notes I jotted down during the presentation… Your approach is the path of least resistance! Ask yourself:
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Then we were asked, "How do you catch butterflies?", I put it to Zo and she said what type are they. The group's answers ranged from "with a net" to "planting a garden worth visiting". I thought about our Christmas road trip and how I managed to have 100s&1000s of feathery friends. The ideal, we were told, is to create conditions for butterflies to come to you.
The butterflies were then connected to Saras’s work on 'Effectuation'. Given that I am struggling to pronounce the term, I've instead visualised it as "us rolling up our sleeves to build tomorrow with the tools we've got today. No crystal balls, just hands-on problem-tackling and making the most of every chance that comes our way."
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Effective entrepreneurs start with what they have: their identity, knowledge, and network. This perspective encourages leveraging existing resources to address challenges and seize opportunities. I see this as a few action points for Jade and me to discuss:
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To end this first week off, I look over my shoulder to see my mantra taped to the wall. Pinky: "Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?" The Brain: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world."
Every day we have the opportunity to make the world a better place; while it is my turn in the sunshine, I intend to do just that. It is my version of taking over the world.
My final note: a huge shout out to Evey and the team at academyEX, I am grateful for this learning opportunity! And to Jade, for doing this with me!
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