Future Here Now: Entrepreneurship Mindset for Everyone. Including You.
Signals
Because we are in transition between eras in human history and development, we’re living in a VUCA environment — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. But that doesn’t mean that the world is ending, or death and destruction loom like buzzards. It does mean, though, that the assumptions and expectations that we were taught under the old system don’t apply as well anymore. And it means that while the new era is solidifying, as it were, we’re in a period of overlap. And that causes all sorts of conflicts and tensions and contradictions between what we’ve been told and what’s actually unfolding.
That transition and moment of conflict is happening much faster than it ever has before in human history. A matter of years or decades rather than centuries. Which means that we’re not inherently all that well equipped to cope.
But what we know now, that our ancestors didn’t, is how capable of fast and profound change we can be when we are intentional about it. We know that through the intellectual growth that so many of us have experienced since 2010 or 2016 or 2020, and through the research on behavior modification and neuroplasticity that has come alongside that experience.
One of the many things that the Industrial Era taught us that is ill suited to our present and future is doing what we’re told — especially when it comes to work. For the overwhelming majority of people, paid work meant doing the thing that you were told to do by someone higher up the food chain, and often doing it over and over again, day after day, for years. Decades even. The exact tasks might shift a little over time - maybe we would move up to the more complex equipment, or to telling a small group of other people what to do!!! But improving, fixing, problem solving, creating was Not My Job. Someone higher up that food chain did that.
Today, more and more companies expect their employees to innovate, to solve problems, to act independently - you might even say entrepreneurially.
But we have a problem. Two, actually.
First, a lot of us never learned how to act entrepreneurially. From preschool on, we were taught to sit still, follow instructions, fill in the circle completely, regurgitate. The standardized tests that we wield to measure (and bludgeon) our public schools are industrial era thinking on a Scantron. No wonder that some college students and young employees frantically seek feedback and approval. We, collectively, taught them to do that.
Second, too many of our business systems — training, time clocking, “customer service” and more - are built on the old expectation that employees won’t do the right thing unless the company forces them to do it. Owners and managers may not intend that - and I seem too many bewildered when the innovation and initiative they want their employees to show doesn’t materialize. The expectations and the systems work at cross-purposes to each other, and it’s no wonder that no one is happy with the result.
These three stories tap a couple of dimensions of what it means to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset. But that’s not just a job for current and future employees.
It’s a job for employers too. And it requires a profound rethinking of what it means to work for an organization.
What is an entrepreneurial mindset anyways?
https://nfte.com/entrepreneurial-mindset/
This summary hits all of the elements as well as any resource I have found, and does a slightly more digestible job of summarizing all of the key elements that we find in entrepreneurial thinkers. Note that spotting new opportunities and being able to operate independently despite uncertain situations play central roles in the entrepreneurial mindset. We know through the experience of programs like the Ice House Entrepreneurship Mindset program that people can develop this mindset. But if a person with this mindset slams into an Industrial Era cog-in-a-machine system, something’s gonna break.
No, we don’t stay anymore.
https://qz.com/what-happens-to-turnover-when-colleagues-leave-1850406128
Through much of the Industrial Era, the majority of us were told over and over “You’re lucky you even have this job” - implying pretty clearly that if you don’t obey the system, you might not be able to feed yourself and your family anymore. The way that many companies still handle employee reviews, salary compensation, use of contract workers and more draws directly from this set of assumptions. Even though they don’t hold anymore.
This study demonstrates in pretty uncertain terms that how you treat your employees, especially your highest performers, has a much bigger impact than many businesses might realize. If you’ve been through layoffs like I have, you know that you got two messages in the aftermath (1) you’re special, we still value you, and (2) you better jump when we call you or you can find yourself in the same boat as those guys.
When you lay it out like that, you can see the conflict - and the manipulation. Certainly not an environment that accelerates innovation and valuable problem-solving.
And as this article shows, it’s a strategy that frequently backfires over the long term. As they say on TikTok, the remaining employees understand the assignment.
Changing Gen Z work culture
If you don’t like they way things are done, do them differently. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much entrepreneurial mindset in a thimble.
There are about a million news stories about young vunderkind starting companies. But it’s worth your time to take a close look at this article, because it gives you a glimpse of how those organizational norms that I excorciated at the beginning start to get upended.
If there’s a constant that runs through Gen Z–built workplaces, it’s the ways in which they’re a reaction to what Gen Zers disliked before going out on their own. Nik Sharma, 26, whose Sharma Brands helps companies such as Eight Sleep, Jim Beam, and Milk Bar maximize their digital commerce revenue, says 50% of his company’s culture was motivated by trying something different from all the places where he and his employees had previously worked—and hated….
Ultimately, the goal is to build a workplace that feels like a community, one where feedback is bidirectional. Sharma admits that he originally wanted everyone to work in person Monday through Friday, but he was outvoted. The company convenes in person Tuesday through Thursday. Meanwhile, at Cloud Studio NYC, a brand marketing firm with largely Gen Z employees, CEO YouMe Lin, 28, uses her quarterly check-ins with her team to get feedback on her leadership and the company’s direction. “We’re learning and growing together,” she says.
And the article includes probably my favorite organizational theory quote ever:
“But the culture is more than just a handbook dotted with pixelated palm trees and umbrellas.”
Respect.
