Enterprise Coaching is Being Broken

I get so frustrated when I see a 4 day enterprise coaching course being commissioned that pays little or no attention to what makes the role of the enterprise coach different from the business adviser.
I witnessed one recently, delivered by an Enterprise Agency (so they MUST know what they are talking about) that started with [...]

Knowing ‘Bugger All’

I spent a very pleasant afternoon recently in the offices of New Start Magazine researching what makes for an inspirational or transformational relationship and I came across this wonderful quote:
In my ethnographic work, with a head full of American methodologies and theory, I thought I knew a bit about local government, urban and social policy [...]

Hunger for Inspiration

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I think this offers us some powerful, but largely ignored, clues as to how we should design our enterprise development services.  We need to offer a service that helps people to seek, find and, crucially, act on [...]

Community Empowerment Misunderstood? The Role of Enterprise…

First let’s look at some definitions of community empowerment:
‘Community Empowerment’ is the giving of confidence, skills and power to communities to shape and influence what public bodies do for or with them.
An Action Plan for Community Empowerment: Building on Success – October 2007
Community Empowerment is about people and government, working together to make life better.  [...]

How Long Did it Take to Launch Your Business?

This is the title of a great post over at mynameisscott.
What do you mean by launch?

Open for business?
Make a sale?
Break-even?

He ends,
if by launch you mean figure out what I am doing – well I am still working on that one!
Interestingly Scott starts his exploration of ‘launch’ with ‘idea generation’.  But we could trace the origins [...]

Why Doesn’t Motivation Work?

This is a question I was asked recently by someone in local government.  ‘How come some people travel two thousand miles in search of a job, while others won’t even get on a bus?’
It is a question that deserves consideration – and I believe that the answer lies in both hope and fear.
With hope, travel [...]

Enterprise = Power x Self Interest

I have written about this formulation before, that enterprise is a factor of power and self interest.  It is still working for me and bearing fruits.
I was attracted to this video from Demos that provides some useful insights into, and questions around, the nature of power.

So what do you think?
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Why Do I Work In Enterprise?

‘We pass through this world but once.
Few tragedies can be more extensive than the stunting of life,
Few injustices deeper than the denial of an opportunity to strive,
Or even to hope,
By a limit imposed from without, but falsely identified as lying within.’
Stephen Jay Gould
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Right to Read

I have blogged before about the Right to Read campaign.  I was reminded of it by this list of 30 dyslexic entrepreneurs.
I wonder what they would have achieved had they let their dyslexia define them?  Had they listened to those who said ‘you won’t amount to much until you learn to read and write well’.
Perhaps [...]

If you have a dream you have to protect it…

Wipes tear from eye….