Tag Archives: Creativity

Best Jobs and How to Decide

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“What do I want to be when I grow up?”

Whether you’re trying to decide that as a high school or college student, during a midlife “there must be more” crisis, or after a layoff, divorce or other life upheaval, this is an important and difficult question.

One source of data for consideration comes from CNN.com:
Best Jobs in America

You’ll also want to ask yourself:
What do I want out of life?

and:
What am I best at?

As you work through all of that, be sure to have conversation partners who can help you with reality check and creative thinking – both are important in the process and are enhanced through dialogue with other perspectives.

Let us know how we can help.

Collaborative work space

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How much difference does it make where you work? The environment, space layout, sound, visual cues? The social interactions? The commute? The inspirations or distractions? The tools and resources?

I’ve just joined a new coworking collaborative – The Grove Dallas, a new ad-venture growing from The Grove New Haven. This has been described as the next stage of evolution from the home office and the coffee shop office. A great alternative model is the likes of Union – which is an intentional community formed from the base of a purpose built coffee shop.

What I like about The Grove is it’s intentionality around collaboration. While I may not be working on many “group projects” I do value having creative innovators close by so that I can gather inspiration, input and feedback from them. I enjoy hearing what other people are doing, which may be completely unrelated and yet somehow sparks something in me that does propel my project forward. And there are often synergies that develop – the whole being greater than the sum of its parts – that kind of thing. If I’m not in this kind of environment, then how can I have that experience?

Since I started my business in February I have largely been working from home, squatting in coffee shops like Panera and Starbucks. I attend networking meetings and do my 30 second commercial at the chamber of commerce, Netweavers, etc. I joined Success North Dallas, which is a collection of highly successful and motivated folks. All of these are good places to meet people and make connections for business referrals. I have not experienced them to be great places to develop collaboration. That may say more about me and my work style than anything. Either way, I haven’t been getting what I needed.

I just started reading a book by Bill Aulet – Disciplined Entrepreneurship. On nearly every page I find something that makes me to a head slap and realize I would have been more productive, efficient or effective if I’d read this book a year ago (or 15…) Among those insights is the critical importance of finding partners for a successful business venture. Aulet argues that the most viable endeavors are not solopreneurs. Partners bring added insights, corrective input, energy and enthusiasm, etc. One of the things that I have had trouble finding since starting this venture is a few good partners. I have had numerous generative conversations, but all have stopped short of full-fledged collaboration. I have already seen that The Grove is a perfect place for generating these very relationships.

I don’t know how long I’ll work here, or where it will lead. What I do know is that the investment of self – to say nothing of time, energy, effort, and money – is already paying dividends. AND I know that wherever my path leads, this community and what it is teaching me will bear fruit for years to come.

Collaboration for Solopreneurs

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How do you generate creativity when you work alone?
Create opportunities for collaboration and brainstorming.

You have the vision, the passion, and the drive to pursue your dream, build the business and life you imagine and desire. You don’t have to work alone. Solopreneurs commonly suffer side effects of working alone: short-sightedness, isolation, burnout, worry.

The fact that you are responsible for every aspect of your business does not mean you have to do everything, or that you have to do it alone. Often colleagues in the same industry and peers in other disciplines are excited to join in a brainstorming session where you lay out a challenge you are facing and invite others to offer input and ask probing questions. This can produce the kinds of great creative synergy that R&D relies on. It is the reason that organizations like Google nurture and even force interaction among their employees and customers – Interaction breeds innovation. Isolation stifles. Their website describes their approach this way:

We strive to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues. Our offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play.

Even if you are a sole proprietor and have no employees – and especially if you work in a space like a home office that has no other human interaction – collaborative partnerships are an easy and powerful way to bring vitality to your work and life. Seek out people whose company you enjoy and who can help you to think bigger thoughts. Invite them to coffee and propose a challenge.This is not chitchat, so you need to establish an agenda and stop and start times. Also consider what kind of space is most conducive to your task. It may not be the local coffee shop. Then again, perhaps Starbucks, Panera or Corner Bakery. A great alternative is a space like Union in Dallas near SMU, that also has conference rooms available for exactly this purpose.

Perhaps you actually work on a group project that benefits both of you. OR, you may just take turns bringing the topic. Either way, you are likely to experience increased productivity and a greater sense of enjoyment in your work, even if you are an introvert like me.

How have you created collaborations for your work? What kinds of spaces have been most conducive? Tell us a story about what has worked for you.

Gadget – media:scape

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Favorite new gadget – Media:Scape by Steelcase

I just found out that we have them at Perkins School of Theology at SMU in the Bridwell Library and I can’t wait to schedule a group meeting to try it out.

Each user plugs their laptop or device into the system through a usb cable and you have an “easy button” to switch and share your screen with the group on the large monitor in front of everyone. What a great way to collaboratively share information across a micro intranet.

What’s your favorite new gadget for collaborative work?

Small Business Incubator, Community Development, and the Church

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The following is an introduction to the idea of churches being participating partners in small business incubators through leveraging our space, our network of relationships, and our pool of talent in order to support individuals in the community in their efforts to provide stable incomes to themselves and others through small businesses.

Small Business Incubator Ministry

We are called, as followers of Christ, to meet people at their points of need – not just spiritually, but also physically, mentally, and emotionally. One of the ways that we can do this is to support individuals and groups in their efforts to provide gainful employment for themselves and others through small businesses. Churches have several resources that can easily be brought to bear on this effort.

1)     People in our congregations have business knowledge and experience to share

2)     People in our congregations have a desire to encourage others

3)     People in our congregations have networks that could help business owners

4)     Our facilities could be available for office space, conference room space, etc.

5)     All of this could provide a community of resources and support for people starting small businesses in our area.

What would we want in exchange? Eventually, we may want people to at least cover the cost to the church of having them here – i.e. sharing the expense of increased utilities, copier costs, increased internet bandwidth, coffee and supplies, etc. This might be on a sliding scale such that in their first 3 months, people pay nothing. In Months 4-9, people pay an incremental amount, perhaps $10/month. After 9 months, if people choose to stay in our facility or another within the network, then they would pay a slightly higher fee – $35-50. This would be a self-sustaining model that would provide the resources to support even more people.

The project would rely on the training and support available from the Small Business Development Center and other similar resources.

What this is not: This is not churches or their members starting business so as to employ people – though that certainly could happen if they so choose. This is not churches or their participants taking the primary lead in offering training – we would rely on the SBDCs to take the lead on that. This is not bait and switch were we get folks on campus so as to corner them with an evangelistic message – meeting people’s needs is itself an act of evangelism.

Links to local resources:

Links to regional and national resources:

Links to existing incubator models

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