“Although the case has been argued for many years that enterprise skills should be embedded into curriculum at all levels – our next generation is entering a very different work environment – fast-paced, flexible and high levels of connectivity. Wi-Fi and smart phones mean that new entrepreneurs will (and in fact, already) have the global marketplace at their fingertips. A collaborative mindset, networking know-how and creative thinking is now just as important as traditional business skills such as finance and strategy.”

Image by KTVee on Flickr

1. Academic excellence no longer translates to job security. There are simply not enough jobs for the high calibre graduates that are we developing. Young people, from all walks of life, will need to find ways to differentiating themselves in the marketplace. Part of this requires a dedication to learning outside of the classroom and pursuing personal interests. With the abundance of online content available for learning, knowledge exchange and engagement (e.g. TED talks) there are ample opportunities for this.

Young people will need to develop their individual and unique skills to build their careers. Professor Steven Gold of Babson College, Massachusetts, who also sat on the panel, described this as the entrepreneurial process of effectuation. Rather than identifying a goal and finding the resources to achieve it (causation), entrepreneurs identify their resources and build their enterprise around what they have available.

2. Digital tools and literacy need to be integrated into all learning, not seen as a separate subject.  An article from John Naughton covers this brilliantly (HT Neil Perkins), where he argues that we need to move from ICT (information and communication technology) training to ICT education – making the transition from technology ‘how-to’ more to enabling a digital mindset and encouraging exploration.

As it’s possible to set up a website and gain an online presence at very little or no cost, particularly with the intention of 100% free Wi-Fi in Barbados, there is a real opportunity to naturally prepare young people for enterprise. Granted, the next generation are growing up with digital more integrated into their lives, but let’s not forget the interpersonal and creative thinking skills that can help them use these tools to their full potential.

3. Re-define what business looks like. You don’t need a massive amount of capital to get a knowledge-based business going. Business doesn’t have to mean a fancy office and expensive suits. It’s increasingly becoming one person on their laptop working from co-working spaces and cafes, engaging in regular pop-up businesses and projects with other entrepreneurs.

It’s no longer about hierarchy and sitting at the top of the pyramid, but about your networks and the quality of connections you have. People operating in this environment need flexibility, agility, ability to work with different types of people and collaborate (and we do believe effective collaboration is a skill!), good communication and project management, creative thinking and problem solving, as well as clearly being able to articulate their knowledge and expertise.  Let’s introduce young people to the notion of ‘portfolio working’ early.

4.  The role of teaching and learning. A young person now has access to a bank of (online) knowledge that is far greater than any single teacher can provide. So, teachers also become facilitators of learning (another term from Babson College). Their role is just as important in encouraging students to develop the lifelong skills and tools that will help them to operate in the 21st century workplace – something we aim to do with our INCUBE8 project.

The think-tank Demos held an event a few months back where 21st century work was described as that which involves: multiple job changes, working in smaller companies, people just as likely to be employers as employees, and many working in industries that don’t currently exist. It’s impossible to base current and future education on how we experienced ours, as much of the material will be out-of-date by the time the next generation are ready to start work.

In addition, the event described how employers are increasingly looking for soft skills alongside technical ones: resourcefulness, adaptability, creativity, communication, people skills, self-management, team-working, problem-soving and critical thinking. Sounds a lot like an entrepreneur to us, and demonstrates that entrepreneurial skills aren’t just of relevance to those that want to work for themselves, but for anyone that wants to operate successfully in a professional environment.

Preparing young people for 21^st century entrepreneurship means preparing them for an unpredictable journey during which they will continue to learn and develop, and will need to adapt to a variety of challenges.

More reading:

10 skills you need to survive the job market (Guardian). With links to:

• Future Work Skills 2020 (PDF)
• The Start-up of You (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times)

Planning isn’t just about setting out the tasks and timeline – in fact, if you start off from here, you’re missing a big trick of making the project the best it could be.  It’s actually a great stage of exploration, research and entrepreneurial thinking about how you’re going to make the project happen.  Start thinking BIG and WIDE by bringing together the knowledge of everyone involved, and gradually honing the project down into what’s possible within the resources and the time available.

This ensures that all the team members are setting off in the same direction, and builds stronger foundations from the start.  It’s not about setting everything in stone from the beginning, but developing a framework and guide to fill in and shape as you go along.

Image from MyTudut on Flickr

Some questions to ask:

What is the idea? A simple question, but important!  Team members may have different views and understanding of what the project is, or will be.  Clear this up by ensuring everyone has a chance to air their ideas at the beginning, and then shape the project based on this.

What are you aiming towards? Visualise what the project outcome could look like when it’s finished and how you will know that it’s been successful.  Rather than developing in-depth creative ideas (that’s for later), again, this is bringing together the thoughts of team members of what they see as important for the project.

Who is it for? Consider the end users of the project, and those that might be involved along the way.  Pull together a good idea of their characteristics and needs, and what should be included in the project on this basis.

What’s happening? Bring together the team’s industry knowledge on external trends and factors (this might require further research).  Think about how these factors support your idea and could have an impact on it.  Learn from previous projects and identify how you could make yours different and unique.

What do you have? Build your project around the resources, skills and expertise that exists within the team.  This gives everyone an opportunity, at the beginning, to identify what they can contribute.  Also think about any gaps that exist and whether they need to be filled, or whether you need to re-think the structure of the project based on this.

The next stage will be to discuss project budget (both income and expenditure) timeline and tasks.

Our next post will provide some tips on running meetings to kick-start creative projects and pull ideas together.

I am a self-inflicted scope-creeper! Arggh.

Scope creep describes the way that projects grow beyond their original definition/objectives -  it’s a risk for any project, and particularly creative ones.

When you’re working on something that you’re passionate about, and have a group of interesting people coming together, great ideas will be generated.  Not just at the start of a project, but throughout.  And this can be good.  Discussions will spark inspiration, observations and research will provide new perspectives, and there will always be the temptation to make the project even better.

But it’s also important to balance this with getting the work done.   If a project grows, it needs more time and often money.  So unless you can get either of these, you will need a way of deciding whether these new ideas can be incorporated.

Rejecting new ideas without consideration could impact team motivation and kill creativity, so some things to think about:

• The original objectives of the project – does it align with the core goals or does it take you in a different direction?  A different direction could be good if the project wasn’t working in the first place, but ideally you’d be communicating and reviewing at regular points to ensure that a drastic change isn’t necessary
• Whether it will really make the project better, or whether it’s just a ‘nice to have’. You might need to be firm with yourself and your team on this.  You could agree to deliver everything you originally planned to, and re-assess any additional ideas if there is time after that.
• Whether it will impact your ability to deliver the project?  If the deadline is fixed, bringing in new ideas might mean you’ll have to sacrifice other areas and/or put additional pressure on yourself or others.  Make sure you’re honest about the additional work that will be created.

Develop a way for capturing new ideas, acknowledging them and then assessing whether they are brought into a project or not.  Online tools can be great for this:  1) having a space where the team can make suggestions to be discussed and explored at the next opportunity and 2) documenting the core project objectives so that everyone stays on track.

In this practical guide, Harrin explores every corner that a project manager should consider when introducing their team members to social media – from the different types of tools available, all the way through to making the case to senior management for those using them within organisations.

The book emphasises collaboration throughout, identifying how technology and societal trends are changing the way we work together, including in project management. This is ‘Project Management 2.0′ where we’re moving from command-and-control methods to more open and transparent modes, with one of the main roles of the project manager now being to encourage and facilitate collaboration amongst the team.  This not only makes social media a perfect tool, but means that existing project management technologies might not work so well in the current day.  We’re used to accessing real-time information flexibly and freely in many aspects of our lives, and this is now spilling over into our work.  Using social media within projects means that those involved can access the status of the project at any time, rather than waiting for the project manager to report back.  However this also, Harrin highlights, shifts the role of project managers who are now not the sole holders of information, which could be uncomfortable for some.

Social Media for Project Managers is a perfect introduction for those that are new to social media – it starts by explaining the 7 C’s of community, collaboration, communication, constraints, connectivity, channels, content (and an eighth – cloud computing, which relates to software that can be accessed through the web without a need for downloading it) and a thorough explanation of the array of tools that are available (blogs,  collaboration tools, instant messaging, micro-blogs, podcasts, RSS, social networks, vodcasts, webinars, wikis).   Harrin demonstrates how social media can work perfectly in line with all stages the project management life cycle (initiation > planning > delivery > final) and provides plenty of examples and case studies of how they are implemented successfully (Bracket is found in the section on managing teams where we discuss how we used Google Sites to support Field).

It also works well as a handbook for those that are keen to use social media but are perhaps meeting some resistance from others.   Harrin raises awareness of all the common worries and challenges of implementation, particularly within organisations – such as concerns about lost productivity, security, information overload and managing the ‘always on’ culture with mobile devices.   You will be provided with tips on how to overcome these challenges (e.g. clarify boundaries and dispel myths) and even given an example list of risks and contingencies that can be presented to senior management that are expressing concern.

Social Media for Project Managers is extremely comprehensive, accessible and easy-to-digest – a must read for those working in this area!

Find out more on the book’s website or order your copy from Amazon.

Making Ideas Happen – an essential read for anyone who generates ideas – takes readers through a series of suggestions, based on case studies from successful creative organisations known for “overcoming the obstacles between vision and reality” (the book’s tagline).  This ranges from practical tips on managing projects (including Behance’s own “Action Method”, thinking about how your workspace can help you become more action-orientated, and overcoming the stigma of self-promotion.  It also nods to some of the current trends driving our working practices such as the freelance culture, flexibility, digital developments and co-working, as elements that should be capitalised to support ideas execution.

A considerable amount of the book is dedicated to the “Forces of Community” using networks and contacts to get ideas through to completion.   Making Ideas Happen acknowledges the value of collaboration (“ideas don’t happen in isolation”) but identifies the challenges that can arise throughout the process for creative people, such as sharing ideas, transparency and tolerating feedback, whilst looking at processes for overcoming these.

Overall, Making Ideas Happen is an accessible read that encourages you to reflect on and re-evaluate the way you work creatively.  Belsky has been careful to focus on thought-provoking techniques for putting ideas into practice (99% of the work) rather than ideas generation which is well within the comfort zone of most creative people (the other 1%).  It’s one of those books that, when you find your brilliant projects aren’t leaving the sketchbook, you should dip into for actionable suggestions for getting them going.

For more information visit http://the99percent.com/book or pre-order the book on Amazon.

Creative Boom London kindly wrote a fantastic review of the workshop which covers all of these points (and more) in detail.

Bracket’s session at Media Camp London 4 during Social Media Week generated lots of discussion about the best methods and tools for helping groups of creatives to get things done.  It looked at how social media could be used to support collaborative working between artists and designers etc that are used to working independently, usually have autonomy over their work, are characteristically busy, and highly skilled in generating ideas. The aim of the session was to develop solutions for how to channel that creativity into tangible outcomes and how social media can be used to support the process along the way.

The word ‘collaboration’ is often used freely without consideration for how complex it can actually be. Not only does it require a set of skills to do it effectively, but also a different mindset and culture to adapt to a new way of working.  An ‘online project hub’ can be used to provide a central point to bring everyone together, but technology should actually come last after two other factors – people and process.

People

The set of skills and awareness that is needed by the individual before starting the project. Effective collaboration requires tolerance of other working styles,  a willingness to share and a commitment to open and frequent communication with other team members.

Process

The part that should happen with the team in place, to plan how the collaborative project might work. Individuals need to identify what they are bringing and hope to get out, the team needs to look at the overall aims of the project and roles should be allocated according to key skills and personalities to ensure a good spread of what the project requires (Belbin is a good tool for profiling this). Time must also be allocated to planning, scheduling and organisation, which many online tools can help with.

Technology

Time or cost spent developing an online tool doesn’t guarantee that people will use it. It is often difficult to get people away from using e-mail to communicate in projects, because on a basic level, it works!  But social media can add much value by keeping ideas in one place (particularly when team members tend to go off in different creative directions), making this easily searchable,  providing a record of what has already been discussed/agreed and therefore reducing duplication of work and effort.

So the perfect online tool, for groups of creatives short on time is something that requires little or no training, is intuitive and is flexible to the initial needs of the type of project and as it develops. And a big challenge throughout the project is maintaining focus without killing creativity.

A group of writers have set themselves up with the task to write and publish a book in just 24 hours using online tools to work together.  The group has been using Google Docs to write and edit the document, as well as using Skype and face-to-face conversation to communicate, and have been updating us on their progress through their twitter profile.

The 24-hour book project

The group consists of one lead writer and ten other participants, and they also opened up part of the book on Google Docs to invite contributions from the wider public.  As well as this, they’ve been gathering photos, illustrations and other snippets of media for use in the book or inspiration over on their Ning platform (Ning enables you to create your own social networks).

The final book will be available online and in hard-copy (produced by web-based print-on-demand services) and sold at £4.99 a piece, with profits going towards future collaborations.

Briefly looking at the elements that contributed to getting this project going.  The team:

1. agreed on the focus of the story (“based around a group of city centre allotments and the story will explore ideas of shared and private space and the real and imaginary barriers between a range of different city characters”)
2. identified the desired outcome (an online and printed novel)
3. gave themselves a clear deadline within which to complete the project – they have a launch party on Monday 5^th October.
4. clearly outlined the tasks that need to be completed – writing, editing, proofreading, images, publishing etc – and who will do them – lead writer, participants, professional volunteers and the public.

(Check out Bracket’s toolkit for collaborative projects to see how it matches up)

And the intellectual property?  The group have been careful to inform the public contributors that they must own any material they submit, and will retain ownership but give permission for it to be used within the project.  The book itself will be distributed under a Creative Commons license.

A great example of what online creative collaboration can achieve!

Docs

Online text documents, spreadsheets and presentations – allows multiple team members to edit a file, and includes a chat function for real-time communication if they are online together.  Files are displayed in the order that they were last edited, not alphabetically, which can get confusing.  So if there are a lot of files within a project, it’s a good idea to sort them into folders, which can also be shared across project teams.

Calendar

An online calendar to manage events and tasks – can create multiple, colour-coded calendars which can be individually shared with others to add events to and edit.  Tasks can be added to a calendar, but not assigned to people and although there is a reminder function for events, there isn’t for tasks – which would be useful.  Google Docs is good when integrated with Google Sites (see below)

Groups

An online space for sharing information and creating discussions – groups can be made private and members can opt to have daily reminders of any activity on the space.  Team members can create new pages (which work like a wiki) and upload files. Discussions can either be started from the Google Groups space, or via e-mail through the address that is assigned to the group.

Sites
Create a dedicated website for a project and add features – can be public or private.   New pages can be normal text (like a wiki), lists (e.g. for tasks, although there is no reminder function), file cabinet (to upload documents), or announcements (which works like a blog).  ‘Gadgets’ can be integrated within pages, which include a Google calendar, Google documents, Picasa (Google’s image sharing tool), Google maps or video.  They can’t be edited directly from the site, but update automatically when edited elsewhere.  A dashboard page can be created to insert multiple gadgets – useful for showing all recent activity on the site.  Members can opt to receive an e-mail when either the whole site or a page changes (which could get annoying!).

Wave (coming soon)
Not content with all of the above, Google will soon be publicly launching their new communication and collaboration tool ‘Wave’, which is certainly causing a few waves on the web!  Although Bracket can’t claim to know exactly how it works (the preview is currently available only to web developers) we know it will combine various types of communication and allow for real-time interaction (collaborators will be able to see changes character-by-character).  We’re looking forward to experimenting when it comes!

1. Getting the right mix of people is essential to turn creativity into collaborative action.  There’s little value in a group of people that have exactly the same skills – no one will learn anything new and it’s likely that the project will get stuck at a certain point.  And this goes beyond technical skills such as product design, photography, illustration etc – it’s also about the soft skills that can contribute to project development and move it forward.

Belbin’s Team Roles provides a good model for the different personalities that should be present within a group to make it work effectively:

(Note: these are simplified definitions – visit the link above for full and detailed descriptions)

• Plant – the ideas person
• Resource investigator – the entrepreneurial one
• Coordinator – the leader
• Shaper – the achiever
• Monitor Evaluator – the objective (or critical) one
• Team worker – the one that holds it together
• Implementer – the doer
• Completer Finisher- the perfectionist
• Specialist – the brains

Each role has it’s advantages and disadvantages.  ‘Plants’ and ‘resource investigators’ might be great at the start of a project when generating ideas and researching but what happens towards the end when things need to get up and running? Likewise, a team of ‘implementers’ might get things done, but might not bring the most innovative and creative results.

2. Once you’ve got the right people in place, any new team will most certainly go through the stages of team development identified by Tuckman:

• Forming – getting to know each other
• Storming – early clashes
• Norming – settling into roles, establishing ‘rules of engagement’
• Performing – getting on with it

(Again, visit the link for more detailed explanations of each stage)

Watch any episode of The Apprentice and you’ll see this in play (although perhaps they tend to get stuck at the ‘storming’ stage!).

Have these two theories in mind about the way that teams work, at the start of a project and throughout, and it will almost certainly ensure that the skills and expertise of each individual are used effectively and that the team develops well to get high quality creative ideas off the ground and through to delivery.