So, what do a Coffee wholesaler, a lifestyle clothing designer, three contractors, a financial planner, a singer/songwriter, a social media mogul, a real estate broker, and a custom cabinet creator have in common? Only two things:
- They own their own business
- They know me
It was an unusual conversation at the first pass. Most of the discussions went something like this:
Me: “I want to host a ‘collision’ at my house one evening coming up?”
Entrepreneurial Friend: “A what?”
Me: “A collision – Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos is all over this idea – it’s going to be big… except it’s going to be small… I mean, probably 8-10 of my entrepreneurial friends getting together to hang out for the evening to share ideas.”
Entrepreneurial Friend: “Sounds expensive, should I bring my checkbook?”
Me: “No, nothing like that. No sales pitch… not a networking thing either, at least not exactly – just some interesting people that I think you would enjoy meeting. There might be some business opportunities, but no pressure.”
Entrepreneurial Friend: “Will there be beer?”
Me: “I’ve suggested that everyone bring a snack and a beverage to share – so, beer is quite likely.”
It may be that the promise of beer was the real attraction, but in any case, 10 of my entrepreneurial friends showed up. I made introductions at the beginning and asked everyone to share a 2-3 minute summary about who they are and what they do. After everyone shared an overview of their business with the group, I encouraged everyone to enjoy the snacks and to stay as long as they like. A good time was had by all and just about every person who came said that it was unlike any networking event they ever attended – no one shamelessly self-promoting or pretending, just a lot of authentic interactions.
With 10 people, this represented 45 possible “pairs” of conversations. Since everyone ended up talking with everyone else during the course of the evening, the gathering represented 45 “collisions”. This notion of collisions is an idea that Tony Hsieh,of Zappos fame, has made popular – the belief that a significant factor for entrepreneurs who succeed are the number of “collisions” that they have with other entrepreneurs (http://bit.ly/Hsieh-Collisions) . Hsieh doesn’t seem to think that a collision is necessarily even a meeting or a discussion about a business proposition. Rather any interaction between entrepreneurs, even random ones, are believed to have an accelerating effect on successful small business venture.
What came out of the “collision” event that I orchestrated was quite amazing to watch. In talking with those who attended, a number of things happened:
– At least half a dozen follow up meetings at a later time took place among those who met that evening.
– Several of these meetings did, in fact, lead to joint projects or business opportunities.
– A number of folks have shared ideas or asked for input from the others on product ideas, website designs, operational challenges, business strategy, and many others.
– There have been several shared requests for referrals for potential employees or providers.
– Contact info was circulated and several individuals made requests to join each other’s communication networks, participate in upcoming events, etc.
– A number of folks have mentioned how the interaction with other entrepreneurs just gave them a renewed boost in enthusiasm for their business, stemming from being able to share what they are doing with others who are in similar circumstances.
I don’t want to overstate the impact of the moment, but the anecdotal feedback from this small experiment seems very much to support the notion that “collisions” do fuel entrepreneurship.
In closing, I’d like to take these learnings back into the organization – leave it to the org design scholar/behavioral scientist to try to turn a party into an experimental learning opportunity…
If Intrapreneurship is the act of applying entrepreneurial concepts inside a corporation, then what works for self-employed business owners should also hold true for self-led employees. If so, the following seem like useful applications:
- An intrapreneur should “collide” with as many other intrapreneurs as possible.
- No need to wait for “collisions” to occur naturally – host your own collision – bring people together who have nothing in common except you.
- Share ideas with other intrapreneurs and actively seek out their feedback.
- Invest time in conversation and thought about the ideas of other intrapreneurs and provide feedback where you think you can add value to them (even if there is no immediate return on this investment).
- When you do “collide” with another intrapreneur, think about who else you know that this person would find to be a valuable connection.
- Stay connected after collisions occur by linking up through social media and other communication channels – share and promote each others’ ideas.
Perhaps “collisions” aren’t the silver bullet in every respect for successful entrapreneurs and intrapreneurs, but this experience suggests that there might something to it.
Time to collide!
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