PIE …. Big A’s … Experts offer strategies for Entrepreneurs ….

Advisors and Advocates (Big A’s) are essential to the success of Productive Innovative Engine (PIE) Framework Teams.  Previous Blogs have concentrated on the core PIE Team functions that create products, services, solutions or experiences, which in turn create jobs.  This in no way means there aren’t other functions which are important and must be put in place that will address potential areas of failures.  

The article “Legal Experts Offer Strategies for Entrepreneurs” by John R Platt in the April 2013 IEEE Institute has some valuable advice for Entrepreneurs and PIE Teams.

The article states “A new company can be doomed if the right legal, financial, and intellectual-property protections are not put in place at the very start. That was the message from experts speaking on “Legal and Patent Strategies for Entrepreneurs,” a recent event jointly sponsored by the IEEE Boston Section’s Consultants Network and Entrepreneurs' Network. The Consultants' Network helps IEEE members establish themselves as freelance or independent contractors, while the Entrepreneurs' Network supports members who want to go into business for themselves.

 “As you launch a business, it’s really important to set up its foundation,” says Thomas Durkin, one of the speakers and a managing partner in the law firm Gesmer Updegrove LLP, also in Boston. “You only have one chance to get it right.”

In the bestChoices concept these functions were addressed in the Common Core structures.

The “Blunder-Wonder” graphic from the article illustrates the dilemma too often encountered by Entrepreneurs in the start-up phase of their dream.
 
 In the original focus on “bestChoices” functions the concepts of Mr. Platt’s article are addressed in the Common Operational Resource Environment (CORE).  Due to the stress on the PIE six Team hats these have not been given emphasis, but should not be forgotten.  Many business articles expend efforts on these and short change the important functions of PIE Framework.  

Hopefully this blog will bring balance to various essential functions related to starting and creating businesses that truly produce sustainable jobs.

Word Clouds … SEGCA … PIE … F4K

This blog explores the use of http://www.wordle.net/create to create Word Clouds using extracts from Southeast Guilford Community Association website, Productive Innovative Engine (PIE) sub-web and Questions received from students to me as a virtual mentor for Future 4 Kids (F4K).

Mind Manager was used to create the mind map shown in the graphic.

The Mind Manager exported the mind map to a word document which is available as PDF file.

Source information for each cloud is provided for each word cloud and can be examined in the PDF file.

This was an experiment in the use of http://www.wordle.net/create  for creating word clouds for information familiar to those working with SEGCA, PIE and F4K.

Word clouds are an alternate way to capture and visualize brain storming or associated extracts from documents.

I encourage readers to experiment with wordle.net using information of interest to them.

Hopefully this will trigger new ideas by thinking inside and outside the box!

 

PIE Logo Impressions ...

After the creation of the PIE frameworks concept that uses the fingers to represent the various hats of the Entrepreneurial Productive Innovative Engine (PIE), I have been surprised how many hand graphics I have run across that triggered thinking of PIE.  Below is a collage that captures several of these ideas.   All of these can relate to PIE Team Players striving to achieve excellence.   

One of the first was the Guilford County Schools (GCS) presentation by Mo Green that showed a graphic on screen with up lifted hands stressing "Achieving Educational Excellence".  Our local Southeast Guilford Community Association uses uplifted hands reaching for the stars and the Southeast Guilford Foundation uses an arm outstretched picking a star. 

Clockwise from the left top we have  TEDx Greensboro, Hands Tree from Southeast Baptist preschool wall, above PIE Team Players, GCS Achieving Education Excellence, Praying Hands representing the Rudder for Future Economy, Southeast Guilford Community Foundation, Guilford Education Alliance Tree of Hands from 2012 Education Summit brochure, Southeast Guilford Community Association, Center Students raising hands with answers.

More Logos are shown in the graphic below.  Clockwise Hands locked as lifting seat, VentuRealization Community, Neon sign, PIE hands, Google fingers, Like hand, Bear Paw, Bye (stop) hand, Two Fingers people.  It is amazing where you see hand or fingers that trigger PIE thoughts.

I encourage you to look for other illustrations that could be related to PIE hand fingers.

 

Rudder for Future Economy ….

Our economy has been experiencing a rambling path similar to the one that the Bismarck ship experienced during WW-II when a torpedo disabled the steering mechanism.

 This blog expands on previous thinking of the Entrepreneurial Productive Innovative Engine (PIE) Framework http://www.bcswonline.com/PIE/index.html to include the concept of the hands of the PIE team clasped together  as a rudder for steering the future economy.

Tonight, while attending a spiritual worship service at Southeast Baptist in Greensboro, Chris Thorpe shared a profound concept related to our spiritual life.  He illustrated it by showing two hands clasped in a prayer mode, which he expressed was the rudder that steers our spiritual life.

The worship service was the celebration of a weekend of “Let’s Do Something” where the members were out in the community working on three resident’s houses needing repairs and maintenance work, collecting electronic equipment for recycling, conducting a church reverse (no pay i.e. Free) yard sale, making crafts for nursing home and hosting flu shots.  It was a great weekend!

Building on the concept of PIE, when the two hands are brought together one representing the six team hats and the white glove for quality can be thought of as a rudder that steers the economy by creating new products, services, solutions, experiences that in turn create new jobs.  This corresponds to the diamond at the top of the workforce triangle which is defined by some as the creative work.  It is not too far of a stretch to visualize the diamond part as the rudder of the workforce triangle that drives the economy.

Left is a graphic from the back of my business card illustrating the PIE framework.  It shows  metaphors representing various views of the PIE Framework.

Taking our thinking into another dimension of swimmers clasping their hands as they dive into the water, we see this as a way to break the water for a smooth transition and as a steering aid toward the direction desired.   

Hopefully this concept of PIE as the rudder for the economy will take root and influence thinking that will steer our future economy into positive waters and destinations.

Quality Adage Updated …

Several years ago (1990s) an adage evolved in my mind and later was updated; this blog discusses the latest update. 

Initial Adage:
“Quality comes from Ownership with Integrity and appropriate Resources.”

After a couple years, I realized you could have this but still not achieve Quality due to an unhealthy paradigm; i.e. cross vectors working at odds to alignment of a path for success.

First revision:
“Quality comes from Ownership with Integrity and appropriate Resources in a healthy Paradigm.”

For a discussion of this see:http://bcswonline.blogspot.com/2008/03/quality-comes-from.html.  Also http://bcswonline.blogspot.com/2008/08/quality-education.html discusses quality and engagement.

This has been a robust view for over a decade.  I haven’t found anyone that has disagreed with this being the essences of Quality.

Latest revision:
“Quality comes from Ownership with Integrity and appropriate working Resources in a healthy Paradigm.”

This latest revision evolved while sitting in Dentist’s chair as my dentist was attempting to get his new drill system working.  He said he had only used it eight times so far.  As I thought about the appropriate resources adage concept, it became clear that you can have appropriate resources but not attain quality when the resources are not working or engaged.

Thinking about workforce you can have the skill sets available but unless they are engaged quality will not be accomplished.  Or you can have equipment resources available but they are useless if they won’t work.

When my daughter-in-law’s dad was experiencing ALS she shared a book regarding “Caring for ALS Patients”.  In the book as I remember there was a point made that people too often are in the mode of “Taking it in but not taking it on”; this is an example of disengagement.  Taking it on is taking ownership.

I encourage you to stress this adage and provide feedback from your experience and perspective.

Virtual Town Hall - Piedmont Voice …

The Piedmont Triad Sustainable Communities Planning Project has partnered with MindMixer to provide a virtual “town hall” website PiedmontVoice.org dedicated to soliciting ideas and feedback from residents about a broad variety of interesting and engaging community issues. This new public engagement platform allows a more diverse audience of participants that might not be able to attend conventional public meetings.

When I checked MindMixer in April 2012 it had 29 communities; see MindMixer Communities for a list.  They have learned through experience optimal engagement comes when technology is combined with two C’s (Content and Context) as illustrated in visual.  

MindMixer Technology appears to be an effective tool to capture insights with feedback that is relevant.  PiedmontVoice.org is one of several communities taking advantage of this innovative tool.

The MindMixer web site states:
” First things first, let’s start with technology, because it’s still very important. Technology should allow the government agency a diversity of functionality. Crowd sourcing ideas is an important functional element, but so is functionality that supports prioritization, interactive budgeting, and traditional survey questions. Equally important, the public facing design of the technology plays a key role in success. Together, functionality and design provide the foundation for total engagement.

Assuming an agency has adequate technology (preferably MindMixer :), success is contingent on executing the two C’s. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times, content is king. Creating and presenting compelling content is difficult for lots of government agencies. Why? Typically the most successful content is either controversial emotional or non-technical. Government agencies often times fear the emotional and operate in the technical (by requirement). Helping these entities understand the importance of creating and presenting content that yields interest and maintains simplicity is critically important.

Compelling content can change the trajectory of engagement effort instantly. Combining compelling content with context can take a community to even greater heights. Offering participants contextually relevant opportunities to participate makes engagement personal. Context should be driven by demographics, location, and interest. Asking a citizen for ideas about a new streetscape works. Asking a citizen for ideas about a streetscape in their neighborhood works better. Asking a citizen about ideas for a streetscape in their neighborhood, while they are walking on the street brings engagement to an entirely different level. Context creates ownership. Ownership leads to action. Action solves problems.

In summary:

The engagement technology you choose is important, but it’s only one predictor of success.  Make your content interesting and emotional. Emotion drives interest.  Add context to the conversation. It creates personal ownership.”  Extract from http://www.mindmixer.com/blog/4.

As I reflect on the Design Funnel discussed in previous blogs, tools such as MindMixer provide a method of expanding the efficiency of the process of moving through the Design Funnel.  In the wide area of the funnel where degree of freedom is large, Ideas would be captured more efficiently.  In the not too distance past this process was done by going to the library and exploring what may be available as options for refinement into Goals, Solutions, Products, Processes, Services or Experiences.  More recently search engines have removed the inefficiency of this activity.  With this new technology humans and technology should work more in concert to build a more viable approach to discovering and refining the ideas/options that will lead to the objective quicker.

The diagram also includes Triple Bottom Impacts that focus on Social (Quality), Environmental (Sustainability) and Economic (Dollars).  Other views of the Triple Bottom Line Impacts focus on People, Planet and Profit.  The blog “A Better Way .... Triple Bottom Line Impacts” discuss this in more detail.

The Southeast Guilford Community Association has a goal to “Develop Alliances with strategic organizations”.  The Southeast Guilford Community Alliances   are focused on enhancing the Quality of Life, strengthening community both now and for future generations, encouraging growth and financial support of community and businesses. They work independently and collaboratively toward that end.    

It occurs to me that the MindMixer tool would be useful to groups such as The Southeast Guilford Community Alliance for engaging the broader community in an interactive Virtual Town Hall.  Community forums and surveys have been used in the past to address this issue.  Another thought is that PiedmontVoice expand to allow smaller independent community Virtual Town Hall Voices.

Hopefully this blog and others at http://www.bcswonline.com/blog/index.html will be useful in triggering ideas that will benefit PiedmontVoice and Piedmont Triad Sustainable Communities Planning Project 

Service-Learning PIE Wrapup ...

A number of my blogs have recently focused on Service-Learning.  This blog acts as a wrapup of these and PIE application.  A notebook was circulated among the Guilford Education Alliance Connecting Students to the Future Economy Task Force as a way of wrapping up my involvement.  Mobility issues are preventing me from continuation of my particapation in non-home activities.

The following are links to the contents of the wrap-up notebook:

Productive Innovative Engine (PIE) frame works:

• Productive Innovative Engine (PIE) Frame Works
• About PIE
• PIE Blogs 
• PIE FAQs
• Related Resources
• Future 4 Kids
• What has been said about PIE Teams 
• Engineering Connections - PIE Concepts PDF (2 slides per page)
• PIE Team Wiki Resources SWF (Mindmanager Player)
• Draft PIE Proposed Sessions SWF (Mindmanager Player)

GCS Service-Learning Thoughts in Blogs:

• Service-Learning PIE
• Service Learning Entrepreneurial Processes Chart-1 PDF
• Service Learning Entrepreneurial Processes Chart-2 PDF
• Service-Learning PIE Sustainability
• A Better Way: Triple-Bottom-Line Impacts
• Project-Based Learning PIE
• Service-Learning SEE-PIE-SWOT Focus 

Blog Index & related resources:                  

• Blog Index
• BCSW Online
• TryEngineering.org
• TryNano.org
• Engineering Connections 
• About f4k intro
• 
  

Hopefully this information will be a useful resource to persons interested in PIE Frame Works and Service-Learning.  From my perspective, it has been rewarding to learn and think about Service-Learning; it has given me a new set of eyes on what can accomplished by incorporating PIE Frame Works.  I encourage persons to seriously consider the potential of concepts documented here.