Equations instil fear in many but for those who attended our entrepreneurial boot camp a simple mathematical formula provided an inspirational way to bring about change.

Led by Entrepreneurial Spark, the two day boot camp gave 25 managers, CANs and volunteers an insight into an entrepreneurial mind set and how they could adopt new ways of thinking - and actively manage a growth mind set - to enable transformation. 

Boot camp leaders Jeremy Ambrose and Mike Stephens made it clear that for change to happen all employees need to have ownership of the change agenda and play a part in leading change – and they offered a change model that would help that happen: Dissatisfaction x Vision x First steps > Resistance.

But what does that actually mean?  

• Dissatisfaction: for change to happen you need to find a problem that enough people believe in so they are driven to help solve it.
• Vision: you need to paint a clear and compelling vision for the future that is easily communicated and people can take ownership of.
• First steps: offer concrete steps that can be taken towards achieving the vision.
• Resistance: overcome it by helping people understand the problem from their point of view using the three elements above. If you do, change will happen. If you don’t, you’ll keep banging your head off the wall.

For Carl Bullough, Senior Responsible Owner, Entrepreneurial Workstream, the boot camp highlighted that small changes to how we approach and think about our work can bring big benefits.

He said: “Listening to colleagues from different Services and hearing their views on how we currently operate and how the Council is perceived – and what we need to do better – was insightful. For me the two things that really resonated were the formula, a brilliant way to look at a problem, and the Business Model Canvas, a great tool to quickly and easily define and communicate a business idea or concept on one sheet of paper.”

Following the boot camp attendees began an online learning journey that comes to an end today (November 1st). Over the four week period tasks have been set to help people get a better understand of how they work and how they can adopt, embed and spread a more entrepreneurial approach to how we work.

Carl said: “Hopefully we now have 25 employees who can think like an entrepreneur, spot opportunities and have the skills to successfully pitch them. These employees are our Entrepreneurial Champions who will now spread the word and their new skills to others in their team, their Service and ultimately across the whole council.”