Taking a step back … enterprise

From my last post you may have sensed that a Narrative approach has a concern for those that fall short of our “buzzwords�. In more depth, this is about dominant stories and subjugated stories. The thinking goes that a story (remember: a way of relating to the world) gains air play and becomes dominant. E.g. how the information era story began to gain precedence over the industrial era story. The problem here is that a dominant story subjugates other stories, and in the process squashes value that that story may have to offer. Think of how, after having a reasonably good day, a negative event ‘tips’ you and your internal world becomes inundated with thoughts and emotions regarding this event – somewhere you’ve forgotten about the rest of the day.

These subjugated stories often hold a lot of worthy and value. This is not to say that we must avoid dominant stories … no! It is a part of the change story that we must progress and adapt. But we must be on the look out for the gold that these alternative stories offer us. Let me work out an example …

The entrepreneurial spirit is valued today like none other. Out of the enterprise model in capitalism comes a platform upon which those with some spunk, savvy, tenacity and energy can make the world their own. With the changes being brought on by globalisation and technology, making your work worthwhile and valued is the challenge that everyone faces (Tom Peters is a good one to read on this point, Re-imagine!) The key to survival is the entrepreneurial spirit.

But what about those of us who do not hold aspirations of finding this spirit, nevertheless developing it? Will their fate be redundancy and retrenchment in a short few years? In all likelihood, this will be so.

Welch had his 20-70-10 model; Enron their A, B and C employees; and Maxwell speaks of the best 20% and the 80% rest.

Does the enterprise model limit its success to a handful of entrepreneurial types?

To what extent is the entrepreneurial spirit available to the “rest�?

As we move into the connection economy, are we biased towards those who show entrepreneurial spirit?

To what extent could the new economy really be a connection economy if we do not concern ourselves with those “rest�?

What can we do as connection economists to ensure that we do connect – with all?

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