Building and running a business or social innovation hub does not work without a vital ecosystem. Innovative ideas and entrepreneurial intentions emerge when people with the right mindset and divergent knowledge meet and work together in the right mood. You can have the right place, tools and money, still you cannot control whether that mix of people come together and create something innovative. Innovations and Entrepreneurs are no prey you can hunt. Instead, we build hubs as a gardener that patiently plants seeds and lures people and ideas like bees and butterflies to find the most beautiful fruits growing one day. And because nobody ever knows who might come up with what new inspiration or what resources are needed to get it started you need a regional ecosystem -one beyond your bubble- to increase your chances to be part of the solution and of value for the entrepreneurs.
So how to build up such a vital ecosystem, such a flourishing garden? Sure, you need a good and accessible space, infrastructure, resources. We all go for that. It is reasonable and certainly helpful. But the truth is, there are way more important tools to grow a flourishing ecosystem. Brad Feld & Ian Hathaway describe in their book „The Startup Community Way“ something we learned after years of trying: The most effective lever is cultivating an entrepreneurial and innovation-friendly Mindset and Culture, and make people like and value that. And so, I want to share how we push that mindset lever.
When we opened our first open innovation hub: an empty shop, plenty of space and wifi free to use, we told partners, friends and social media about it all excited. But people did not come running to use it. Passers-by were stopping after all to ask what we going to sell once the shop is set up. That expression on our faces is the same I see, when hub managers show me around their modern co-working space with everything in place, just users missing. It all turned when we put chairs, tables, and a good coffee machine, when we sat there, played, worked, made events, see picture. At that time, we understood that these cool entrepreneurs do not run around looking for their hub and some workshop program. Instead, they like to sit with like-minded others, they like to find inspiration, appreciation, and chances to try an idea. We needed to become entrepreneurs ourselves, to sit with others, try ideas, and enjoy it. We needed to live the mindset and culture as a model, to show that we are alike, that we pursue social innovation ourselves.
Since then, we expanded and strengthened our ecosystem heavily using the mindset and culture lever. So how to do that? How can folks and partners out there understand that we are the ones with a culture perfect for inspiration, for enterprise and social impact? We gave opportunities to find it out. First, we established true curiosity and appreciation: We went to potential partners or invited them as speakers and listened closely to their stories, their successes and learnings, to their pains, gains and dreams. We added open innovation and trust, when we explained our ideas and unsolved challenges and asked them for advice and support. To establish a collaborative culture, we organized e.g. a festival in a way that everyone could be part and profit by easily, or events around their needs. And instead of doing it all alone we hired them for things they really like, or we invited them as partners for applications or jobs for something they like or look for. So, it is not about a specific method here, it is to live and share that mindset and culture through the opportunities you seize or offer. And then others will bond with you and form the strong mutual network around your entrepreneurship and social innovation hub.
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