Entrepreneurs

            … It is not "can any of us imagine better?" but, "can we all do better?" The
            dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion
           is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case
           is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves,
           and then we shall save our country.[1]

In his Annual Message in 1862, President Lincoln urged Congress to consider how to influence the fate of the nation.  Today his words inspire us to review our current conditions with greater acuity and reflect upon them from a more noble perspective.  How shall we disenthrall ourselves?  How shall we act anew to save the larger world?

Learning – questioning common beliefs, understanding new concepts and truths, testing new insights, and being changed by them – takes our thinking to a higher order of complexity when it is done in a group.  The new way of thinking alters previous constraints, and provides opportunities to cross-pollinate ideas for innovation, joint problem solving, coordinated action and new strategies.

Entrepreneurs[2] are learners with a mission.  They pose questions about things the rest of us don’t yet think are important.  They see possibilities that the rest of us don’t yet perceive.  Their inventions require us to behave in a new way in order to use them.  They often solve more than one problem at a time.  They change the world.

Take the invention of ignition of fire as an example[3].  Fire was a known phenomenon – it was known to give heat and may even have been known to “cook” vegetation and flesh.  The ability to control when and where fire could be started meant that homo erectus and his tribe could heat their caves, ward off insects and cook meat and vegetables making them more nutritious and storable for a longer period of time.   When people could control fire, they could choose to stay in a location in cold weather and metabolize more proteins and carbohydrates from food.  This meant that they could support larger groups of people from the resources in any given area.  Larger tribes could then give rise to specialization of roles….  You get the idea.

The invention of the Internet[4] is another example of entrepreneurism.  We all know that the Internet was started by linking four government computers together without using wires.  (They used radio and satellites.)  ARPA (The Advanced Research Projects Agency) was conducting a number of scientific (especially space related) research projects.  One of their goals was to link different computers together, both to increase overall computer power and to decentralize information storage. In other words, linking computers together meant that researchers could work together without traveling to each other’s locations.  In this example, we can easily see that a new “invention” – networking computers – resulted in a new organizational model. 

Both of the examples of entrepreneurism happened in groups and changed them.  Organizations are laboratories (whether we’re conscious of it or not) where learning confirms, challenges, disrupts or enhances the work and enjoyment of people.  The way in which organizations embrace and identify with their learning strengthens or weakens their internal capacity for change.  It ripples out in their connections with the outer world, their competitiveness, effectiveness, and resilience. 

In our stormy present we must rise with the occasion. In our organizations we must think anew, and act anew and disenthrall ourselves, or at least let the entrepreneurs do so. Then we shall save our country.





[1] Annual Message to Congress, concluding remarks, December 1, 1862, one month before signing the Emancipation Proclamation.  (http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/congress.htm)


[2] An entrepreneur invents a new product or service and forms a company to deliver that product or service that operates in a new way because of the invention. 


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