Tag Archives: HBR

Collaboration for Solopreneurs

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How do you generate creativity when you work alone?
Create opportunities for collaboration and brainstorming.

You have the vision, the passion, and the drive to pursue your dream, build the business and life you imagine and desire. You don’t have to work alone. Solopreneurs commonly suffer side effects of working alone: short-sightedness, isolation, burnout, worry.

The fact that you are responsible for every aspect of your business does not mean you have to do everything, or that you have to do it alone. Often colleagues in the same industry and peers in other disciplines are excited to join in a brainstorming session where you lay out a challenge you are facing and invite others to offer input and ask probing questions. This can produce the kinds of great creative synergy that R&D relies on. It is the reason that organizations like Google nurture and even force interaction among their employees and customers – Interaction breeds innovation. Isolation stifles. Their website describes their approach this way:

We strive to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. In our weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings—not to mention over email or in the cafe—Googlers ask questions directly to Larry, Sergey and other execs about any number of company issues. Our offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play.

Even if you are a sole proprietor and have no employees – and especially if you work in a space like a home office that has no other human interaction – collaborative partnerships are an easy and powerful way to bring vitality to your work and life. Seek out people whose company you enjoy and who can help you to think bigger thoughts. Invite them to coffee and propose a challenge.This is not chitchat, so you need to establish an agenda and stop and start times. Also consider what kind of space is most conducive to your task. It may not be the local coffee shop. Then again, perhaps Starbucks, Panera or Corner Bakery. A great alternative is a space like Union in Dallas near SMU, that also has conference rooms available for exactly this purpose.

Perhaps you actually work on a group project that benefits both of you. OR, you may just take turns bringing the topic. Either way, you are likely to experience increased productivity and a greater sense of enjoyment in your work, even if you are an introvert like me.

How have you created collaborations for your work? What kinds of spaces have been most conducive? Tell us a story about what has worked for you.

Linchpin

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Can you cast vision, chart direction, and provide energy, while also being the one keeping the wheels from falling off?

Linchpin. That’s a funny word. To my ear it sounds dark and sinister – like something from a mafia movie or a tortured legal battle. I expect to see a long black sedan pull up with impenetrable windows. The chauffeur opens the rear door and out steps a man with slicked back hair – his suit more expensive than my car. That’s not what I have in mind here.
LinchpinNo, I am imagining the term linchpin being used to describe a leadership role in an organization or project, whether secular or sacred, commercial or faith based. Whether you’re a business or ministry leader, how does the idea of a linchpin apply to you?

I’m asking these questions because someone used it to refer to my potential role in a project. That got me thinking the above, and then I decided I’d look it up and see what I could find. So, Wiki had this to say: “a fastener used to prevent a wheel or other part from sliding off the axle upon which it is riding. The word is first attested in the 14th century and derives from Middle English elements meaning “axletree pin”.” Webster online says: “1. a locking pin inserted crosswise (as through the end of an axle or shaft); 2. one that serves to hold together parts or elements that exist or function as a unit <the linchpin in the defense’s case>” Setting aside for another post the ME “axletree pin” and the immediate question – “Hmm, “linch”….”tree”…. I wonder….” I want to focus on this idea of a wheel on an axle. This is an important role. These pins keep the wheels on your wheelbarrow or dolly from coming off. Years ago they would have kept the wheels on a tractor or car attached. So, the linchpin is an essential component, without which, literally, “the wheels come off!” And yet, it is also a very humble position. The pin has no creative power. The wheel does not influence the force, speed, or direction of travel. Without it the travel won’t happen, or at least not safely. But it has to humbly stay in place while others create and manage the movement.

So what is the role of leader as linchpin? Seth Godin discusses this idea is his recent book by the same title. Linchpin bookThe idea of organizational indispensability is interesting. Is it real, or a myth. Are any of us truly indispensable? What does this say about they notion that “every is replaceable”? When we are working on boundaries and balance, we need to affirm that people can manage without us – sometimes even MUST, or they won’t continue to grow and mature. How would you reconcile these ideas? We want to believe that we are indispensable, and yet when each one moves on, the organizations (families, congregations, communities, corporations) adjust, reorient their leadership, and move forward under a “new normal.”

Is the leader the linchpin, or need those be separate roles? Can you cast vision, chart direction, and provide energy, while also being the one keeping the wheels from falling off? That sounds like a lot of responsibility for one individual. I wonder. What do you think?