Intrapreneur Manifesto

An intrapreneur is committed to the following standards:

Write the Vision, Make it Plain, Run!

Visioning is the most important tool you can have as an intrapreneur. If you can not see yourself being— successful, contributing new and interesting things to your team, developing profitable work practice— then you will not be able to be those things. The Bible says in Habbakuk 2:2

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

This scripture is often quoted as an important part of goal setting and it includes three very distinct portions. 1) have a vision, 2) write it down in a place that is visible for yourself and others, 3) hold yourself accountable by showing it to others who can “run with it”. This means that you need to have a vision that is in plain sight and that is clear and actionable. It cannot be plans you made in your head that no one sees or knows. This process is important.

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance

They say that your outcomes are only as good as your preparation. And that is mostly true. You need to develop plans for how you will see the vision come to pass, but those plans should also make room for the supernatural. For things to go in a different direction that will still get you to your intended end. As such, a proper plan is not a perfect plan, it is simply developing some guideposts that outline how you know you are getting closer to where you want to be. A plan should not be over prescriptive because this leads to disappointment and could cost you opportunities that do not look exactly like the ones you planned for yourself. Building flexible plans that make room for the divine, is an important part of being an intrapreneur and showing your leadership that you are ambitious but also human.

Build Your Network, Grow Your Net Worth

We all hate networking happy hours and events that are created specifically for talking to strangers, we know how uncomfortable those can be. But truly, your ability to bring value to your organization depends largely on your ability to make friends and win people over. Coalition building, consensus building, partnership— all of these require you have the communication and connection skills to bring results. That’s why you should think of your networking in three ways, who is guiding me, who is holding my hand and who is following me? If you can build connections in those three directions, you have access to a wealth of resources to help you build better work products.

Fail Fast, Fail Forward, Never Make the Same Mistakes Twice

When we think of executing a task, oftentimes what stops us from starting is the fear of failure. We are worried about all of the things that could go wrong and all of the ways the action could eventually embarrass us. But here is the thing, if you put something out there, even before it is fully hatched, it gives you a chance to iterate. Iteration is important because you are building momentum and buy in along the journey, so long as those you are bringing along are invested in the solution you are trying to bring. And that is the most important part of executing: anchor yourself to the vision and move forward– tripping, falling, crawling but eventually getting closer to the best version of whatever you are trying to build, enhance or even destroy.

Copy, Paste, Edit, Repeat

Innovation is a word thrown around these days. But what is it really? Innovation, simply put, means you copy something that has been done before, bring it into a new context and edit it to the needs of that space. Consider the fact that Facebook as a platform is not particularly novel. It is a space where people gather and connect. This has been happening at bars, restaurants, churches and offices for millenia. What makes Facebook different? The location. It’s digital. And what are the edits? Being able to engage people no matter where they are physically located. These adaptations brought about a major disruption in our way of life. Social media as we know it today is a result of these major tweaks built upon other types of innovation (internet and computers/ phones). So how does that apply to your work practice? There are things happening in the way you work that could use some adaptation. Your job, as an intrapreneur is to identify those opportunities and bring them to the fore.

Relax, Relate, Release

Oftentimes, when you are busily building and growing your organization, the reward for your effort is more hard work. So how do you prevent burn out? Develop a reflection and meditation practice. Develop boundaries for yourself and those around you. This means, every month, take a sick day, give yourself a three day weekend to stay home and rest, reflect on the successes and failures of the month, identify opportunities to grow, connect with God, unplug from social media, eat icecream and breath. Doing this continually will allow the opportunity to see what you need to keep doing, what you need to change, and what you need to stop doing. There are a number of wellness practices to be done, but what matters most is that you have one built into your calendar that can not be moved or shaken.

Rules to live by! Let me know how you apply any of these in practice and be sure to check out the podcast for more insight into each of these commitments. 

The Key is Asking Questions 

Whenever I enter a room, the first thing I try to build is awareness. This is an internal process of understanding who I am in relation to where I am and who is around me. This is important because it requires a keen sense of observation and listening. 

Sitting down and watching people. How are they processing information? What facial expressions are they making? Are people dozing off? Are they plugged in? When did they get lost? 

Noticing these things is helpful because I begin to build a personal relationship, in my mind, with each person. This mental relationship forms the basis of a real relationship. 

People think that relationship building has to be a particularly deep exercise, but actually, it simply requires points of convergence, confusion or curiosity. 

Convergence- as you look at people and notice the themes they consistently bring to the fore or what they are asking about or how they engage with material being presented, you begin to identify areas of commonality. What are the thoughts, ideas, opinions and/ or expressions that you share? Why do you share them

Confusion- when you’ve built a mental profile of someone, it’s easy to stick them in the box of that profile. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this— if you’re willing to be proven wrong. When someone acts out of the ordinary?

What if we loved ourselves? 

What if we liked the instruments we had? And digitized them? Turned them into our own Neptune sounds… Streamed them? Created rhythmic patterns from our own traditions? Remixed them? 

What if we loved ourselves? 

What if we cooked with local rice? Played with it. Developed new modes of cooking? Named it. What if we sought after old spices? Made a competition of incorporating them into new dishes? Did our fusions and developed those ecosystems? What if we made people travel all the way to Africa to taste African food made by Africans? 

What if we loved ourselves? 

What if the “yes pure” soundtrack of the streets against the pitter patter of runners feet, made it into a traffic beat? Branded it. What if street economies became the future of markets. Dedicated lanes, pre-purchased grocery list. Mobile money. Markets. Pick ups. Go. What if we developed a whole new way to shop no touch, no crowds? 

What if we loved ourselves?

What if we didn’t use cement? What if there was some combination of Earth material that met the tropical air that met the scientific minds of the youth of this generation? What if they were challenged and resourced to build with what we have because we have everything we need because we need to know the value of what we have… What if we harvested indestructible building materials from sand and rocks and as afro-matter? 

What if we loved ourselves? 

What if every challenge we are facing, is a neem oil tree away from an answer? What if we were one funeral away from a second coming? How come we don’t love ourselves to take risks with what we have? To take what exists and turn it into something no one believed was possible? 

What would happen in this lifetime— in this world, if African people actually, really and truly… Loved themselves? 

I, for one, am ready to find out. 

Asking Why?

I’ve worked on a number of planning and strategic documents for various types of organizations. Often before we start we try to give ourselves the flexibility of “blue skies”. This means we assume we can do whatever we want, with unlimited resources (money, time, talent). Blue skies is a great way to start because it allows you to unlock your creative faculties.  It is much easier to scale down than to scale up. When building something from a blue skies perspective, “Why” is an invaluable tool. 

Why shouldn’t be asked for asking sake, it should be asked to understand and to build. For example, if numerous suggestions are on the table, one could ask “why this and not that”. This binary helps people make quick decisions about what they value most about any idea. Even in a blue skies exercise where everything is possible, creating a binary helps to refine the value of additional component. Something might be nice to have in theory, but actually offers little value in practice. 

Why is also a good way to understand time implications, especially at the strategic level. Why now and not later or before? These type of questioning helps to navigate why ideas are being brought to the fore in a specific time frame and can help to draw associations with important, topical ideas that have an impact on the decision making process 

Finally, and my fave, “why this again”? It is often the case that people will have the tendency to draw from what is familiar. They may suggest things just because they’ve been done before and they seem normal. However, why again forces people 

Innovation Exercise- The Out of Office Message 

Is it the case that you just necessarily keep your OOM short and simple? What if that message could be used to draw new and interesting psrtnersh