Teaming Up
What makes Acton special? This is a question I’m often asked by curious and slightly skeptical community members. There are so many ways to answer this question however one is the pursuit of entrepreneurship. Learners pursue entrepreneurship not just in idea generation and an end of session business fair. They practice the process of planning, teamwork, systems, and embracing failure. Learning to fail hard, fail often, and fail cheaply is an essential life skill that’s best to have when the stakes are low and the learning is high.
This year is the third year in a row that Entrepreneurship was the Session 3 Quest topic. As our Guide team prepared this core curriculum Quest we knew we wanted to level it up and provide a new challenge building off the momentum of the previous two sessions. Instead of crafting a solo or small group entrepreneurial journey we designed a team Quest–Build a Business challenge. Learning to work in a team towards a singular goal is hard, frustrating, and yes rewarding. Decision making and delegation has been quite the uphill battle!
Every business team of 4-5 learners was tasked to complete a business ticket that acted as a business plan. They had to specify their team passion, identify a problem they hoped to solve, share the materials, expenses, and pricing they planned to execute, and the role of each team member. Proposed roles were CEO, Marketing/Brand Specialist, Accountant, Project Manager, and Sales Representative. It’s hard to decide your role and even harder to stay in your lane. One team in particular caught my eye because although they had a clever idea their team dynamic was rough and lanes were both undefined and crossed.
This one team hardly got anything done for two weeks and one learner, the CEO, seemed to be the only one working. With great attempts and massive frustration the team tried to brainstorm and work together. After consistent distractions they created a list of team guardrails and team to-do’s yet even after more and more refinement it still wasn’t working. Enter here our beautiful practice of conflict resolution. I was asked to help as facilitator and what emerged became less of a conflict resolution and more of a team building conversation. They realized that their communication systems were different. Some learners were logical, step by step brains that thought more in black and white while other learners were metaphorical brains that bopped nonlinearly through tasks, more gray. Brains can be different and learners discovered that if they don’t know how they and others think then the team can’t communicate effectively. This was a gem of a moment where promises were made and team camaraderie grew.
Perhaps another special part of Acton is the magic of learner reflection. Learners were asked by their Guides “You are nearing the end of this Quest and are just days away from your Exhibition. What lessons learned have you experienced so far?” These heroes brilliantly shared “Our team learned that even though we didn’t think it was possible and we wanted to give up because it seemed so hard we just had to try it again and then we can do it! We learned perseverance.” “I learned that it’s hard to work with a team but it’s worth it because once you find your differences then it’s way better than working solo. Everyone can connect and help and then you get more done than you ever could do on your own.” These comments are just the tip of the iceberg and we can’t wait for the full glacier reflection on Wednesday after learners complete the Exhibition business fair.
Here’s some tips for next week’s fair. Instead of saying “great job” (which is void of details) ask curious questions about their process. Try: What inspired your team to want to create this product/service? Who is your ideal customer and how did you determine your pricing? Why is your product/service needed in the world? If you could choose to continue this project on your own or with your team which would you choose? Learning to do is tough for learners and for us parents. I challenge you to practice your curiosity at next Tuesday’s Exhibition and learn to get curious about entrepreneurship.