Diversity and Racial Justice in Entrepreneurial Mindset Education
July 11, 2020
An entrepreneurial mindset can unlock anyone’s potential. However, the path towards fulfillment does not look the same for everyone. How do white and non-black educators promote self-empowerment through entrepreneurship without invalidating the lived experiences of Black and Brown students and entrepreneurs? How do we acknowledge the reality of systemic racism, while teaching about the benefits of an entrepreneurial mindset? Some have pointed out a paradox in these discussions that we will attempt to detangle in…
Read moreEngaging New Partners to Build Entrepreneurial Communities
January 8, 2019
By Gary Schoeniger & Chris Thompson, president of Civic Collaboration Consultants, LLC We all know that entrepreneurship is vital to creating prosperous communities and the need to encourage and support entrepreneurial activity at all levels of society has never been more important than it is today. After all, entrepreneurs have become the engines of economic growth, not only starting new businesses that create jobs and revitalize our communities but also…
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How To Recognize Opportunities That Others Overlook
December 10, 2018
Photo By Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash Learn How to Think (and Act) Like an Entrepreneur Part 2/8 I’ve spent the past two decades exploring the mindset and the methods of everyday entrepreneurs – the underdogs and the misfits whose only advantage in life is in the way they think. In this second post of an eight-part series, I’ll explore the underlying logic and the cognitive strategies that enable entrepreneurs to recognize opportunities that others overlook.…
Read moreSteidle: The future of work is entrepreneurial
November 30, 2018
Why do so many people not understand the power of entrepreneurship? Perhaps the word “entrepreneurial” gives them hives or they have no idea how the word even applies to them. After all, they are not interested in starting a business so why should they care? Ice House Facilitator and founder of the Innovation Agency, Samantha Steidle answers this question and more in a blog post initially posted in the Roanoke Times. Read Now …
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Driving Engagement & Innovation in Government
May 3, 2018
(updated on 4/9/2019) Declining Government Employee Engagement Employee engagement is a significant challenge for government agencies. In fact, employee engagement is lower in public sectors than in private sectors. And, while 71% of state and local government employees are not engaged in their work, 17% of those employees are actively disengaged, working against the mission of the organization. Actively disengaged employees are more likely to miss work, quit their job, have more accidents, and…
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Entrepreneurial Fab Labs Drive Rural Economic Development
April 4, 2018
Entrepreneurial activity is widely recognized as the primary engine of economic growth. By inventing new products and services or improving those that already exist, entrepreneurs create new jobs that generate wealth, revitalize communities, and improve the overall quality of lives. And, fab labs have emerged as a mechanism to stimulate entrepreneurial behavior by providing the community spaces with the equipment and tools needed for tinkering, experimenting, and building. One rural fab lab is “on track…
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An Entrepreneurial Mindset for the New World of Work
March 19, 2018
The world is changing rapidly. From artificial intelligence, robotics, and self-driving cars to the new “gig” economy, the evidence of dramatic change is abundantly clear. Suddenly, the rules for survival have changed and the mindset that once enabled us to succeed is rapidly becoming obsolete. We are at the dawn of a new workforce revolution; one that requires everyone to think like an entrepreneur. Download NACCE Journal Article
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An Entrepreneurial Drive to Be Better
November 27, 2017
In the fall of 2017, over 400 Algonquin students engaged in the Ice House Student Success Program, a course focused on empowering students with an entrepreneurial mindset at the onset of their academic journey. Sherryl Fraser, chair of General Arts and Sciences, led the implementation. “After training faculty to become Ice House Certified Facilitators, we embedded the Ice House Student Success Program in our curriculum and strove to instill the persistence and determination of an…
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Can Government Workers Learn to Think Like Entrepreneurs?
August 30, 2017
(Updated 4/9/2019 to reflect the current number of city employees that have been through the program) If you’re like most people, the word entrepreneurial is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of government employees. For many, the word ‘bureaucrat’ is often used as a derisive term to describe government workers who may be seen as lazy, unthinking, and unproductive. And, recent Gallup research seems to confirm some disturbing facts: unhappy state and…
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