Module 1: The Innovation Mindset PDF

MODULE 1: THE INNOVATION MINDSET The journey to Technopreneurship starts with learning, acquiring, and practicing empathy as it is an essential competency. To become an effective, and more so, a successful technopreneur, working with others in a team is very important...

MODULE 1: THE INNOVATION MINDSET The journey to Technopreneurship starts with learning, acquiring, and practicing empathy as it is an essential competency. To become an effective, and more so, a successful technopreneur, working with others in a team is very important. Also, as your team embarks on the process of finding and developing an innovative solution, you will have to work on developing a bond with the people who will eventually benefit from your innovation. Your solution should be able to address their needs, experiences, and motivations. Empathy is thus a necessary soft skill. After this topic and eventually throughout this class, you will be working as a team and you will be interacting with people outside your team. It is but proper then to start off by re-learning empathy as it is essentially an inborn trait but it can also be taught to whoever lacks it or needs to strengthen it. What is empathy and why do we need to hone this skill? It is because a technopreneur listens to others, utilizes the team’s human capital, and inspires others to work together for the best intended outcomes. Watch the video "How Do We Teach Empathy" by Jonathan Juravich. This video best explains what is empathy and how we practice being “in the others’ shoes” NOTE: You will have to watch the video entitled: "How Do We Teach Empathy" by Jonathan Juravich Once you have finished watching the video, take time to look back and at a time in your life where you had an empathetic moment, where you were able to get into the other's shoes and feel what the other is experiencing.  TOPIC 1: re-LEARNING EMPATHY The Role of Empathy in Entrepreneurship: A Core Competency of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Entrepreneurship education has become an important feature in many programs across higher education—especially in engineering education. A common goal of entrepreneurship education is developing an entrepreneurial mindset in students. Furthermore, a key competency of an entrepreneurial mindset is the ability to empathize with others. Empathy is a cognitive and affective process fostering the capability of understanding and appreciating the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of others. Since entrepreneurship is about introducing innovations into a community, having a keen understanding and appreciation of the needs and desires of community members is an important entrepreneurial skill. This article aims to provide a deeper and broader understanding of empathy and its role in entrepreneurship, along with a brief discussion of educational efforts designed to develop an enhanced sense of empathy in students. INTRODUCTION Innovation and the entrepreneurial activities that help innovations become mainstream are means of enhancing people’s lives, solving important social problems, and important drivers of economic well-being in most contemporary economies worldwide (Brennan, Wall and McGowan 2005; Kuratko 2007; Neck, Greene and Brush 2014; Shane and Venkataraman 2000; Weilerstein and Byers 2016). In support of increasing innovation and developing an entrepreneurial workforce, entrepreneurial education is quickly spreading across many disciplines in higher education (Brooks et al., 2008). This surge in entrepreneurial education is closely linked to goals of increasing the innovativeness of people and increasing innovations through greater investments in research and development. In this emerging entrepreneurial world, engineers have become key innovators of new technology (Bosman and Fernhaber 2017). From a grounding in design thinking, engineering has become a major source of innovation (Dym 2012). One of the primary tenets of design thinking is understanding or empathizing with those that could benefit from an innovation (Brown and Wyatt 2010; Leonard and Rayport 1997; Zoltowski, Oakes and Cardella 2012). From efforts to improve usability (user-centered design) to collaborations with stakeholders (human-centered design) to immersion in the lives of stakeholders, empathic design became a method for developing a deep understanding of the emotions, experiences, needs, and motivations of people (Batterbee, Fulton Suri, and Gibbs Howard 2014; Leonard and Rayport 1997; Mattellmaki, Vaajakallio and Koskinen 2014; Zoltowski et al. 2012)  Considering the growing importance of empathy in design and the importance of design to engineering, there has been relatively little attention paid to developing the skills of empathy in engineering education (Strobel, Hess, Pan and Wachter Morris 2013; Walther, Millerand Sochaka 2017). This article focuses on the role of empathy in an entrepreneurial mindset to provide more impetus to emphasize empathy in the practice of 21st century engineering (Walther et al., 2017). We do this through the context of entrepreneurial education, which is increasingly becoming an important part of engineering education programs (Byers, Seelig, Sheppard and Weilerstein 2013). This article begins with a brief review of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial mindset. It is followed by a review of empathy as a key practice of entrepreneurship. The next section addresses the nature of an entrepreneurial mindset and empathy in the context of engineering education. The final section presents a few ideas for the development of empathy in the context of engineering education. ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET A common definition of entrepreneurship is “the study of sources of opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities; and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them” (Shane and Venkataraman 2000, 218, italics in original). Essentially, entrepreneurship is the collection of practices used by individuals to explore and exploit opportunities (Neck, Greene and Brush 2014). There are different types of entrepreneurship. The most common type is the search for innovations having commercial value and the creation of a business to provide this value for a return on the investment. In this form, the entrepreneur takes on sizable risk to develop and launch this enterprise. Intrapreneurship, occurs within an existing commercial organization (Parker 2011). The method to search for and commercialize innovations from within an organization is similar to entrepreneurship, however the risk is shared with the existing organization. Social entrepreneurship is another type of entrepreneurship that emphasizes the provision of benefits to a community or society (social value) and de-emphasizes the personal or organizational profit-making goals of the more commercial ventures (Stevens, Moray and Bruneel 2015). Obviously, there are many variations and overlapping forms among these types. Common features include the exploration of opportunities and the exploitation or deployment of innovations. The definition of the attributes (Merriam-Webster online n.d.) of an entrepreneur has evolved from earlier trait-based models to current attitudinal, mental models (a mindset) characterized as having a propensity to scan the environment for opportunities, evaluate selected opportunities, and pursue those that seem viable (Bosman and Fernhaber 2017; Douglas 2009). A mindset guides one’s thoughts and behaviors, mediating how one acquires, processes, and uses information (Bosman and Fernhaber 2017). An entrepreneur’s mindset determines how she or he will perceive, interpret, and consequently respond to situations. It is “the ability to sense, act, and mobilize under uncertain conditions” (Haynie, Shepherd, Mosakowski and Earley 2010, 217).  Mindsets form and reform in different ways based on individual, group, and contextual inputs. They can be constraining or generative to individuals and change over time in idiosyncratic ways (Dweck 2008; Nobel 2015). Robinson (2010) claimed that the notion of an entrepreneurial mindset is poorly researched, largely derived from folklore, and not well understood. Sarasvathy (2001) studied how entrepreneurs think and proposed that successful entrepreneurs used effectual thinking to identify goals that could be achieved by the means available to them. This up-ended conventional notions of first selecting goals and then choosing the means to achieve the goals. This perspective reinforced the dynamic, constrained, and situational nature of the entrepreneurial process. One of the more important characteristics of an entrepreneur is the ability to empathize with others (Humphrey 2013). Empathy, along with other emotional and social intelligence competencies, is an important factor reducing the negative effects of cognitive biases, as well as increasing the chances of successfully understanding customers, users, or stakeholders, leading innovation teams and organizations, and negotiating with suppliers, distributors, and financial backers (Humphrey 2013). Entrepreneurship is largely a social enterprise and the ability to sense and interact effectively with others in multiple arenas is an essential ability for entrepreneurs. Neck et al. (2014) described five categories of entrepreneurial practices that informed the education and development of entrepreneurs: (1) The practice of play fosters the development of “a free and imaginative mind” helping one see opportunities where others might not; (2) The practice of empathy describes a highly developed skill to understand others’ thoughts and feelings; (3) The practice of creation enhances the role of creativity and creation in entrepreneurship; (4) The practice of experimentation describes the iterative cycles of taking action and learning from the results; and (5) The practice of reflection enhances the preceding four practices by evaluating, making sense of, and learning from these experiences. Together these practices portray an attitude or inclination that is the entrepreneurial mindset, we focus this essay on the practice of empathy as a core competency of an entrepreneurial mindset. EMPATHY AS A CORE COMPETENCY Empathy is the subjective capability of and willingness to become aware of, sensitive to, and understand the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of others (Kouprie and Visser 200). From a human-centered approach, Decety and Jackson (2004) described empathy as developing a sense of similar, but separate, feelings of others. In its various forms, empathy includes caring for others, experiencing the emotions of others, and discerning what others feel and think. Broader definitions include more distant stakeholders (in time and space) and non-human entities, such as the environment or ecosystem (Strobel, et al. 2013).  In the process of finding and developing an innovative solution, perspective taking is a form of empathic bonding that can broaden entrepreneurs’ perspectives, thereby enhancing creativity and opportunity recognition, finding desirable and feasible solutions aligned with peoples’ needs, and integrating technical expertise with market or community dynamics (Prandelli et al. 2016). Thus, empathy helps bridge the gap between innovators and others. Studies of social entrepreneurship have highlighted the importance of empathy as an antecedent to intentions of pursuing social entrepreneurship (Hockerts 2017; Mair and Noboa 2006; Stevens, Moray and Bruneel 2015). In this realm, empathy is more of an emotional driver eliciting feelings of compassion and intentions to help others and protect the environment. Perceptions of an entrepreneur’s level of empathy indicate whether he or she is concerned for others’ welfare or for personal wealth (Humphrey 2013). This concern is likely to be more of an emotional component of empathy, while the understanding of the other’s perspective is a more cognitive component. Hockerts (2017) articulated empathy as a cognitive factor (the ability to assess another’s emotional state) and an affective factor (the propensity to react to another’s emotional state), as well as empathic concern (the propensity to react with compassion). In some cases, empathy is included under the broader constructs of emotional and social intelligence (Humphrey 2013). Empathy is a core ability of emotionally intelligent behavior and has a long history in psychology, social work, counseling, and more recently in organization and management studies (Cherniss 2000; Kellett, Humphrey and Sleeth 2006; Salovey and Mayer 1990). Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2004) described the construct of emotional intelligence as the “cooperative combination of intelligence and emotion”. Yet, there is little consensus on what emotional intelligence is or if it is really an intelligence (Cherniss 2000). There are levels of emotional intelligence ranging from basic emotional awareness to more sophisticated interpersonal management of emotions and this is a key factor in the use of empathy in social interactions (Mayer, Salovey and Caruso 2004). It is this ability that can help entrepreneurs not only assess the value of their innovations from others’ perspectives, but also to influence others’ perceptions of an innovation. This is the entrepreneurial drive of knowing what others want before they do. And it is a critical cause for concern regarding the ethics and morals of empathic decisions and practices (Walther et al., 2017). It is not only knowing what others think, or knowing how to influence them, but also having a deep appreciation and compassion for others and the environment that is the value of empathy as a core competency. In entrepreneurship education, Neck et al. (2014) advised that students need to develop their empathic skills for more than just understanding user needs. They described that students need to: (a) empathize with practicing entrepreneurs to learn what it is like to be an entrepreneur as a career and as a lifestyle, (b) connect with others in more meaningful, empathic ways to develop more effective networking, and (c) identify unmet needs and wants of stakeholders and constituents.  The entrepreneurial mindset that supports entrepreneurial activity is also useful as an attitude or inclination to go beyond the traditional aims of commercialization (e.g., social entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, self-development, career development). Robinson (2010) reviewed different perspectives of entrepreneurship and found that there was this inclination or intentionality for seeking and pursuing opportunities for development as the essence of an entrepreneurial mindset and this can apply across a wide range of human activity. For example, developing an entrepreneurial mindset contributes to the broader development of the person (Secundo, Ndou and Del Vecchio 2016). In addition, the field of career studies recommends people pursue their careers in a manner similar to entrepreneurial practices of effectuation (Sarasvathy 2004; Savickas 2013). Other examples are found in education where an entrepreneurial mindset can facilitate student engagement in learning (Robinson 2010). This work could inform and enhance engineering education and the development of engineers and their careers. IMPLICATIONS FOR DEVELOPING AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION Developing empathetic practices for different aspects of entrepreneurship is essential to the entrepreneurial mindset. It is important to develop empathy in students not only as part of entrepreneurship education, but also as part of becoming an engineer. In a compelling argument, Walther and colleagues (2017) advocated for the recognition and development of empathy as a core skill in engineering. In their model of the professional engineer of the 21st century, they included empathy as not only a core skill, but also a professional orientation and an engineering way of being, that is, as a critical part of an engineering mindset. Traditionally, educating empathic engineers has not been emphasized in current engineering education practice. Research findings have shown that engineers have a lower degree of empathy than future doctors and nurses (Rasoal, Danielsson and Jungert 2012). Cech (2014) has noted that there is a tendency toward cultural disengagement in engineering education and her research indicated that students’ interest in public welfare actually declines over the course of their engineering education. The media has also reported that engineering education may be relentlessly emphasizing technical problem-solving over personal and societal needs (Marcus 2013).  Fortunately, this is changing as more engineering programs have realized the importance of recognizing the impact of technology and engineering on the quality of life. Neck et al. (2014) provided a number of classroom exercises or lessons designed to develop the competency of empathy in students. These lessons help students to: compare their actions and emotions to others; develop empathy in negotiation; critically explore issues of equity, fairness, and implicit biases; develop abilities to give and receive feedback and advice; understand the experience of practicing entrepreneurs; develop communications and pitch their ideas while addressing the needs of the audience; understand and appreciate the various roles of team members; and identify and understand different types of entrepreneurial activity (e.g., social entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship). CONCLUSION As professionals, engineers often encounter challenges that require an empathic orientation (Walther et al. 2017). Therefore, in addition to providing future engineers with a thorough training in technical and entrepreneurial skills, curricula might also provide a broader exposure that considers how engineering affects various stakeholders (human and non-human) and the world at large. How to emphasize high-quality interpersonal communication, sincere engagement with diverse stakeholders, self-reflection, collaborative problem solving, and fostering a sustainable environment, all embedded in an empathic professionalism, remains a challenge for engineering educators and students. As engineering education embraces entrepreneurship, the teaching of empathy has been mostly overlooked (Walther et al. 2017). Developing skills in empathy benefits far more than developing entrepreneurs, it also develops a more holistic and socially responsible engineer. Despite these ideals, Walther et al. (2017) cautioned that there is currently a tension in engineering education between teaching empathy as an instrumental skill for engineers to achieve their goals by selling stakeholders on an innovation and the development of empathic engineers striving for the common good. As with other competencies of an entrepreneurial and engineering mindset, there is a risk that moral and ethical values, and working for the common good might be overlooked in the quest for commercial and technological success. RUSSELL KORTE The George Washington University Washington, DC KARL A. SMITH Purdue University West Lafayette, IN AND University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN AND CHERYL QING LI University of New Haven New Haven, CT  TOPIC 2: WHAT IS A TECHNOPRENEUR? This would be the proper time to define what a TECHNOPRENEUR is and for you to understand why we dived straight into empathy before we got into the definition. First, what is an ENTREPRENEUR? It is best to define an entrepreneur by understanding the attributes attached to one who practices it, which goes: The definition of the attributes (Merriam-Webster online n.d.) of an entrepreneur has evolved from earlier trait-based models to current attitudinal, mental models (a mindset) characterized as having a propensity to scan the environment for opportunities, evaluate selected opportunities, and pursue those that seem viable (Bosman and Fernhaber 2017; Douglas 2009). A mindset guides one’s thoughts and behaviors, mediating how one acquires, processes, and uses information (Bosman and Fernhaber 2017). An entrepreneur’s mindset determines how she or he will perceive, interpret, and consequently respond to situations. It is “the ability to sense, act, and mobilize under uncertain conditions” (Haynie, Shepherd, Mosakowski and Earley, 2010, 2017). An entrepreneur is thus, someone who has that certain way of thinking, called a MINDSET, which shows in the way he/she approaches challenges and mistakes. The entrepreneur practices the following (Neck et al. 2014): 1. The practice of EMPATHY describes a highly developed skill to understand other’s thoughts and feelings; 2. The practice of PLAY fosters the development of a free and imaginative mind helping one see opportunities where others might not; 3. The practice of CREATION enhances the role of creativity and creation in entrepreneurship; 4. The practice of EXPERIMENTATION describes the iterative cycles of taking action and learning from the result; and 5. The practice of REFLECTION enhances the preceding four practices by evaluating, making sense of, and learning from these experiences. Now, what is TECHNOPRENEURSHIP? Read the article provided below and read about "Everything You Want to Know About Technopreneurship" by Dr. Bala V. Balachandran.  TOPIC 3: WHAT IS VUCA? Taking off from the statement that a technopreneur is someone who works with a multi- disciplinary team that has the ability to SENSE opportunities, ACT on selected opportunities, and MOBILIZE to pursue selected opportunities that are viable under UNCERTAIN CONDITIONS, let us now define the SETTING where we find technopreneurs at their best! TOPIC 4: THE "SIRIB KEN SIGLAT" FRAMEWORK Now that you know that you are in the challenging and exciting VUCA world, it is important to understand that you are not alone, that there are environments that had been prepared and designed for you, to guide and assist you, as you go through the technopreneurial journey. At Saint Louis University's School of Engineering and Architecture, there is a space located at the 4th floor of Otto Hahn Building called the SLU TechHub. The TechHub houses three (3) laboratories called the: (a) SLU Incubator for Research, Innovation, and Business (or the SIRIB Center); (b) SLU-DTI Fabrication Laboratory (or the FabLab); and (c) CONvergent RESilience Technology Business Incubator (or the ConRes TBI). The TechHub follows a framework called the "SIRIB ken SIGLAT" which is geared towards the provision of a motivating environment where the ideas of future technopreneurs like you may flourish to become real-world solutions. If you are able to access the internet, take a virtual tour of the facility by visiting the TechHub's website at https://www.slutechhub.com/ and watch https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=711394915966655 IF YOU CAN ACCESS THE INTERNET, HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF TECHNOHUB INCUBATEES : https://drive.google.com/file/d/16BtSff3oWLjE4mKwl5D_AXx6jjWtw31f/view  TOPIC 5: A WORD ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP Technopreneurs are inherent social entrepreneurs because they want to do something good! The problems and challenges that exist in our VUCA world have a social aspect to it, hence, the solutions that technopreneurs put forward have social impact. Success in social entrepreneurship emphasizes on measuring how the business will improve the world while to a lesser degree, earning a profit. Social entrepreneurship is alive in the Philippines. The SLU TechHub is a strong partner of PhilDev's Innovation for Social Impact Partnership (ISIP), a project that provides an SE-supportive economic landscape. Read through the attached blog on "Impact- first: Social Enterprises in the Philippines Innovate to Respond to Coronavirus Pandemic" and get to know the community and more importantly, read through the list of Filipino innovators who have taken on the challenge of changing the world. Who knows, you might be the next! Design your own version of a “conversation napkin” using Canva poster or whatever tools you may have at home. This will likewise be graded. For some, if not most people, empathy is a good thing but it is hard to get into it! Empathy unfolds by starting and maintaining a productive conversation. Are you one of those who find it hard to start a conversation? This is an exercise which will help us begin and encourage a good conversation. It starts with somebody asking the first question which then would allow another to tell his/her story and the others to listen. It is in storytelling that allows us to "get into the shoes" of others. It is said that stories define us. It teaches us about our life and that of others. It also trains us to listen. These are the necessary skills to getting into that empathetic moment. This assignment requires you to do the following: 1. Google www.canva.com and join the 30-day free trial group; If you do not have access, you may use any art material you may have at home 2. Explore the application and select the poster design option; 3. Unleash your creativity and imagination and create a poster with one question for any interesting topic Sample: This is your time to tell us the insights that you have formed this far. An insight should be: 1. Your discovery of a new way of understanding the world you live in and makes you challenge the traditional way of doing things; 2. Your penetrating observation about human behavior and how it should change; 3. Your personal discovery of how the module has made you understand the deeper reason why you are in engineering; and 4. Do you see yourself as a future Technopreneur?