Bigger Team, Bigger Impact

Being a part of a team provides opportunity for more work to be done in a short amount of time compared to working alone, ultimately allowing for a bigger impact on society. This may not always be the case for teams, but it is very important to consider when starting a venture, especially if it involves a co-founder. The Standford Social Entrepreneurship Hub provides some thought provoking articles on how to build a "winning team." The articles range from having a co-founder to mediating tension and all start with the basic idea of working with a co-founder.

Adam Callinan, Entrepreneur and Venture Investor, provides key recommendations as to why working with a co-founder is important. Co-founders share responsibility in dividing the stress of day to day activities, establishing the company's brand, and managing expenses and investor endeavors. One of the more important points is that by having a co-founder, someone else will be able to have the same level of understanding and be there to support their partner when no one else can.

Obviously those on your organization's team will have an idea of the overall concept, but the founders are meant to be the leading advocates for the values and vision of the organization. Leading through vision and leading through values are two principles that organizational leaders are expected to practice. When the principles are applied to the work place, employees are inspired to perform better and achieve the vision through the accepted values. Simply said, better input leads to better output.

Making a social impact is important for an organization or company's success as more people are reached by its cause. Most companies look at the quantity of outputs such as money or how many people were reached. Some have began to look at other methods as to the quality of relationships they have made with people and the outcomes of their social impacts.

My thought I want to leave is that if we have a dedicated team who share the values and vision of an organization, we are more likely to make a larger social impact. One tool I found in another course that I want to take into consideration moving forward is called the Raphael & Raphael Loyalty Ladder, which benchmarks a consumers loyalty or buy-in to a company. After reading this week's material, what are your plans for your social venture to actively build and engage your team and how will you measure this?