Ideator

The Ideator is a Seer who looks beyond the obvious: like an artist who brings together clay, paint, potter’s wheel and hands, an Ideator weaves together what’s available with what’s needed to birth ideas that they or others may implement. A good example is this story, which starts with Gwen who happened to be surfing the OneTribe site one day:

Spotted in the Talents Forum:

• Vito is a portrait photographer offering to donate his services in some way over the next 3 months
• Melanie is a makeup artist who says she’ll donate 5 free sessions over the next 12 months
• Tara is listed in the Forum as ‘Social Media Guru’
• Luis is a graphic designer offering to design an ad some time between Thursday nights and Monday mornings

Spotted in the Resources Forum:

• A local ‘alternative magazine is offering free ad space for a worthy cause
• Limo company offers one 3-hour rental free of charge on a weekday during the hours of 10am-10pm.
• Tara is listed in the Forum as ‘Social Media Guru’

Gwen is a marketing creative who gets excited by possibilities and connects the dots. In her mind she sees an incomplete circle: what’s needed to complete it is a customer – perhaps a bride (or a groom) who could make use of the combined offer of makeup and photography sessions, paying market rates. She creates an ‘offer’ that could be promoted in the alternative magazine:

“Make your Big Day make a big difference – use our makeup and photographer services and have 100% of the proceeds help build houses for the homeless in India.” (Link to the charity website.)

Clients enter prize draw: brides and grooms who book this service stand to win a free 3-hour stretch limo ride – for your bachelorette party or the big day.”

Gwen registers this idea in the Project Ideas Forum. That’s the end of her role as Ideator. Fantastic! Not only may her idea find a Team Lead, but it may trigger a myriad of ‘me too’ ideas around the world that combine services in more or less obvious ways to raise significant amounts of funds and supplies for causes that matter – to us.

Team Lead

Let’s continue with the story that started in Ideator, above. If Gwen wanted to run with the ball, she would now become a Team Lead. However, birthing an idea and implementing it are two very different skill-sets. Even if she is capable, she may not have the time, in which case her gift ends there. Let’s assume it does and see what happens next …

Ari is a senior manager of a hi-tech company who sees the idea, loves it, and keeps it intact, save one detail –the beneficiary, which he substitutes with one that energizes him more: a local and international children’s charity.

He realizes that there are probably more photographers and makeup artists out there willing to donate even one free session. He increases the scope of the project and cuts it into two phases:

1. Finding the contributors and
2. Finding the customers.

Ari officially turns the Idea into a Project by posting it on the Current Projects Board. Doing this makes him think through each phase. He needs a team that can help him find the contributors, then help him find the customers. He’s happy to go with the original idea of placing the ad, but feels that some warm networking by tribe members talking to their hairdressers and friends may deliver some prospects.

Using the Talents forum, and accessing his network of international friends by posting an update on Facebook and LinkedIn, Ari puts together an international virtual team that will deliver the message in more than one way on two or three continents. Since the project has grown from the original, relatively contained, idea that caught his interest, Ari enrolls his wife Stella in teaming up with him to co-project lead: their feeling is that this could become an ongoing service that they could coordinate to keep generating money for causes they believe in. What they love about it is that they’re not asking their friends for ‘something for nothing’: everyone is giving, and everyone is getting value. The service providers get to feel good, especially since their story has been written up online and now fee-paying customers who aren’t getting married are coming to them based on the free PR. OneTribe has made it possible for every business person and employee to become a Social Entrepreneur.

Back Stop

The Back Stop’s job is a crucial one: to keep the Project in flow - moving forward at the pace required, with a highly-functioning, happy team. Yes, happy! Think of yourself as ‘Consiglieri’ - Chief Consult – to the Team Lead. You can wait for the Team Lead to come to you for advice, or be more proactive. The role is not a passive ‘talk’ role, adding to the Team Lead’s ‘to do’ list: instead, it’s your job to find ways to make the Team more successful. That could involve simple issue-busting, helping to resolve a more tricky situation, finding more effective ways to achieve the end vision, or simply stepping in when you can’t find someone at short notice to handle a key task.

Any worthwhile Project inevitably ends up requiring more time and attention than originally envisioned or estimated. Team Leads are encouraged at all times to run their Projects in a way that truly reflects the OneTribe culture: ‘give what you can, when you can – and no more’. That makes their job more difficult. Anyone can drive a team into the ground to produce a result. But it takes a lot more to arrive at the finish line with a team that’s happy and energized, not dead by the side of it! That’s where the Back Stop comes in, helping the Team Lead to honor what people can offer, and still get the job done.

If you’re not able to act as Team Lead right now but want to make a significant contribution, or if you’d like to put your toe in the water to see what the Team Lead position involves, stepping up as a Back Stop is the natural next step.

Team Member

The team members are the eggs and flour that make the cake. Without you, nothing actually happens. Ari has a friend, Lori, who is a brilliant, genuine salesperson. She loves sales as a profession, but has a busy career and doesn’t have the time or energy to offer her services to a charitable organization. She also hasn’t ever found a role – apart from a ‘career’ role as an employee in one of these charitable organizations – that would allow her to really use her gifts at the value the market places on them. She’s not a door-to-door salesperson: she’s a highly-paid solution sales person. She get a thrill out of crafting deals that create win-wins and she’s excited about Ari’s reinterpretation of Gwen’s idea. She wants to create the strategy and ‘break ground’ by showing other sales folk approaches they can use on this project that will generate big bucks.

Lori works with Ari to formulate the strategy and takes it for a test run, with great results. Her friends, having heard what she’s up to, join OneTribe and list their talents. They don’t see a fit for this project, but they definitely have talents and skills they want to share. One of them is a yoga teacher who wants to gift yoga classes.

Lori doesn't have any extra time apart from the time she’s offering to lead the yoga sessions and she positively hates the thought of marketing, organizing etc. So she needs a Team and a Team Lead to coordinate finding a free event space, marketing the classes and running the front desk during the course of the sessions. But now she’s excited because all she needs to do is use OneTribe to find a Team Lead. She contacts people she sees listed in the Talents Forum under Team Lead and sets the ball in motion.

And so we see that an idea birthed by Gwen, the Ideator, has resulted in someone she doesn’t know, Lori, also birthing an idea and offering a service – perhaps on the other side of the world. You doing what you love plus others doing what they love = the power of OneTribe.Us.

Angel

When Life happens, Angels swoop. Even the best-run project will need some extra help at some time. Based on the premise that OneTribe teams are operating in a sustainable, enjoyable way, abiding by the mantra ‘do what you can, when you can – and no more’ – teams will inevitably experience gaps. Perhaps the project turned out to be bigger than planned, more difficult than expected. Maybe a team member got sick or their availability suddenly changed. In Gwen’s, Ari’s and Lori’s story (above) there may have been a need for 1 Angel or many, at different stages of the project.

Registering as an Angel doesn’t mean that when you’re contacted by someone that you have to come to the rescue. It’s just a registering of intent. What it does mean is that Team Leads and Team Members may include you in a ‘call for help’ email. Sometimes you’ll be able to lend a hand, sometimes not. Remember that perhaps the help you give is to find someone else that can give them the help they need – by forwarding the email, posting a one-liner on Facebook or re-Tweeting the need. A 5-minute gift of time from you, connecting other Angels with the team in question, could be the difference between the Team producing a resounding victory or a so-so result. Everything you do matters. Everything you do counts.

Can’t commit to an ongoing project – or simply addicted to the thrill of being a superhero?! Either way, the Angel role is perfect for you. If you’re an Angel, be sure to register that fact.