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And from that you can often see short-term
collaborations or problem solving happening
either on the day or subsequently. An expert
in IP might offer to help an innovator work
with the IP aspect of their innovation for a
couple of days. Getting this type of support
from expert means that the innovators can
bolster their team without adding the weight
of an employee or a full member of staff.
What, in your experience, have been the
challenges around helping incubates working
on building their teams, and how did you
overcome them?
Across the board the most common
challenge is what we call ‘founders
syndrome’, where the founder of the
innovation is incredibly close to the project
and is reluctant to give up control. When an
organisation scale up and is starting to do
more there can be a challenge in some cases
where the founder wants to keep hold of
every decision and every action that is going
on. In reality, by not allowing people to come
in and support, he or she is holding the
innovation back and will not allow it to grow
naturally.
How we deal with this challenge is a bespoke
and gentle process. We introduce the
innovator to new people, introduce new ways
of working and make clear what changes are
needed to stop that person limiting the
capacity of the innovation by holding it too
tight. We approach the innovators with a
direct yet considerate way of communicating
that if they want the innovation to scale up
then they have to delegate responsibility and
allow people to support them. Putting them in
touch with other people who have gone
through the same process and letting them
see how effective it can be when you give
away parts of the responsibility to capable
people also helps.
What are some key insights you have gained
through incubating social innovation projects
that you would like to share with other
incubators in Europe?
It is impo