Enterpreneurial Mindset Lesson

Objective:

 Participants will be able to understand entrepreneurship, entrepreneur and skills a person needs to become an entrepreneur

Total Time: 90 Minutes

Materials Required: White board, English letters/ alphabets written on post-its or paper slips(5 sets)

Instructor Note:

This session is the beginning of the core entrepreneurship curriculum. The generic skills our participants need to become an entrepreneur have already been covered till here.Now is the time that they understand the concepts related to Entrepreneurship. Read up on what entrepreneurship is and what it means to have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Opening Protocol:

• Greet the participants

• Take attendance

• In pairs, ask participants to share with each other how they are feeling

• Recap the previous session by asking 1-2 participants to share with the class, what they learnt and did in the previous session

5 Minutes

Opening Activity: Discussion

• Open the session with a discussion on what learners understand about entrepreneurship and entrepreneur

• Ask participants to open the activity “Entrepreneur I admire the most” in the “Entrepreneurial mindset” lesson

• Give them 10 minutes to think about their favourite entrepreneur and to write their common habits, skills, characteristics

• Ask 2-3 participants to share what they have written in the handbook

• Make a list of common skills and qualities on the white board

• Tell them that this is the start of the Entrepreneurship module and they will understand the core concepts in the next few days. Announce that they will be doing some tasks everyday in groups to be able to present their business pitch at the end of the module

15 Minutes

Concept Discussion:

• Divide the class in 6 groups and ask them to open their hanbooks

• Give 10 minutes to each group to read and understand the following topics:-

• Who is an Entrepreneur

• Myths about entrepreneurs

• What is Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurial mindset

• Skills an entrepreneur can learn

• Managerial vs Entrepreneurial thinking 

• After 10 minutes, ask group members to share their learnings

• Involve everyone in the discussion to ensure that all the participants understand all the concepts

• Explain: One of the greatest assets of an entrepreneur is that they think differently. This thinking drives entrepreneurs towards innovation.

20 Minutes

Activity 1: Entrepreneur’s Scramble

This exercise is designed to help learners understand the unique “entrepreneurial thinking process”. It is done to make them aware how entrepreneurs think differently from managers, even if both play a leadership role. It introduces the role of uncertainty in the entrepreneurial process. 

• Divide learners in 5 groups. 

• Pull out one volunteer from each group and give them 10 scrabble letters each 

• Tell volunteers, “your task is easy but you do not have a lot of time. You are now the leaders for this task. Your goal is to make the maximum number of words using all the scrabble letters. You have 10 scrabble letters now. Pick an area of the room and start making your words. Others will join you in a bit.”

• Take subsequent volunteers from groups in every one to two minute interval

• Ask them to pick three scrabble letters each and instruct them to join any leader or team who is in the process of making words.

• Every time you send volunteers to a task, tell them, “Your new task is easy but you do not have a lot of time. Join any one of the groups or leaders in the room. You do not have to stay with the team members of your original group. You are given three scrabble letters. Your goal is to make maximum words using all the scrabble letters. Use your own and the letters of the team members that you choose to join to achieve the goal as a team. Have fun!”

• Once all the participants have started playing a scrabble game, allow three to five minutes to complete the task and reach the goal.

• At the end, let the groups present the words they were able to create. Appreciate the group that made maximum words.

• End the activity by asking participants, “How was your experience in doing this exercise? 

• Explain, you experienced what is called “entrepreneurial thinking”. You started with what you had and not with what you needed. You did not exactly know what to do, so you just chose to take action by joining a group and getting to work. You did not start with a plan; rather you went along with things at hand because things kept changing. This change is referred to as uncertainty. As an entrepreneur, the first thing you must understand is that this uncertainty is always there and you have to deal with it. Finally, though you were given a goal, you did not exactly know when your task was finished. If you were given all the letters in a set and all the group members at the beginning, you would have planned for it as a manager.

• In conclusion, managerial thinking is more about linear problem solving but entrepreneurial thinking is about iteration. It is about making improvements as you go.

20 Minutes

Project Time:

• Tell learners that they have to work on a business plan over the course of the entrepreneurship module and they have to decide the group today

• Give them 5 minutes to form groups of 5

• Give 10 minutes to come up with maximum business ideas they would like to work on. Encourage them to not judge any idea and just discuss and note down maximum ideas as groups. 

• Tell them that we will refine these ideas in the following sessions

15 Minutes

Closing Activity:

• Ask group members to do a self evaluation keeping the skills that they have read in the handbook

• Let them reflect on their learnings from previous sessions and encourage them to use all the skills they have learned so far 

10 Minutes

Closing Protocol:

• Thank the participants for their time

• Announce the next time you will be visiting them

• Share the topic of the next session

• Collect 1-2 most interesting activity sheets/artefacts from students and show to Nodal officer and institution head after session

• Click pictures of the artefacts for documentation

5 Minutes