“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
It was the book that changed the comic world forever.
A twelve part monthly series called Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and Illustrated by Dave Gibbons.
I still remember getting to the end of chapter 5, and doing the most massive double take that forced me back to the start of chapter 1 to re-read again.
Waiting 30 days for the next episode was pure torture. No binge watching Netflix series back in the mid 1980’s.
And when the biggest reveal of all came in Chapter 11 - and we found out the final Chapter 12 was going to be delayed by a month, meaning we had to wait 60 days - the wait was almost too much to bear.
Why was it so powerful and ground breaking? Because it completely redefined the concept of the superhero in an industry that was at risk of imploding in on itself.
We take disruption for granted these days, to the point where we’re almost suffering from disruption fatigue/apathy. But at the time, Watchmen was like dropping a boulder into a pond that then rolled down a snow covered mountain. It opened the door for a whole new way of storytelling and gave permission for a fresh generation of cutting edge writers to write for Vertigo, the imprint who published it.
But what does Watchmen have to do with Intraprenuership? Glad you asked.
If you’ve seen the film, then you already know the big reveal. But the point it makes is that it doesn’t matter whether you have the most powerful superhero in the world on your side – you will be confronted with problems far greater than your capacity to solve them.
And when you’re confronted with the inevitable Gordian Knot, as was Ozymandia you can have one of four responses. They’re all a blend of conviction and compassion – but only one of them is heroic.
The Sycophant: Low Conviction and Low Compassion. These are the frightened cynics who contribute nothing of value and only steal time, talent and treasure from the organisation.
The Sympathiser: High Compassion, Low Conviction. Fabulous at getting alongside people and hearing their problems and pain. No good in a crisis.
The Sociopath: High Conviction, Low Compassion. Great when you need someone to make the tough calls, but will leave a trail of bodies in their wake.
The Super-Hero: High Conviction and High Compassion. It’s Captain America to Iron Man in Avengers: Age of Ultron, when Tony Stark asks:
“What if we lose?” And Captain America replies
“Then we’ll lose together.”
When the Intraprenuer shows up to solve the problems only the leader can solve, they better show up as the Super-Hero – where you win (or lose) together.
So if you’re on board with being the Super-Hero, then let’s get clear about the greatest problem you solve.
Just as there are four types of Intrapreneurs, there are also four types of “Preneuers” - each with their own problem to solve (thanks again to Thought Leaders Global for making these distinctions)
- The Entrepreneur: Their problem is how to start, grow and exit a whole new business in a way that is scalable and saleable (to borrow from the young Aussie master Jack Delosa and The Entourage). Take Gallup's EP10 Assessment if you're interested in learning how naturally talented you are as a Entrepreneur.
- The Info-Prenuer: As an independent consultant who is a subject matter expert, their problem is how to build and run a practice as an independent subject matter expert, not a business. A different business model entirely, and one which the Thought Leaders Business School is perfectly positioned to help you solve if that’s your hero’s journey.
- The Social-Preneur: This is the person who makes their greatest contribution from their deepest pain. To quote the founder of World Vision, “their heart is broken by the things that break the heart of God.” They tackle social problems and challenges with new and innovative business models, turning what can look like hell on earth to a slice of heaven. If that’s you, great! Read Peter Baines’ cutting edge book “Doing Good by Doing Good”, and learn how to positively disrupt the not-for-profit sector by creating real shared value?
- The Intra-Prenuer is different from all of these. The problem you solve is first an internal one. How do you go from being a rising star within an organisation to going fully SuperNova - where you give light and life to others – instead of flaming out and becoming a black hole? How do you be the best team leader you can be - when often you're leading project based teams of different people on top of your day - day role?
As we get your started on your own hero’s journey, it’s vitally important that you’re clear that this is the Intrapreneur’s dilemma.
If you don’t play the right game, you risk being sucked into believing your own hype, and surrounding yourself with sycophants, sociopaths and sympathisers instead of other super heroes.
And as the poem I quoted up top says, know that empire building and having delusions of grandeur is the fastest path to inevitable decline.
Fortunately, this dilemma is one that can be tackled. Like motivational leadership, intrapreneurship is a highly decentralised form of leadership. It’s about creating a multiplying movement of tribes who pursue a noble cause (more on that later) that activates and inspires the whole organisation to build more teams like them.
So, now that we’ve staked out the territory, next time we'll look at Why Intrapreneurship is so important right now.