By Gunn-Berit Neergård, Researcher at Engage
Entrepreneurs need to come up with creative ideas while considering multiple interconnected factors, often without knowing all the answers. This is a group exercise where participants gain experience on brainstorming creative ideas on sustainability issues on limited time and resources. The aim of the workshop is to illustrate the complexity and need for a holistic view by providing the participants a business model canvas for use.
- Duration:
Approx. 2 hours
- Focus:
Use of business model canvas in education to understand complexity and gain a holistic view on entrepreneurship.
- Activity:
Group
- Keywords:
Business model canvas, sustainability, entrepreneurship, workshop
About the exercise
This workshop intends to inspire and teach educators how to use tools such as the Business Model Canvas to introduce students to complex, holistic problem-solving in a variety of sectors, including sustainability. By engaging in group exercises, participants explore how to tackle real-world challenges collaboratively, recognizing the importance of diverse skill sets and teamwork.
The activity emphasizes the interconnectedness of various factors in a business model, the need for innovative thinking, and how such frameworks can foster both intrapreneurship and a deeper understanding of workplace dynamics. Through brainstorming, pitching, and an investment round, the workshop not only helps participants develop creative solutions but also highlights the strategic value of structured planning in education.
Learning objectives
Understanding Complexity: Develop an ability to view problems holistically and recognize the interconnected components of a business model.
Collaborative Problem-Solving: Learn to work effectively in teams, leveraging diverse skills and perspectives to solve problems.
Structured Problem-Solving: Gain experience in using structured tools like the Business Model Canvas to analyze and solve problems systematically.
Innovation and Creativity: Cultivate brainstorming skills to generate and refine innovative ideas that align with sustainability goals.
Decision-Making Under Constraints: Practice making strategic decisions despite limited time, information, and resources.
Pitching: Develop skills to present and advocate for ideas effectively.
Intrapreneurial Mindset: Understand how business tools and sustainability goals can apply to workplace innovation, encouraging ownership and proactive problem-solving.
Materials list and physical space
Materials:
- Template of the Business Model Canvas.
- Post-it-notes.
- Markers / pens.
- Task description for the UN’s Sustainability Goals.
Physical space:
- Optimally, each group would have their separate room where they can discuss without other groups present. Alternatively a space with large distances or adequate noise isolation between groups.
Human resources:
- An educator / facilitator.
Usage suggestions
The exercise can be edited to focus on all types of challenges. From the grand Sustainable development goals, to local issues or discipline specific challenges. This is up to you. However, the challenge provided will influence the learning of the students. The problem should be quite open, to allow for problem exploration.
Further, there should be several problems for the students to chose from, to allow them to find something that motivates them. This can also be a good opportuity to make choices under time constrain, and recruit peers to join their challenge.
Digital version: The exercise can also be held digitally. The participants would then need to receive a digital version of the business model canvas, and get access to a digital tool for using post-it notes (such as Miro for example).
Pre-work required by students
No pre-work is required by students. However, if they are not familiar with business model canvas, they should receive an introduction to the tool in the beginning of the exercise.
Theoretical foundations
Wikipedia contributors. (2024, November 21). Business Model Canvas. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:29, December 1, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Business_Model_Canvas&oldid=1258746005
Time plan
Group Task
Groups are created as participants select a UN Sustainability Goal to focus on.
Please use 15 minutes on this first task: choosing a challenge (Sustainability Goal).
The students should be able to choose one challenge among several options, to allow them to find something that aligns with their motivations, experiences, knowledge and/or skills. Further, in the process of deciding on a challenge, they should attempt to recruit their fellow students in joining their team. This allows students to practice team-formation and allocation of human resources. This exercise is intended as a group-exercise, thus, we would recommend team-formations in stead of single students working individually on one challenge. However, that is also an option as long as the students (and you as the teacher) can reflect upon the benefits and pitfalls of solving the exercise by oneselves.
The development of solutions should be facilitated and structured by the Business Model Canvas. Provide participants with a template of the Canvas, post-it notes and markers.
30 min: Exploration of the problem. Ask yourself questions such as: Why is this a problem? For whom? Who is suffering because of this problem? Why is this still a problem? Has anyone tried to fix it? Is anyone profiting on keeping the problem?
30 min: Exploration of potential solutions. Brainstorm potential solutions, and decide on the best solution to carry out for your team. Why is this a good idea for your team, and why are you a good team when developing this idea? Fill out the Business Model Canvas as best as possible, start filling out the value proposition and customer segment.
10 min: Decide how to pitch the idea, and prepare a 2 min oral pitch (potentially with slides/visual aids).
20 min: Pitching ideas. Each group must present their idea, in a format of maximum 2 minutes. The teacher/facilitator should take the time. If time: Allow the audience to ask friendly and critical questions after the pitch.
Investment Round (30 min)
15 minutes: Investment round. The investment round adds a competitive element to the exercise. Choose an object that can represent money. E.g. One pen = 1 million NOK. You can, of course, also print fake money that can be used in this investment. All participants are to invest in the idea they care most about. Make sure to count the money in an exciting way after the investments, e.g. counting together, and the last person counting has won. If there are few groups participating in the exercise, it can be a less dynamic decision due to the limited number of ideas to choose between. In the case of only two groups for instance, it can be a good idea to allow one team to challenge or “grill” the other after their pitch to create a more interactive and entertaining atmosphere, forcing the teams to create stronger defenses for each proposal.
Tip: Please allow the students to take a break in between group work and pitching.
Summary (15 min)
Spend some time summing up the learning objectives, main challenges and key takeaways from the exercise, while receiving feedback from students.
Tip
The facilitator for the exercise can decide how much time the participants spend with or without any supervisors. The exercise can be conducted with facilitators spending more time with the groups, and providing more guidance. If facilitators are not spending much time with the groups during the exercise, that could create a more natural environment where students do not have to think about someone watching. Feedback can be given at a later point.
Even if the group get stuck, that could be good for the teamwork. Without any guidance, they would be forced to collaborate and make decisions on their own. Nevertheless, sometimes it might be valuable and more educational to have someone provide guidance when being stuck – especially if the group is stuck for a longer period of time.
Key takeaways
Students will feel the pressure of making good decisions in a short space of time, probably having little personal experience and knowledge in the field.
They experience the risk of not making good decisions, and they might see the necessity of making them to avoid ambiguity. In other words, they have to balance the need for brainstorming, thorough discussions and analysis, with the need for progression in order to be able to fill out the business model canvas and prepare a pitch within the limited amount of time given.
The key takeaways from this exercise can be summarized: