13 Comments
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Veronica Reed's avatar

I like this. Thank you. Resonates with some of my work but from a different angle. Interesting. It's getting me thinking!

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

Thank you, Veronica! Glad it resonates 🖤

Roman Nikolaev's avatar

Thank you I didn’t know about the model. If I got it right it boils down to small team’s members have a lot of things to do but no resources or structured support.

In larger organizations it can be simulated by putting constraints on the team. People might get creative. I am doubtful about just telling them to become mini-entrepreneurs if organizational culture does not support it.

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

I think this is where the key difference lies. In the original concept, the “entrepreneurial gap” is intentionally created as a condition where responsibility and available resources do not fully match, in order to trigger entrepreneurial thinking. For an employee to be able to function successfully within this constant gap, the model assumes the presence of support and influence.

In small teams, however, the situation is different. The entrepreneurial gap already exists by default. It does not need to be designed or simulated. Because of that, the focus shifts toward support as one of the few variables a team can actually control. Support becomes a way to help people cope with the gap.

Roman Nikolaev's avatar

Can the entrepreneurial gap be negative? A lot of control and low accountability?

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

Then it’s not an entrepreneurial gap, but… Any ideas? “stagnation gap”?

Roman Nikolaev's avatar

That works! I played with widgets, it has the enterprenerial gap in both directions. That is why I was wondering...

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

Oh, it's just my weak coding skills and lack of focus. Thank you for mentioning, I will try to fix it!

Roman Nikolaev's avatar

No problem. Users who do not know what they are doing are the best testers 🙂

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

Updated this. I decided not to include any ‘stagnation gap’ labels. It feels too stigmatizing and pushes the interpretation in a more radical direction without context. Now the entrepreneurial gap is visible only when it actually exists.

Roman, thanks for the comment. That was spot on!

Ryan Carnes's avatar

Really solid breakdown of how the spans work differently at scale. The entrepreneurial gap as a built-in constraint vs. a design choice is such a clean distinction; I hadn't thought about it that way before. Read the whole thing, appreciate you putting this together. And the widgets are a nice touch!

Danil Lopatkin | Make It Work's avatar

Thanks, Ryan! I’m glad you found the strength to read it to the end :)

I find it interesting to try applying widely accepted concepts, tools, and models from the corporate world to a completely different scale, as one way to fill the sparse expertise space available to small teams