The Acquaintance Zone

I used to be a more serious writer but over the past three years I've been increasingly distracted by Drop Your Drink. However, I'll attempt to adopt a different tone for this piece. My recent alumni experience at the Brightest Young Minds (BYM) Summit has inspired me to write this piece and tackle why so few initiatives are started after the BYM Summit. Although this article centres around the BYM Summit and my thoughts from there, it's for everyone who wants to have a go at solving wicked problems.

What's the problem? 

People get selected to attend the BYM Summit because they already do so much stuff. The expectation is that bringing together all of these minds would create tons of great start-ups and projects but this rarely happens. There about 1500 bright young minds doing things. Why is it so difficult for us to work together to do more things?

I think two reasons apply. The first is related to a perception of time. Christiaan Pretorius, an alumni from 2014, accurately summed up part of this problem when he mentioned that we are busy because of all the stuff that we're already doing. When you get back to your regular life you just don't have time to add on extra projects. 

Time is a factor, but I don't think it's the main reason why so few projects are started after the Summit. I think our lack of personal connection is our main problem. At the Summit, we're too busy finding out who's who in the zoo because it's a networking fest. After the Summit, we stay in contact through Facebook status updates of our achievements. You connect with so few people that it's rare to want to know who they are and not what they do. Personally, if I don't know who you are then I won't ask for your help when I'm starting a project; I'll just look for someone in my existing friendship network. I won't have a brainstorming session with you over a few drinks because our conversation would be made up of ideas and awkward silences. The Acquaintance Zone sucks because social networking theory dictates that the more friends (not acquaintances) you have, the greater your innovation capability. It's a beautiful and positively linear curve.

A possible solution?

If we understand that friends trying to solve wicked problems together would equal a beautiful problem solving team then that's what we should aim for. It would be like the Avengers but 1500 times better if we all organised ourselves.

Here's what I propose:

• Monthly meetups that are both socials and brain blast sessions
• Each meetup would have a predetermined theme e.g. Captain Planet for Climate Resilience
• You will have homework, generation 10 - 15 ideas on how you would solve the problem underneath the theme
• The format of the meetup is games, drinks, group brainstorming, the selection of one of those ideas and maybe some dancing (if you're lucky)
• The selected idea will be turned into a business pitch presentation in the two weeks following the meetup 

Why should you join the team?

I'm setting up avenues for the completed business pitch presentations. The ideas will either go for further development or seed funding. You still win even if these ideas are rubbish. You get to practice skills I've observed that young people lack (including myself) like rapid prototyping (that's why we have the two-week time limit), revenue model creation and pitching.    

You think, "Oh wow! This sounds great! But dang ... I just don't have the time."
You do have the time.
Think, at the BYM Summit you were put into groups with strangers and given 24 hours to generate a feasible business proposal. Imagine what you could do with two weeks and a group that you call your friends?

Think yearly, that's 12 FUNdable ideas which can create 12 potential start-up businesses. That effect is just in Pretoria where I'm going to try pilot this idea. I don't know what you're going to do in your city. How many pockets of friends could we have around the country?

I read this quote on Twitter the other day. Crawford College Pretoria quoted Francis of Assisi with: "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." We're going to do this exactly. We're going to be friends, solve problems together and then we'll start doing the impossible.

What's next?

If you're in for this and wondering what happens next then I'll be: thinking of a name for this thing; looking at ways to extend our pitches beyond those two weeks; designing a Google Form for you to enter your details; creating a Doodle to schedule a date for our first event; and, setting up a Facebook Event. Contact me if you're interested, I will need your email addresses. Remember to invite your friends. I want anyone who wants to meet some great people and wrangle with wicked problems. 

My name is Yetunde Dada; as friends and future friends you can just call me Yetu.
You can reach me via: 

• Email: ye2nde@gmail.com
• Twitter: @yetudada