Maybe you've met Bill and Steve at
TedxGrandRapids,
5x5 Night, ArtPrize or any number of events of which they've been a part. But let's pretend you haven't.
So, meet Bill. Bill Holsinger-Robinson was the Senior Manager of E-Business Strategy at furniture giant Herman Miller from 1997 to 2003. In 2005, he began working as COO of Spout.com, a niche social network preceding Twitter and Youtube. This is where Holsinger-Robinson says he began to start "feeling a little bit of my stride." After Spout.com came ArtPrize, where he took on years one and two as Executive Director, while acting as President of business incubator Pomegranate Studios. During this same period, Holsinger-Robinson was the Executive Director of seed accelerator Momentum. Then, in the summer of 2011, Holsinger-Robinson left those things to pursue being an entrepreneur.
What Holsinger-Robinson does, according to both his own words and his track record, is "cultivate large communities of people into action," and then he figures out how to best communicate. How to get people to respond. To listen. To create a network.
Steve Frazee's last corporate job was for VeriFone, where he taught computer programming and the business of electronic banking on a global level. When Frazee tired of traveling, he founded his own software company, then bought another one. He later sold his employees the company so he could focus on private consulting for companies like Sprint and MCI, but later was hired back to the company he founded as Chief Strategist. That company, Atrana Solutions, was sold in 2005. Then what?
"I wanted to run and build more companies, but I wanted to do companies that had some sort of positive impact," he says. So, Frazee went on a global mission to learn how to do what he calls "good business," which included studying with global thought leaders, running a nonprofit in Boulder, donating some of his money and providing pro bono consulting. He moved to Grand Rapids three years ago, thinking he'd start a company with a friend of his in Grand Haven. And while the company never started, Frazee endeavored with Nick Pickrel to produce TEDxGrandRapids. For Frazee, it was a way to make friends, but turned into a full-time job. And TEDxGrandRapids was where Frazee met Holsinger-Robinson.
Social Entrepreneurship Through Emergent Design
Together, they've created
SEED Collective, a consultancy where SEED stands for Social Entrepreneurship through Emergent Design.
"SEED Collective is a consultancy where we take our developed talents and use it to manage bringing new things into being," Frazee says. "Specifically, things that involve creating community or getting groups of people to do something around a purpose."
Frazee and Holsinger-Robinson agree that these types of ideas involve "weaving a mesh of people together." A meshwork. And in this meshwork, the pair would be the ones that "organize the organizers," using systems they've used before in their previous work. Once the consulting is finished, they move onto the next project. They would consult for communities, cities and nonprofits. But the SEED Collective is only one piece of what they've been working on lately, and SEED Collective's first big project is right here in Grand Rapids.
In August, the two of them met up and agreed that their work thus far had been impactful, and having an impact within their community was something they enjoyed. "We enjoy helping to continue to build and bolster [our] community, and we love doing the new thing," Holsinger-Robinson says. They both agreed in their next career move, they wanted to be around really smart, creative people; how could they create the same feeling people had at TEDxGrandRapids all year long?
Other people who had the same idea about recreating the atmosphere of the inaugural one-day event suggested that what would be great would be developing a "cool, creative, innovative space." But perhaps there are no spaces like that -- only people like that.
"What if we start with this notion of a collective of people," Holsinger-Robinson proposes, "and we think about the ways that we're going to be able to best support those people in all of their creative endeavors? What would that look like, how would that community come together, under what types of codes of conduct, where would they hang out? What would the space look like, and to what purpose would they come together and coalesce?"
In this case, finding out what physical location made the most sense would depend on the people involved. This would not be an idea dependent on real estate, but an idea that focused first on community and socialization.
This idea is the
GR Collective.
Seeking Thinkers and High-Level Doers
GR Collective seeks to take this idea and bring the "thinkers" and "high-level doers" together. This group, ideally, would be comprised of people who are ambitious enough to do, but who also want to work with other people with the same values. Success and significance for the ideal candidates would not be revenue-based, but rooted in meaning. If the creative class, according to Richard Florida, is 30 percent of the workforce, then the super-creative class it about 12 percent. These are the people GR Collective wants.
"These are the innovative people who are actually doing things, making things, making systems or businesses, " Holsinger-Robinson says, "as opposed to just supporting those systems."
"Our first task is to see if people are willing to support this idea," he continues. "We're launching this whole concept without the funding. We're looking for a show that there's actual support from a community of people to make this happen."
This lean start-up approach, putting research and customer development up front, relies on the future potential members of this collective. To become one, you go to the website and you provide your email address. You'll receive an email back, inviting you to tell Bill and Steve a little more about yourself. From there, this curated community becomes to evolve.
Frazee compares this community to the 2 to 4 percent of people on Wikipedia who actually add and edit content versus those that simply look for information. "We want to make sure that the right people are playing within the community for the right reasons," he says. "It's meant to focus on people who are going to be active within the community. Those people will be the founding members; they will be the ones that help us figure out the details."
This is the meshwork. While the sustainability of the GR Collective depends on a membership fee, it won't be about who can simply afford that fee. In a meshwork, or a "high-trust network," Frazee says, "all the participants are aware of the value of the health of the network itself, and everyone must understand what we're building is holistic."
So there will be a space, with all the right amenities, but the space will be predominantly about interaction. Perhaps someone doesn't have an office, or wants to get out of the office. As a member of GR Collective who goes to this space, they'll have what they need, and they'll be around people like them. They'll have meetings and talk through ideas. They'll make things happen.
While the exact locations are unknown, GR Collective will involve multiple buildings to support 2000 to 3000 people, located downtown and in Heartside District. Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Jay Fowler says, "The way people live, work and connect in a downtown area promotes innovation and economic growth. The GR Collective will bring people together by sharing resources and ideas, a learning process for all participants. This is an innovative form of economic gardening that I believe will change downtown and benefit the entire West Michigan region."
Outcomes, Not Output
In industrial management, everything is about output, Frazee says. In a factory, the people are plugged into a system, and they're oftentimes replaceable, rather than individuals with unique attributes. "The systems we're interested in creating are about people and the outcomes. We look at the people as the core resources and then build the system around those people. It's much more organic and holistic, and includes more people. This is human-centered business."
"The knowledge economy was a big deal 20 years ago," Frazee says. "Design-thinking is the next thing. Social entrepreneurship. Emergent design… we've seen what happens when corporations get out of hand. Social entrepreneurship is that piece of bringing humanity back into business."
Frazee cites
Cascade Engineering, the largest certified B-Corporation, as an example of a business based on people-outcomes.
Christina Keller, Business Unit Leader at Cascade Engineering, says, "Business is ultimately about people, and triple bottom line thinking embraces this. More and more West Michigan companies share this focus, and it’s what Bill and Steve are trying to do with GR Collective. They’re keeping the people part front and center. That’s the spirit that is driving innovation and attracting new talent to our region.”
J. Bennett Rylah is the Managing Editor of Rapid Growth Media.