On January 18, 2019 Toon Branbergen and Daan Witteveen hosted an Open Incubation workshop for a group of venture teams participating in the Startup in Residence program of the municipality Amsterdam.
During the workshop we have tested a new workshop approach whereby the venture teams worked step by step on building a tailored venture governance framework.
The new workshop approach consists of seven steps of 30 minutes each. First we discuss the Open Incubation model. We do this by discussing the governance related questions the workshop participants may have and the challenges they have experienced. See for more information the blog “Five governance questions every founder should ask before starting a venture”. The next four steps consist of the four building blocks of the Open Incubation model: Roles & Contributions, Rewards, Values and Rules of Engagement. We conclude the workshop with recommendations on how to use the Open Incubation model going forward. We also provide a number of practical tools to facilitate the participants to practise Open Incubation throughout their venture .
The four building blocks of the Venture Governance Canvas facilitate the participants to discuss their 1) Roles & Contributions and 2) to design a fair balance with the Rewards a venture could offer. Rewards is the venture’s currency, see also the blog on Venture Currency. In the workshop the teams were challenged to think broader about Rewards then cash and equity only. Thereafter, the venture teams spend time on writing down the 3) venture Values. This is where we see a variety of values coming in uncovering amongst others purpose, transparency, inclusion & diversity, openness and collaboration related topics. We asked the teams to write those values down as if they were a manifesto. Finally, the venture team started discussing the 4) Rules of Engagement, a practical set of rules that the venture team members agree to apply going forward – taking into account the first three building blocks.
During the two-and-a-half work shop the ventures teams learned how much the four building blocks of the Open Incubation governance model are related to each other. The Canvas easily enables teams to go back and forth through the building blocks.
Working the four building blocks of the Venture Governance Canvas is a first step towards the design of a more detailed venture governance, often summarised in a venture white paper. Although this is not in scope of the workshop, we learned that the discussions the Canvas triggered facilitate the venture teams to create alignment on the most important governance topics. We recommend venture teams to review the Canvas every 2 months as ventures are by default dynamic. Think of pivots, team members leaving, other joining, a need for a different skill set etc.
Should you be interested in hosting or joining an Open Incubation workshop or lab, please send a direct message to @openincubation
