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Bright Red Triangle Nick’s Story
Edinburgh Napier University
Back in January, I had the opportunity to meet with Nick Fannin, who heads up Bright Red Triangle. They’re part of Napier University in Edinburgh. They deliver free business advice, mentoring and incubator facilities for students and graduates that are interested in setting up their own business. Nick has an infectious drive for helping young people explore the World of enterprise and business in a safe environment. He likens it to a playground where failure isn’t just tolerated, it’s actually embraced.
“They deliver free business advice, mentoring and incubator facilities for students and graduates that are interested in setting up their own business”.
Nick and his team offer a level of business coaching to help students bridge the gap between academia and the cold hard reality of the commercial world. Some of those students might go on to run their own business, while others will take the skills and entrepreneurial mindset into their first graduate job. They teach communication and soft skills and help their students become critical thinkers, and problems solvers, while, at the same time, giving them the opportunity to lead
Adding More Value Nick is always looking to deepen the experience for his students. Adding the commercial knowledge to their academic talents has made a big difference, but Nick wanted to take it further. He wanted to add another layer to equip them for the future. A more personal layer that gave the student the time and space to reflect and think. From giving them the confidence to communicate with their colleagues, the self belief to articulate their thoughts and, ultimately, the people skills to be a more empathetic and supportive leaders. The idea was to add personal coaching to the business coaching. For Nick, it was the missing piece of the puzzle. The element that would create a more complete experience
“He wanted to add another layer to equip them for the future. A more personal layer that gave the student the time and space to reflect and think.”
Nice Idea But ‘How’? Bright Red Triangle consists of three full-time staff. They’re all busy enough delivering the service, providing the support and running a number of different programmes. Hiring some dedicated coaches, even on a short-term basis wasn’t an option, as, like many organisations, they weren’t looking to increase the wage bill. As I’d already been in discussions with another team within the University, Nick had heard about the work we’re doing at Know You More. That initial conversation in January resulted in a pilot for ten students taking part in the Bright Red Traingle Future Investible Talents (FIT) programme.
The Pilot Over 8 weeks, each of the students worked with their own personal coach. The coaching was split into two halves. The first four sessions were all about learning, while the final four sessions were all about doing.
Learning focussed on concepts such as values and idea generation, while the implementation element looked at the practical skills to run their own programme. Before we could get to that, we had to assign the right coach to each of the students. It’s such a critical part of our process and Nick really engaged to understand how we do it. Nick sat down with us to define the profile of the coaches required. Based on that, we recruited 15 coaches, 5 more than required, but we always like to have a surplus of coaches for any project. Once selected we held a webinar to give Nick the opportunity to meet the coaches directly. For Nick, this helped give him real context because he got to meet the real coaches. He said:“The process of meeting the coaches on a live webinar helped me understand the level of coaching on offer. I was far more confident about the entire pilot after meeting the coaches. I got a sense of ‘what’s what’ and by meeting them I was essentially vetting them and the Know You More approach.”
“Learning focussed on concepts such as values and idea generation, while the implementation element looked at the practical skills to run their own programme.”
The ‘Why Us?’ Question While the process of matching coaches to students worked and made sense, there was one area where we, collectively, could have communicated better. The issue? The students didn’t know why they’d been chosen to be coached. Some were merely intrigued while others didn’t think they needed coaching. Between us, we didn’t provide the context to the students. The reality was that the students selected were those that Nick and the Bright Red Triangle team felt would benefit the most from the coaching experience. The lesson Nick and I learned was a simple, but vital one. To avoid fear, uncertainty or doubt, we need to communicate clearly why someone is being given the opportunity to be coached. We need the onboarding experience of “The students didn’t all coachees to be as straightforward know why they’d been and as direct as possible. If not, we chosen to be coached. could waste time and effort at the start Some were merely of the coaching which could impact the intrigued while others initial engagement from the students. A didn’t think they hugely valuable lesson for everyone. needed coaching.”
The Results We recovered well from the initial ‘why are we being coached’ issue. The pilot was a success, for Nick, and most importantly the students. Here’s what Nick had to say. “The experience with Tim and the team has been really positive. And, we were impressed with the Know You More platform. It cleverly uses technology to create a more human experience for our students. And, that human side was so important to me. Getting the opportunity to meet the coaches on the webinar gave me the clarity and confidence that they could help our students and deliver real value. And that’s what this was all about – deepening the experience for our students. Adding business coaching and this level of personal coaching will give these young people a real advantage in the future, regardless of what they do.
The real litmus test is what the students thought. When you hear them say ‘This is like no classroom experience I’ve ever had.’ and ‘This is the best thing I’ve done.’ it gives me and the Bright Red Triangle team reassurance and confidence. We’re now actively working with Tim, Kate and Chirag to explore how we can move this beyond the pilot phase and roll this out to more people.”
And that’s what this was all about – deepening the experience for our students. Adding business coaching and this level of personal coaching will give these young people a real advantage in the future, regardless of what they do.
