A call for European Coworkers
writer: Jörn Hendrik Ast
Being an Indieworker is a road full of dangers to your own limits of strength and a delicate balance between being broke and living the perfect creative life. For me, as a career coach, it is, of course, my calling to help Indieworkers to master this balance. One answer to do this is to search inside yourself, to get a clear view of how you really want to work and which inner dialogues you are holding you back to achieve this. Lieza Dessein gave the perfect speech on that the second day, saying: “You have to nurture your own ecosystem as a Freelancer.”Because blaming the outside world for not helping you as an Indieworker is like complaining about the weather, you can’t change it anyway. You have to move and go to Istanbul or Porto to enjoy the sun.
The last ten years I was working with and for the community of different spaces in Germany as a mentor, coach and more than often I listened and learned from the incredibly talented people I met. With questions on my mind like how to build a strong community. The highlight was definitely the “How to be a Hub Superhero” workshop in June 2017 at Betahaus Berlin. Commissioned by the European Creative Hubs Network, with funding from the EU and the British Council with 35 partners and Hub Managers from all over Europe. It was an intense experience for me as a coach and let also to the invitation as a speaker to Porto.
One of the strongest ideas I heard during the bootcamp was from Vassilis, who has build the creative hub and collective bios in Athens for the last 20 (!) years and who is also Director of the European Creative Hubs Network, saying:”A community is evolving through continuous improvement but in the end you have to grow with people. You know you’re there when you have a big, strong family.” This really stuck with me and since I’m part of a coworking family, I would love to dive into the topic of collaboration design and coworking rituals even deeper.
Another amazing quote came from Joana Carvalho, Hub Manager at Dinamo10 in Viana de Castelo, Portugal, she explained her point of view what coworking is, saying: “Coworking is not about a place, Coworking is an action.” This is so beautiful, let’s build ideas to strengthen the family and let’s create action. I think it’s time to think about some kind of structure for the coworkers to help them create the success they want, lose their fears and feelings of anxiety. Because when I held my workshop on Saturday, I heard a lot of voices from the participants on their sorrows and insecurities about their work:
Focus: To find the right balance between bread and butter jobs that pay your rent and you heart projects that you need like a fish needs the water to live.
Clarity: It is hard to stop starting new projects with the endless stimulation of your creativity surrounded by a vibrant community of likeminds. You need clarity about the the best ideas for you.
Impact: Even with the impulsive energy of an idea volcano, you need to train your impact muscle, sometimes you only have one shot, raise your chances to be more effective.
Leadership: Especially as a Hub Manager you need to be sensitive about hiring new employees to your coreteam. Who is a fit to your team and the community? How can you as the leader of your space develop an instinct to create the perfect team?
Invitation and Obrigado
My special interest and calling as a Coachpreneur and Coworker is to find the right answers to these questions. Of course, I cannot find these answers on my own, nor can’t I create the solutions on my own for this big family. And happily, I found a deeply inspiring Cofounder in Tuğçe Akbulut, who is a Creative Entrepreneur at Cross Change in Istanbul, and who also attended the Indieworker Bootcamp as a speaker.
We are in contact since then and our idea volcanoes are erupting more than interesting ideas. At the moment we are in the founding phase for a project on collaboration design and coworking rituals with various partners across Europe, meaning Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Porto. Hell yeah, stay tuned. Muito Obrigado Tânia, Daniel, Nina, Julija, Mónica and Miguel for organizing this event, inviting these lovely people and creating this delicate atmosphere. Let’s see where it grows. Of course, I am back in 2020. Promised.
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Originally published at https://newworkhero.es.
