Effectuation 2024 in Nantes - Reflections from Saras

Nantes was absolutely wonderful. As always, the effectuation conference (and the effectual dinner) was energetic, engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. The podcast challenge this year took the entire experience to another level. Deeply grateful to see old faces and really excited to meet new ones. Slavica’s keynote was inspiring. And the unique yet familiar mix of focus on teaching, practice and ideas was delightful. Thank you, Tiago and Katrin and Jim. And thanks to every one of you with whom I had a side conversation, some longer, some short, but many that really tickled my mind in curious ways.

Yet, I cannot help thinking that the real work is in front of us, not in the past. There is so much we don’t understand. The magic of conversations, for example. I’m reminded of something I heard David Whyte say, “There's no self that will survive a real conversation, there's no self that will survive a real meeting with something other than itself.”

If I were just starting out on my intellectual journey today,

• I would definitely think deeply about conversations as data – whether in a lab setting or in the field, both inside and outside of entrepreneurship.
  
  
• I would also dive deeper into connecting with Lisa Feldman Barrett’s view of emotions as “made” and work on how they are maybe made through effectual conversations.
  
  
• Another fascinating study I would want to do would examine the ventures not made – the moments and spaces in the human condition in which the entrepreneurial could and should have made a positive difference, but did not. A series of counterfactual studies.
  
  
• And perhaps tackle the biggest problem I see in the world – low trust societies. In other words, how can we overcome and effectually transform kinship into cross-kin and beyond-kin co-creation?
  
  Photo Credit: Michael Werth, Effectuation 2024 Attendee