The Five Development Stages to Make Self-Management Thrive
Last week, I shared with you the animated video about SINA and their radically different way of working. It's an extremely inspiring story.
And it's also hard to imagine how they are delivering such a powerful personal transformation journey. Time and time again. So how does this actually work in practice?
How do you take young people, many of whom have grown up in refugee settlements or extreme poverty, and give them the freedom to develop themselves to become social entrepreneurs?
The short answer is: you do not start with freedom.
At SINA, freedom is something you grow into. And, importantly, it's paired with responsibility.
They call the underlying principle freesponsibility. Freedom paired with responsibility. One only expands when the other grows alongside it.
What struck me most when studying SINA’s model is how intentionally they guide people through that process. Nothing is left to chance.
Let's explore their process towards freesponsibility step by step.
Stage 1: It starts with breaking old stories
Every scholar begins in what SINA openly calls the Confusion Stage. And that name is well chosen.
Most people arrive expecting a school. A timetable. Teachers. Instructions. Instead, they find a community that refuses to tell them what to do.
That initial discomfort is not a bug. It is the point.
This stage focuses on confronting limiting beliefs. Stories like “people like me don’t become leaders” or “my past defines my future”. Scholars work on self-awareness, communication, emotional resilience, and discovering their purpose. They are pushed gently but consistently outside their comfort zone.
One exercise captures the spirit perfectly.
Scholars go into the city with a list of uncomfortable tasks. Dance in public. Ask for a job in a random shop. Do something that scares you. Not to embarrass people, but to show them how fragile fear really is.
Only when someone starts to take responsibility for their inner world does SINA invite them to take responsibility for the community.
Stage 2: Responsibility before entrepreneurship
In the next stage, 'emerging', scholars begin running SINA itself.
They take on real roles. Finance. Operations. Community coordination. Safeguarding.
These are not simulations or workshops. This is the actual organization, run by the people who are still learning.
What I find powerful here is the order.
SINA does not start with business ideas or pitch decks. It starts with contribution. With learning how to work with others, handle conflict, make decisions, and deal with the consequences.
A simple but telling example is the canteen challenge.
Scholars are asked to run the community canteen as a self-managed business. They define roles, hold meetings, deal with tensions, and make the numbers work. It is messy. And it is real.
This is where freesponsibility becomes tangible. You are free to act, but you are accountable to the people around you.
Stage 3: This is where things get real
In the 'concentration stage', scholars stop talking about ideas and start testing them in the real world. Over several weeks, teams take the solutions they care about and push them hard.
They speak to customers, try to make sales, refine their offer, and discover whether their idea actually solves a problem people are willing to pay for.
There is no safety net here. SINA does not hand out startup capital or protect teams from failure. Scholars have to convince others that their solution is worth supporting, ideally through paying customers.
What I find powerful about this stage is how honest it is.
Progress is not measured in enthusiasm or good intentions, but in traction. Real feedback. Real consequences.
Scholars learn that responsibility also means facing reality, not hiding from it.
By the end of this stage, teams that continue have proven something important. Not just that they have a good idea, but that they can take responsibility for turning it into something viable.
Stage 4: Setting up the business
Once an idea shows real promise, scholars move into the 'linking stage'.
This is where their venture becomes an actual organization.
Teams register their enterprise, open a bank account, ensure legal compliance, and work toward covering their own costs through consistent revenue.
It may sound administrative, but this stage marks a deep psychological shift. Scholars stop seeing themselves as participants in a program and start seeing themselves as founders.
They are no longer protected by the community in the same way. They step into independence, while still being connected to the wider SINA ecosystem for support and learning.
This stage completes the core journey. The scholar becomes a peer.
Stage 5: Mastery is not a finish line
The final 'mastery stage' is one scholars never truly graduate from because growth never stops.
At this point, scholars continue building their ventures and impact in the outside world.
Enterprises can join the SINA Acceleration Program, receiving targeted 6 months further support from SINA Global to scale their impact through:
- 1-on-1 mentorship
- Specialized business trainings
- Bootcamps tailored to their needs
Even after graduation, they remain part of the international SINA network with continued access to resources, support, and peer connections.
Many also serve as mentors for new upcoming scholars.
Mastery isn’t an end. It's the launchpad for ongoing growth and long-term impact.
Scholars carry freesponsibility with them beyond SINA, into their ventures, communities, and families.
The system does not try to hold onto people. It trusts that those who have experienced real ownership will continue to create value wherever they go.
Why the full journey matters
Seen as a whole, the empowerment stages reveal something important.
SINA does not give people freedom and hope they handle it well.
It carefully designs a path where freedom grows alongside responsibility, step by step, through real work, real relationships, and real consequences.
That is the deeper value for me.
Self-management works when freedom and responsibility grow together. Too much of one without the other breaks the system.
Want to find that balance too and build a thriving organization as a result?
Enrollment for our Masterclass is open. Learn directly from people working inside the world’s most pioneering self-managed organizations.
The next Masterclass starts on February 10.
