Leadership for a Digital World
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This document discusses the changing nature of leadership in a digital world. It notes that outdated command-and-control business models are becoming less effective, while new forms of self-organizing, collaborative and adaptive organizations are emerging. Effective modern leaders inspire hope, mindfulness and compassion, and create leadership everywhere by embracing diverse opinions, asking powerful questions, and leading from the edge.
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Leadership for a Digital World
- 1. Leadership for a digital world Max St John, NixonMcInnes / @maxwellstjohn
- 2. Fastest machine in the world (1964-69) 40 MHz 128MB $7 million
- 3. Cheapest smartphone in the world (2013) 1GHz 32GB $99
- 4. “The network society permeates various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the industrial society characterized most of the twentieth century.”
- 5. Outdated modes of business dominate Command and control Division of labour Closed and inflexible
- 6. New forms of organisation are emerging Self-organising Collaborative Highly adaptive
- 7. The next gen isn’t business-as-usual Expect respect Expect freedom Expect technology
- 8. We now live in a VUCA world Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous
- 9. All bets are off.
- 10. What if business looked more like this? Hyper-connected Adaptive Flexible
- 11. Business is becoming democratic 51 organisations $17bn turnover 230,000 employees
- 12. Soft is the new hard – internal strengths Emotional intelligence Social intelligence Cognitive intelligence
- 13. Effective leaders inspire others to feel: Hope Mindfulness Compassion
- 15. “Leadership is the journey of becoming a profound human being. It’s how human communities develop together. Stepping across the threshold to shape their own future.” Peter Senge, March 2013
- 16. Collective intelligence requires: Even participation Social sensitivity Good gender balance
- 17. Creating leadership everywhere through: Embracing diverse opinion Asking powerful questions Leading from the edge
Editor's Notes
- Moore’s law states that chip performance and computing power doubles every two years. Exponential growth isn’t set to slow with the development of nanotechnology.To illustrate – this is the CDC6600.40 MHz processing speed, 128 MB memory, a cost of $7m and the fastest machine in the world between 1964 and 1969.
- This is the Nokia Asha501, 1GHz processing speed, up to 32 GB memory and at a cost of $99. It’s aimed at the emerging markets and is part of the journey towards the whole world being online and connected.
- Our increasingconnected-ness is shaping society.Manuel Castells, a sociologist specialising in technology and globalisation tells us that in the same way manufacturing and industry shaped the 20th Century, the internet and the network sets the defining structure and principles of the 21st Century.“The network society is the social structure characteristic of the Information Age, as tentatively identified by empirical, cross-cultural investigation. It permeates most societies in the world, in various cultural and institutional manifestations, as the industrial society characterized the social structure of both capitalism and statism for most of the twentieth century.”He also says the way we think of organisations and our sense of self is changing too. That the ‘vertically integrated hierarchies’ are being replaced by network organisations, and that the various ways we can connect and express ourselves is encouraging us to continually redefine how we define ourselves to the outside world."Our societies are increasingly structured around the bipolar opposition of the Net and the Self";[9] the “Net” denotes the network organisations replacing vertically integrated hierarchies as the dominant form of social organization, the Self denotes the practices a person uses in reaffirming social identity and meaning in a continually changing cultural landscape.http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaxzine/569820150/sizes/o/
- But the dominant models of business are at odds with the network society – they are based on vertical hierarchies. Models of extraction, of division of labour, command and control. They are closed and inflexible.The manufacturing model that was pioneered by Henry Ford, to mass produce the first affordable family car and kick-start consumerism is still the basis for how we run entertainment businesses, government departments and global NGOs. Aside from being at odds with the principles of our new society, these are the same models that created the complex problems, like climate change and global austerity. As Einstein said – “Madness is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results”.
- Technology and the networked society are forming the basis for new models of organising. In these models, labour and information isn’t controlled, it’s free-flowing and self-organising, congregating around issues that have meaning to people. They are networked, open, collaborative, flat and go by the rules and principles that they set, not that are imposed upon them.Occupy is a prime example – no ‘leaders’, open source, organised around a principle or value – but organised themselves to deliver emergency support during hurricane sandy. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafallg/6451858833/sizes/l/
- And the generations coming up through society live and breathe these principles. Like Occupy, they’re bringing them to life in the streets and the workplace.They have expectations that aren’t met by the traditional business-as-usual. They expect respect, freedom and autonomy – and access to technology and the freedom to use it how and when they want. Many businesses are still struggling to give people the tools, technology and trust to access social media websites.http://www.flickr.com/photos/elhamalawy/6295134595/sizes/l/in/photostream/
- We now live in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous world. VUCA is an acronym invented by the military – the ultimate example of a command and control organisation – and came into use after the 9/11 attacks – to describe the world as they now saw it, disrupted by one of the ‘best’ examples of a networked and decentralised organisation that uses technology to organise – Al Qaeda.From terrorist attacks to economic collapses and impending climate disaster, the complexity of what we face cannot be met by our dominant models of leading and organising.http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/1266529437/sizes/l/
- So, all bets are off. But in the challenge is an opportunity – a massive opportunity to rethink how we organise ourselves and lead, inspired by the networked complexity of our times.
- So what if business was a bit more like this? Virtual and networked organisations are becoming more and more common. They represent a way of being more flexible – to the life patterns of the best possible talent, not those who can fit in around the business. They beyond the local, and have access to a global talent pool. They can keep their overheads low and remain agile and flexible.Examples: 37 Signals, Barrett Values Centre, Mechanical Turk http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaxzine/569820150/sizes/o/
- And just as people are no longer willing to accept living in societies without democracy, business is waking up to how it needs to become more democratic.More democratic organisations give their employees greater autonomy and sense of purpose, drive up wellbeing and studies show are more profitable over the long term.The WorldBlu list of the world’s most democratic businesses now comprises of 51 organisations, with a combined revenue of $15bn. They include 53,000 employee organisations like Da Vita etc. And even beyond this list of committed businesses, democratic practices are becoming more mainstream. For example Valve – the games manufacturer empowers its developers to decide what projects they’ll work on and form their own teams. The founder can’t get his ideas made.
- But let’s look beyond structure – because much like the industrial age was all about process, this networked and informationage is about people.So leading these organisations needs people with new competencies. Softis the new hard. A bit like Tai Chi masters, we need to develop our internal strengths.Research is showing that there are three competencies that differentiate average from outstanding performers in organisations:emotional, social and cognitive intelligence competencies. Emotional intelligence: how self aware are we? How well do we manage our emotions, how empathic are you, or comfortable discussing feelings?Social intelligence:http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlong/5739146338/sizes/o/
- In a changing complex environment, people need to be creative and agile. Fear makes people stuck.Leading from a place of hope. Old paradigm of performance management – group or individual – creates fear and anxiety, ilicits defensiveness, and kicks in the task-positive part of the brain that dims all those great competenices about awareness and connecting with others.Emotions are contagious, and they dictate how an organisation operates. Businesses are self-organising, complex systems, they organise around either positivity or negativity. Research by Richard Boyatzis, an expert in leadership and change has shown that leaders that inspire hope, compassion, mindfulness and playfulness in their teams inspire people to become high-achievers. Negative or ‘dissonant’ leaders create fear based organistationswhich can be highly financially successful, but for a limited time.http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitzcelt/2998324008/sizes/l/
- Managementis not leadership. Management is a position, leadership is a competency. We’ve conflated status and ability to lead others. ‘Leaders’ have to be seen to care about a wide range of things all of the time – this is impossible and is why the old paradigm of running businesses is becoming more obviously redundant. Leadership is the act of taking action on the things that matter deeply to you, when it’s needed. It’s a competency that is dynamic and that anyone can own.
- One of the leading thinkers in emerging management theory, Peter Senge. Describes leadership as a behaviour or act that is done collectively.This is about the group – because faced with complex challenges, we can’t rely on a small number of individuals, we need the group’s collective intelligence and action.
- Complex challenges require us to harness collective intelligence – to turn diverse thinking into innovative new ideas and action.The MIT centre for collective intelligence ran studies that showed the collective intelligence of a group was greater than the sum of the IQs in the room, and not connected to that of the smartest – it showed that collective intelligence was maximised by: even-ness of participation, social perceptiveness and the number of women in the group!http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/557662147/
- In practical terms, harnessingcollective intelligence means getting people to contribute fully, on what matters to them, to step up respectfully and with thought.This requires a new set of tools and principles, which is at the heart of the participatoryleadership movement. Participatory leadership is the idea that we can, and must, all lead in our own way together. It requires a new mindset and toolkit – something that’s rapidly spreading thanks to self-organising movements like the Art of Hosting (explain) community and now through our business schools and writing.Participatory leadership uses methodologies – like Open Space, World Café, to gather the collective intelligence and harvest diverse opinion, but it also uses principles of respect, empathy, congruence, mindfullness and others, to build even participation and more conscious practices.While it’s about creating leadership everywhere, it also requires a certain kind of leadership to create the condtions for it – leaders as hosts, leading from the edge.http://www.flickr.com/photos/percolabpaul/8442388816/sizes/l
- In conclusion.We’re living in a VUCA world and/but technology is changing society and opening up opportunities for us to meet these complex challenges.New ways oforganising ourselves and doing business are emerging. Morehuman ways of learning and leading.We need to create new behaviours and competencies, in ourselves and those we ‘lead’ to create leadership everywhere.What matters to you? What are you prepared to take leadership on? How will you look inside, and step up?