Summarizing the fallacy of individual leadership | Managing Leadership. We’ve covered a lot of ground over the past several years in these pages. We’ve talked about everything from free-market capitalism to history – even physics. But at bottom, it all has been about management and leadership; in particular, how the former is a proper and honorable individual undertaking in an organization, and how the latter is, not to put to fine a point on it, neither. In due course we will talk more about what leadership in an organization really is, and how to manage it. But for the present, perhaps we should take a moment to summarize the fundamental problems with the current state of things – the intractable contradictions inextricably woven into the concept of individual leadership: It is inescapably about the person – not the work.
It encourages personal ties which rise to the level of cultishness. It describes these ties as existing between the “leader” & his or her “followers” – not among colleagues and their businesses or organizations. Hoping you’ll join in!
Saturday Morning Reads: Is Smaller Better When it Comes to the Customer? Designing An Organization from the Outside-In. Want Value From Social? Add Structure - Tom Davenport. By Tom Davenport | 10:35 AM November 8, 2010 Many managers these days face a social dilemma. They want to use social media to get input from many different customers and employees, because they know that an organization’s judgment is improved if its ideation and decision processes incorporate insights from multiple perspectives. But they can’t bring themselves to let employees use social media at work, because they fear too much social activity will hinder productivity. While we’re all becoming familiar with tweets, profiles, writing on walls, and open online discussion, the key to turning those conversational activities into business value has been elusive.
I’m becoming convinced that the way to gain value is to combine computer-based sociality with computer-based structure. Well before personal computers enabled online chatter, they helped bring structure to work. But work effectiveness also demands that people share their knowledge and expertise with each other. Nonprofit Blog Carnival: Openness in the Third Sector. The diversity of sub missions to this month's carnival speaks to how truly relevant the cultural and rhetorical move towards "openness" is to the work of nonprofits.
The demand for openness is affecting nonprofits in almost every dimension of our work, including: fundraising, research, marketing/communications, operations, evaluations, and outcomes. But we have a long way to go before openness in our practices and approaches could be considered the norm. Each of the posts in this month's carnival makes its own argument for why nonprofits not only have to accept this cultural shift but also why its to our real benefit to do so. "Ultimately real dedication to openness means to publish every piece of relevant data in a searchable format for the world to look at, to search and to analyze. " "“How open do I need to be?” "The social media policy for one organization may not be appropriate to your association. "Openness is a broad concept. How open are you? The Web Is a Customer Service Medium. Thursday, January 6, 2011 By Paul Ford I look forward to your feedback.
I sometimes chat with people in the book- and magazine-publishing industries. They complain to me about the web. They worry about what is being lost. They can sound like this bookseller in Buffalo, New York: Books are not product. I call the people who say such things the Gutenbourgeois. “Look,” I say, “maybe you're doing it wrong.” “But,” they say, “we tweet.” That's when I tell them about the fundamental question of the web. The Fundamental Question of the Web One can spend a lot of time defining a medium in terms of how it looks, what it transmits, wavelengths used, typographic choices made, bandwidth available.
Here's one question: “I'm bored, and I want to get out of the house and have an experience, possibly involving elves or bombs. The answer: You could go to a movie. Here's another: “How do I distract myself without leaving the house?” You might turn on the TV. “I'm driving, or making dinner. Radio! The Unconsulted. Sustaining Innovation Book Discussion Part 1: What Does it Take Innovate Naturally and Frequently? This is the first in a series of posts about Paul Light's book Sustaining Innovation: Creating Nonprofit and Government Organizations that Innovate Naturally. This post is my review of the book. Next Tuesday, we'll experiment with an "open thread" post, in which you are encouraged to share your own experiences (positive and negative) with innovation in organizations. The longer I consult with museums and cultural institutions, the more time I spend peering into people's eyes, wondering: do folks here feel able to innovate?
Is this a place where staff members are comfortable taking risks? What divides an organization that is ready to experiment from one that is not? Sustaining Innovation is a thoughtful, comprehensive book that has helped me think more concretely about these questions and their answers. It focuses on non-profits and government agencies instead of for-profit companies. What differentiates innovation in non-profits and government agencies from that in businesses? Social media integration and change management: Overcoming the most basic obstacles of all. Months ago, Sonny Gill left a comment on my post about “Becoming P2P: Principal characteristics of the new social business” that drew my interest: Company/organizational culture is something I love getting into and am still learning a lot about.One point of interest that intrigues me – and what you mentioned – is empowering your employees.
Giving them not only the tools and structure to succeed, but empowerment and reinforcement from internal leaders – the attitude that not only spreads throughout the company but outside of the office also (as we all know, work/life intermingle so much). I say it’s intriguing because it’s such an integral part in making this culture change and a P2P business a success.The biggest thing that companies will be asking though when reading this post, let alone your upcoming book, is ‘how the hell do we accomplish this?’ It sounds/is great, as how businesses function – internally and externally – is evolving, quick. Don’t sell change. Ever. Like this: Why I Run a Flat Company | Jason Fried of Inc.com.