December 2009 ~ Management 2.0 developing social capital

Saturday 12 December 2009

Monkeys with Typewriters

Monkey-typing On Wednesday, I attended the book launch of Jemima Gibbons’ new book on social media, Monkeys with Typewriters.

The book is named after the theoretical monkeys or apes who, given long enough, produce the complete works of Shakespeare, and therefore explain the golden rules of social media:

It’s simple (because monkeys can do it)
It’s fun (why else would monkeys bother)
Its ubiquitous (everywhere you look, there’s another goddamn monkey with a typewriter).

The book is one of the best I’ve read on social media - partly because a lot of Jemima’s experiences resonate for me (I’m one of the people who have never quite managed to get to Tuttle, but I have been a Fellow of the RSA for most of the last 15 years) – but there are other reasons too.

The book is written as a narrative, describing a series of experiences which I think works well. And it also provides a lot of information, a lot of which is surprisingly current, and quite a bit of which is new for me – and I read a lot about this space. All the book’s arguments are also very well referenced and supported.

But I’m also impressed because I think the book outlines the the paradigms that come with working with social media very well.

I’m particularly pleased to find that Jemima agrees with my own perspective that we need to focus on people, and what the technology enables people to do, rather than starting from the technology itself.

So, much of the book focuses on the required changes in leadership within a social media enabled environment, ie one that is not about:

command and control
micro-managing
over-structuring.

But instead, is based upon:

co-creation
passion
learning
openness
listening
generosity.

Jemima describes her dream environment as one which looks like the world-wide web (or at least, web 2.0 – Gary Hamel’s argument too):

“Wouldn’t it be great to have a system where people worked together constructively without the need for micro-management? Where people were passionate about what they did? Where there was a common understanding of objectives and protocols? Where people knew who to ask if they wanted advice or where to go if they needed feedback on something? Where there were numerous experts on hand to give advice for free? Where people co-operated and shared stuff without arguing, and got rewarded for doing so? Where people were valued and appreciated by their peers? An overwhelmingly create environment, where ideas and materials were frequently re-used, re-purposed and mashed together in order to form new, eminently desirable products and services – desirable because it was the consumers themselves who had shaped them?”

I still think we need to take Jemima’s argument regarding people vs technology further however. For me, we need to be much clearer about what we’re trying to create. Focusing on an environment which is enabled by social technology is still inherently about technology. We need to go beyond this and think about all the different ways the desired environment can be created.

Even better we can go beyond talking about environment and focus on the outcomes this environment provides us, whether this is customer or employee engagement, knowledge, productivity or connections and relationships – or social capital (which is, in my view, the key outcome from both social technologies and the environment that Jemima describes).

Once we’re clear about the outcomes, we can look at which environments and which technologies or other enablers can best create these. My belief is that this can lead to an even more compelling case for change than the arguments Jemima uses for her very human organisational environment.

But I do think this book is a big step forward (from Andrew McAfee’s ‘not not about the technology’ for instance).

Picture credit: Chris 73

Technorati Tags: Jemima Gibbons,Monkeys with Typewriters,Triarchy Press,social media

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Friday 4 December 2009

CIPD09: A New Leadership Paradigm (Part 3)

I’ve already posted twice on the last keynote session from this year’s CIPD conference, ‘A New Leadership Paradigm’ (part 1 - the preview and part 2 – the live blog). I’d now like to summarise my take-aways from this and other sessions at the conference.

First of all, I thought the keynote debate was really well done. All three speakers clearly had different perspectives, with Sir Christopher Kelly providing a rather more traditional view of leadership to the others. However, it was still useful to have him included, as I think things are going to take longer to change in the public sector, and his views helped to keep discussion rooted in reality.

And it is also possible to link all three speakers’ perspectives together. In his presentation with Julie Smith from PepsiCo, Jasvier Bajer explained that the true definition of leadership is ‘the ability to create movement and deliver change’. And I think all speakers would agree with this.

But I don’t think Kelly’s views expressed the new paradigm (which is probably why he didn’t think there is one). The future of leadership isn’t just more management; and its not about command and control. As David Smith stated in his presentation of ASDA’s change story (see slide), tell & do autocracy is already dead.

The paradigm shift, like the broader shift in the organisational people management agenda is about transparency, authenticity and sustainability. It’s why I like Avolioand Gardner’s description of authentic leaders (provided by Jane Turner, Newcastle Business School in her workshop on internal coaching):

“Those who are deeply aware of how they think and behave -and are perceived by others as being aware of their own and other’s values, knowledge and strengths; confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient and of high moral character”

This definition really is, I think, at the heart of the new paradigm of leadership.

Transparency – an alignment between real and perceived
Authenticity – based on self-awareness
Sustainability -confident, hopeful, optimistic, resilient

But I also think there’s one more piece in this – and this is connectivity which I’ve also already posted on as my additional key message from the conference.

In terms of leadership, this area was best addressed at the conference by Emmanuel Gobillot’s presentation of Leadershift:

“To stay relevant leaders will need to move towards Leadership 2.0 – a type of leadership, non-hierarchical in form, that facilitates the collaboration of a self-selected group. In this new context, the leader is an integral part in the generation of a narrative that builds and sustains this group’s valuable and co-created outcomes.”

In reflecting back on the conference, I’ve been also be drawn to Gautam Ghosh’s recent post on leadership in hyper-linked times. In his view, the behaviours of leaders must reflect the new tenets of OD:

Openness and Transparency
Conversation (MBWA)`
Content (co-creation of the brand)
Collaboration
Communities (shared interest groups or tribes connecting around various 'social objects’)
Collective Intelligence

Gautam also notes that these behaviours aren’t new. But put them all together – transparency, authenticity, sustainability and connectivity – and I think you do arrive at something like a new paradigm for leadership. And although I’ve mainly be posting here on the business use of web 2.0 tools, this new leadership paradigm is a important and integral aspect of gaining Social Advantage too.

Technorati Tags: CIPD,Manchester,New Paradign,Leadership,Leadershift,Leadership 2.0,Emmanuel Gobillot,Gautam Ghosh,hyperlinked times