I recently found the series of posts by Steve Pratt on the Leadership Lessons of Web 2.0. I wanted to include his main points while making connections to our task of building and leading spiritual movements. Take some time however to peruse Steve’s blog. Steve’s thinking, not only on leadership, but also on the role of emerging “media” will help us be better at our task.
Lesson #1: Give Up Control – The Power of One Vs. Many
Network Theory (illustrated so well by the web/internet) argues for the wisdom of the crowd. The web (Wikipedia, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, Open Source software, etc.) reflects an architecture of participation increasing known as crowdsourcing—the sharing and co-operation of ideas and innovation and leadership enacted on a global scale and in the hands of individuals. Pratt argues that the web discovered the massive power, knowledge, and efficiency that results from letting go of control and trusting the community to help solve problems and come up with better ideas.
As A Leader: The wisdom of the crowd is almost always greater than the wisdom of the leader, too.
Many leaders’ natural instincts tend towards control – they’ve likely reached ‘leader’ status because they have experience, they’re smart, and they’re good at solving problems and producing results. So it’s often very tough for a leader to actively give up control over an idea, a project, or a problem and place that responsibility entirely with his or her team. (Pratt)
When leaders give up control and trust the wisdom of teams, they move from being a manager (someone who solves a problem—or supports pre-decided solutions to problems—and then forces other to execute those solutions) to being a leader (someone who helps a team work more effectively by releasing the reins, by developing cooperation and trust, and by kindling the team’s inherent passion.)
Lesson #2: Engagement
Network Theory. At the heart of network theory is interactivity; it’s all about dialogue, a conversation, and exchange. At its heart, a network is about engagement, connection. Links. Hubs. Webs. When networks are functioning, a community is truly engaged—creating astonishing value and fueling more and more participation.
As A Leader: Much like a web community, a successful team in an organization is an engaged team. Taking lessons from Web 2.0, Pratt suggests the following methods to increase engagement on your team.
* Make meetings two-way conversations.
* Don’t make decisions in a silo – solicit input from the team.
* One of the best pieces of advice on starting conversations on a blog is to ask questions of your audience – this is also the best way to begin to engage your team.
* Seek information, don’t tell them the solution.
A leader cannot give a team a one-way step-by-step instruction manual and expect buy-in and passion. However, if a leader creates an environment where new ideas are welcomed, new ideas are implemented, and successes are championed, teams feel valued and more confident in using their knowledge and expertise. Give them autonomy and empowerment, and the sky is the limit to the value they will create.(Pratt)
A team is engaged when they show up early and stay late; when they constantly suggest new ideas; when they all feel a sense of ownership; when they feel valued.
Leadership Lesson #3: Be A Valuable Community Member
Network Theory: Steve Pratt uses the following scenario to describe the “community” nature of networks. (Since I’m a terrible at making comments and answering comments at blogs, I’m learning something here.)
Take the example of two different types of bloggers. Jim has a great looking blog with very compelling content. Sandra has a basic template blog with relatively average content. BUT, Sandra has a healthy stream of visitors to her blog every day, while Jim is quickly fading into obscurity.
Why does the mediocre blog win the race? Because Sandra participates in online communities that are related to the subject matter of her blog. She comments on other blogs, participates in forum discussions, and generously helps other bloggers where she can. As a result, Sandra is seen as a valuable community member. Other community members have gotten to know her and, as such, visit her site regularly.
On the flip side, Jim knows he’s got a great blog, but can’t be bothered with stooping to comment on other, inferior blogs. He knows everything about his subject matter and adamantly believes that once people ‘find’ his blog, the crowds will come pouring in.
Unfortunately for Jim, they won’t.
As A Leader: You can’t just hire people and let them loose. And you can’t force people to listen to you just because you’re the boss. Leaders can’t assume they are the ‘hub’ of the community. Leaders have to earn loyalty.
Pratt suggests the following ways to be valued community members as a leader:
* So be generous.
* Help out your team members when they need it.
* Get to know them.
* Support them when they’re having troubles and champion them when they succeed.
* Teach them.
* Coach them.
* Support them.
* Take an interest in their interests.
Leadership Lesson # 4: Permission to Fail
Network Theory: In networks, communities learn from their mistakes and get stronger, faster, and better over time. Networks police themselves. For example, on Wikipedia as an example, not every entry is 100% factually correct, but the community’s passionate, engaged users have learned how to correct most of the mistakes themselves. As a result, Wikipedia has assumed a increasingly trusted position, while Encyclopedias have become outdated.
As A Leader: Pratt writes:
In order to build trust and full engagement with your team, you need to be okay with failure, too. If a team tries something that’s different than the way YOU would have done it and it doesn’t work, you can’t panic and madly reach for the reins again so you can re-assert control. Just as you trusted the team with the initial idea and execution, you need to trust that the team will learn from its mistakes and get stronger and better from each failure.
Naturally, as a leader, you’ll need to develop ways to let people ‘flag as inappropriate’ situations. Some of these you’ll have to solve. Others you can allow the team to solve. As a team learns to solve its own problems, it gets stronger, faster, and better.
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