Leading Questions

The Subverting of Hierarchy

A decade ago The Cluetrain Manifesto was released as a prescient picture of what we are now coming to understand as the future that is fast becoming the present.

The Cluetrain authors, in a revolutionary style reminiscent of Martin Luther's 95 theses nailed to the Wittenberg church door starting the Protestant Reformation in 16th. century Europe, posted 95 theses on the nature of organizations, markets and life in the age of the Internet. The entire book is available free online here.

The seventh Cluetrain thesis - Hyperlinks subvert Hierarchy - is a point about information flow and access to that flow. A hyperlink like this one takes you to some other place in the online world. In this case, the main page at Wikipedia, but it could be any one of a billion different places. This ability to access information places power in the hands of people that we previously did not have.

Recently I heard Manuel Lima speak on the visualization of networks. You can follow his exploration of this topic at his blog Visual Complexity. 

In his presentation he compared the French Encyclopedia of the 18th century with Wikipedia. As you can see from this slide from his presentation, the growth of information in our time is staggering. This growth of information and our access to it is forcing organizations to change.  From this one picture you can see how we now truly live in the Information Age.

Hyperlinks may subvert hierarchy but that is not replacing hierarchy. Reading Clay Shirky (See his recent book, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations) may lead to the idea that we will see corporations go away, though he doesn't say this. In its place, we will all be self-organized into online social networks linked by our own hyperlinked profiles and communication means. This is already happening, but it is not replacing the traditional hierarchical organization.

For example, the free e-book, Managing Morale in a time of change is a product of the very phenomenon that both Cluetrain and Shirky identify.

The larger picture is something a bit different from simply being the end of formal organizations and the rise of community. Instead, we are seeing a shift of social influence that is more significant than the subverting of hierarchy.

Since humankind began to create communities and stop wandering as hunter/gatherers, hierarchy has formed as the power base of all organizations. Read Homer and the Old Testament history of the early Hebrews, there were always persons who held power and authority in a hierarchical structure that secured power and created order for their society. The difference between one lord and another lord was often (1.) the strength of their military defensive power and (2.) their moral vision that created either a just, prosperous society or not.  This is what we know of hierarchy up to this very day. It is the nature of hierarchical power that is at the center of the debate about healthcare today.

What Cluetrain, Shirky and many others point to is the realization that hierarchy's claim upon our lives has been loosened. I characterize this change as the end of institutionalism and the rise of social connection as the organizing principle of organizations.

In hierarchy, there is order from top to bottom. Power resides in a graduated scale with greater power held by the few at the top, down through the organizational structure to lesser power held by the many at the bottom. It is the unequal hold of power that also drives the politics of Washington.  These vertically integrated structures existed for millennia on the control of the lower levels of organization. Control of access to information, resources and opportunity were some of the ways that hierarchy functioned. In a time where most people were undereducated to their potential, and where the skills required to produce things were simple and repetitive, hierarchy worked. It is what made the industrial revolution so productive. In this instance, the worker in a hierarchical structure was only as free as their income allowed them to be. Dreams of wealth and advancement were not most peoples' privilege. Yet, beginning in the 15th and 16th centuries this began to change as exploration of the world, and tools for communicating ideas began to spread to the masses.

In our day it is hard to imagine a world without easily available reading material. However, prior to Gutenberg's moveable type press, the cost and time constraints on the production of printed information was such that the vast majority of people across the globe were functionally illiterate. As literacy and education became more common, so did the range of opportunities available to the average citizen grow.

Yet still, hierarchy ruled because there was not the means for any other kind of organization. Over the past generation this has begun to change. Today, collaboration is fast becoming the norm in how business gets done.

Collaboration is the ability of people to communicate and coordinate complex work processes in an efficient and effective manner. It is dependent on the ability of members of the collaborative group to work together, to communicate effectively and share in the rewards and responsibilities of the project.

Many collaborative groups function not by hierarchy, with one person in authority who delegates the tasks of the project. Rather these groups are lead by the "first among equals". This view also known by its Latin form, primus inter pares, treats the organization of work from the perspective of whomever has the knowledge, experience, expertise or responsibility is the leader. From this perspective, leadership is not a role, but how we relate in the social context of work.

In a collaborative project, with one person's client, the lead will be taken by the person who has the information or skills to address the specific need of the client. So, if a planning client of mine needs assistance on employee pension plans, then I bring in the expert on that area, and they take the lead on helping my client establish the best approach for them.

In hierarchical structures, leadership is a function of position, authority and power. In collaborative structures, leadership is a function of the character and influence of people in a social context. Personal character, communication skills and the ability to share power are keys. 

While this may seem rather mundane and ordinary for many of us, it is revolutionary in the context of hierarchy. It is so because it means that leadership is not held as a private privilege, but rather shared as a common responsibility. It is this way of work that is creeping into the hierarchies of organization as changing them from within.

It would be nice to think that this is all a very rational, forward thinking process, but typically it is not. Instead, when hierarchy breaks down, and goals and standards must be met, the last resort is to call a meeting to see who has any ideas for getting out of the mess.

What is pushing the acceleration of the adoption of this approach are many causes. However, at the heart is the access to information and tools for communication that the internet provides. The e-book noted above was the work of 36 people from 11 countries on four continents. The discussion that is captured by the book took place over 12 days, and the production of the e-book a little over a month more. This is the model of the future in miniature.

What needs to happen is for companies to embrace the subversion of hierarchy in favor of social collaboration and allow for their businesses to grow from within at all levels. I don't think that hierarchy will ever go away. It will lose its hold on people and society as each of us realizes the level of freedom and opportunity that comes from our connections to one another.

Yes, subvert and elevate hierarchy to be an incubator of shared collaborative leadership. This is the future that would have scared Agamemnon, Caesar, Henry VIII, Hitler, Stalin and all the little dictators who use hierarchy to subvert the interests of their people to their own private ones.

It is the future. Embrace it now, and learn to lead to strengthen hierarchy through its subversion to a more socially connection environment for work.

The Continuity of the Local

The institutions of society that we trust to provide stability in a time of disruptive change are not providing it. These institutions of business and government, of religion, education and social welfare, seem to lack the capacity to both see what is happening and to adapt to these changes.  What is notable is their inherent lack of ability to see the big picture in contrast to their own self-preservation. I introduced this idea in my previous post on the Three Communities.

What is happening here?

As a global community, we are moving out of a millennium long era of institutional stability, and into an era of transition where strength, progress and continuity is built around small entrepreneurial social movements.

These movements are of people who organize themselves around the opportunities and needs that they see at the local level around the globe. These movements are focused on meeting global needs at a local level. The birth of these movements come from the personal initiative of people who are responding to what they see before them. They are utilizing their network of relationships formed in the virtual world to mobilize people to serve local communities on a local scale.

Here are examples.

• People and their organizations raise money to provide heating oil assistance for cash strapped families.
• A church opens its doors to provide a place for homeless people to get in off the street and have a hot drink and some food on cold, winter days.
• Small loans are made to people who have no collateral yet have a compelling idea for meeting a market need in their community.
• Citizens provide charitable leadership training to local business to help them find ways to manage a down economy.
• Business leaders meet to discover how they can move beyond traditional institutional boundaries to address the need for job creation and social stability.
• Marketing collaboratives form to promote products and services to local ethnic populations.
• For-profit and non-profit health care organizations collaborate to serve the needs of their local community.
• Children from across the United States conduct fund raising projects to build schools and implement water projects in underdeveloped communities around the world.
• People leave their local community of residence and move to a local community that has experienced a natural disaster to help in recovery. Some stay for years, not just weeks or months.

These are just a few examples of many that are happening in local communities everywhere.They are not nice ideas waiting for someone to implement. These are ideas that people are acting on to make a difference.

Continuity between today and tomorrow is not found by waiting for better economic times to return. Instead it is found by developing new relationships between people and organizations that address issues as they exist right now.

Local communities are not at the edge of what matters globally. They are at the core. Global communities are institutional communities. They aren't places where people live. They are highly integrated corporate structures whose influence upon life in local communities is huge.

People live in local communities. They interact with people there, as well as with those in virtual communities and global corporate ones. As a result, for the average person and business owner, our focus needs to be local, where we can have some impact, where we form relationships that enable our local communities to weather the hard storms created at the global level.

If you need help figuring out how to begin to care for your local community, take my three conversation guides and start talking with people.

First, become clear that you and your community is at a transition point. You aren't looking for continuity to preserve the past. You are looking for how you build upon the strengths and values of the past for the future.

Second, identify the issues that you most want to address. Take the Circle of Impact and identify what kind of issue is it. Is it an Idea, Relationship or Organizational Structure issue? Whatever it is, the other two contribute to its resolution. In other words, all problems or opportunities are dynamically related to each of the three dimensions of leadership.

Third, ask the Four Questions. What is the impact you want? Who do you want to impact? What opportunities for the future do you gain through this impact? And, most importantly, what problems that are within your control, must you resolve in order to achieve your impact?

This is how you can begin to address local community. If you need additional help, just ask. There are other ways to get at these issues. Let's talk.

Three Communities and Change

The articles I've linked to here all address the larger scaled changes that I see happening. These are people worth your time to read and consider their thinking.

Clay Shirky's blog post Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Tim O'Reilly on Clay Shirky's Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

Jeff Jarvis on The Great Restructuring and The Great Restructuring II: the new ism.

Umair Haque's The Smart Growth Manifesto

Here's what I'm seeing.

The business and governmental institutions of our world as currently organized are incapable of adapting to the rapid changes that have been happening in global society. And I would add to this list traditional social, educational and religious institutions as well.

Each is attempting to survive in a time of chaos. Each attempting to find some sort of continuity from day to day, from one crisis to the next.

Many of these institutions since the end of the Second World War have lived in an era of expansion of their programs and complexity of their organizational structures. As they have grown, operating efficiencies have provided these institutions financial capital to expand their reach.  All that is now ending as global economic contraction happens.

The X-factor in this once every 500-1000 year shift is the internet. Just like the rise of the Roman Republic and Empire entered in a millennium long era of global continuity, and Gutenberg's moveable type press was the first step toward universal literacy and self-development, so now the internet provides the means to link all people everywhere in ways that are personally meaningful and socially fulfilling. In this sense, the internet transcends the social and institutional boundaries that define society.

We are witnessing the beginning of an era where the institutional structures that we've depended upon for maintaining progress and continuity in our world are now declining into powerlessness or extinction.

I'm becoming convinced that what all these national and global commentators are missing is the significance of local communities. There is a great emphasis on the power of virtual communities, but that is a different thing.

From now on we are all members of three distinct communities.

The global community through institutions of business and government.

The virtual community through the tools of social media and the internet.

The local community through the place where we live.

These communities are not mutually exclusive. They touch, blend, cross-over and impact each other. They contribute and support one another. As with all things, we are connected, interwoven and forever interdependent upon one another.

It is the local community that is being ignored in the response to this crisis. This is where I believe positive, sustainable change begins. I'll have more to say about this in the near future. 

Until then, ask yourself, how can I strengthen the ability of my local community to create jobs and care for people in need. Just those two ideas.

Think about it. Share your thoughts if you want. I welcome it.

Seth's Pivots for Change

Being a good innovator is being able to see value in things that others don't. This is what Seth Godin points to today in his post on change.

It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult.

You can't change everything. You don't need to. You just have to adapt to the changing realities of the market place.

Seth offers some ways of looking at this.

• Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.
• Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.
• Keep your providers, but change the profit structure.
• Keep your industry but change where the money comes from.
• Keep your staff, but change what you do.
• Keep your mission, but change your scale.
• Keep your products, but change the way you market them.
• Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one.
• Keep your technology, but use it to do something else.
• Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.

One way to understand how to change as Seth suggests is to first do an inventory of your business's impact assets. What do you have to use, to offer, to adapt, etc. that can make a difference for people. Make a list.

Second, make a list of the issues or problems that you see your customers or clients having.  Put this column next to your impact asset one.

Third, draw a line from each asset to each problem or issue. You should see new ways to take what you have and apply it toward being a solution provider for people.

Here's how I have done this.

I'm a leadership and planning consultant. I mentor leaders and their organizations through the transitions from where they are to where they need to be in the future. The reality is that no one has training money, and no one is looking to do a long-range plan. Both are too big for companies suffering in a down economy to take on. So, here's what I've done.

First example: Short is the new Long
I took my planning project process that typically lasts 6-8 months or longer, and developed a companion project that can be done in one day, focused on the next six to eighteen months. The process isn't comprehensive, and it doesn't do everything the larger project does. But it quickly moves groups to clarity and then into strategic action.

To better understand what I'm talking about go watch this 4.5 minute video of me talking about the Four Questions That Every Leader Must Ask. Somewhere between 5 minutes and 5 hours, a group can discover what they must do right now in order to make the kind of changes that Seth's refers to in his post. And this may be all they need to do to begin to make the transition to an improved situation

Second example: Local charitable business leadership training
I'm part of a group here in Asheville, Lessons in Leadership, that for the past two years has offered as a give back to the community, a low-cost/ high impact leadership training event. The focus is two fold. First, to provide an event that local business can bring their leadership teams that provides them new ideas and a motivational boost to their team work together. Second, all of us who participate here are doing this at no cost, and the money raised goes to support local families in need. Thus far we've raised over $17,000 to go to families in need. The model is a local community business leadership training charity event.

I've taken this idea, simplified it for replication, and have begun to talk to people in other communities about conducting a similar project, and one that fits with their community's needs. What I propose to them is the same, a give back to the community leadership training event for charitable purposes. We recruit sponsors to cover some of the costs. We work at getting as much donated as possible. For the event, I come in as the keynote presenter to talk about impact leadership along with a couple of local people who share their business impact stories. Part of the intention of the project is to begin to develop local talent to conduct community-wide training events. The event lasts 2.5 hours, and everyone leaves excited about working more closely together as a business community. The following morning, I meet with the leaders of the sponsoring businesses for two hours where we address specific issues related to business development in their community.  Presently, I'm talking with two communities about conducting this project.

The pivots of change that Seth describes don't have to be huge transitions for them to work. They do however have to address the current reality of those to whom you provide your products and services. Making this connection is the key.

My additional suggestion is to read Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  The kind of thought process that Seth outlines in his post, Drucker describes in more detail in his book. He shows us where the entrepreneurial opportunities can be found.  It is not enough to think about this. You have to make the changes that you see if you want to improve your situations. Do it, and do it often, and you'll begin see the difference you can make in your business, your customers, and even in your community. And to do this in a down economy is a real testimony to the trust and confidence that people should be placing you and your business.

A Reminder to Brothers, Fathers, and Men

Jan Gunnarsson is the co-author of a wonderful little book called Hostmanship. He sent me a note today on Facebook that I want to share.

Hi Ed! As my mission in life is Hostmanship and to contribute to a more welcoming world, i felt really sad when a saw a photograph in the news. Well, i picked up my guitar and sang right out what I felt, went to a studio, got some musicians together and put the result on Youtube.

Here's his song.

Jan ends his song with these words.

Don't just react. Act.
Don't just think. Talk.
Don't just sit. Walk.
Pass It On.
This song is from a Father with hopes that you might donate something to an organization that makes this world a better place to live in. That's all.

We are living in a time when the economic hardships that affect individuals are impacting non-profit organizations as well. If you can contribute money, great. If you can contribute your time and talents, even better. Our communities and our world depends on individuals taking the initiative to make a difference by giving. If this means going without an extra cup of coffee, a movie next weekend or a second trip to the store today, so be it.

Thanks for the gifts you give. May they come back to you as satisfaction that you've made a difference.

Quick Takes: Going Local

Seth Godin has an idea about how you can introduce your business to everyone in your community. It is a low-cost, high-impact idea.

Why not start a local newspaper?

I know you are thinking about the paper that arrives at your driveway in the morning, that you spend about five minutes scanning and then tossing it in the recycle bin. That isn't it.

I've been writing for our local newspaper off an on for the past ten years. When I first began I was asked to make a presentation to the top 50 managers in the company. Here's what I said then.

 “Newspapers are windows on a community… There is no other place in a community where the whole community can talk to itself. …Newspapers are the only place where all the voices of the community can be heard. “

I was both wrong and right. 

Newspapers are windows on a community, a place where the whole community can talk to itself. At least it was ten years ago, not any more. Or, at least newspapers as they have historically existed.

What happened? The center of communities shifted from an institutional based model to a relationship based model.

Newspapers are community institutions that interpret for the community what is important for them to know.

Today, online communication tools make it possible for people to find the information they need, and to share it with people that matter.

I do very little work in my home town as things have worked out. But my twice monthly column has given me a presence in the community that would be impossible to buy. And as of this month, I'm no longer paid to write it. The newspaper can't afford the coffee money they pay each month. But I'm still going to write for them because the people who read the column are why the column is important.

Yesterday, I walked into the Starbucks a block from my office to get a cup to go. I saw one colleague having a meeting as I walked in, another friend sitting at the bar in an intense conversation, but it was a woman I recognized by couldn't remember her name who waved to me. We got reaquainted, and she introduce me to her friend. Her friend knew me because of the column and was planning to attend the workshop I'm giving - Leading from the Middle - during our Lessons in Leadership even on January 20. I asked her what she did. She told me about her business and invited me out to see it. The next thing I did, because what she told me sounded interesting, was, "When I come out, let me interview you, and I'll write a column on what you are doing. It sounds interesting."

If you start a local newspaper as Seth suggests, you will have a world of opportunities to tell stories about other people. Every person's story you tell becomes your story too. And they are connected to you forever. It is an act of graciousness and kindness to tell other people's story. It is another example of the ethic of giving that informs actions like my Johnny Bunko 7th lesson - Say Thanks Every Day. (BTW, voting ends Jan.15.)

When you start a local newspaper, you are starting a paper, you are creating a tangible connection to your community. You are making your business into a more important node in the network of relationships that exist in your community.

Read Seth's piece again. If you do this you are setting yourself up for a dramatic increase in business once we get through this recession. Plant the seeds now, harvest later.

Quick Takes: A Bright Spot in this Financial Mess

Reading Tom Friedman on Citibank bailout left me a bit disappointed. Oh, I think he is correct in all that he says, but he doesn't say what we all need to hear.

This financial meltdown involved a broad national breakdown in personal responsibility, government regulation and financial ethics. ... That’s how we got here — a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, and now we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a total systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins.

The bright spot in this mess is that we should all be wiser people.  It is a hard earned wisdom that points me to the following realizations.

1. We live in a highly integrated world where our futures and fortunes are connected to one another. We need to better understand that this integration, while beneficial in many ways, also leads to the tsunami effects that we have seen over the few months. So, we need to develop redundant, non integrated systems, that provide ways to thwart the kind of things we are seeing happen.

2.  We need to renew the virtues of self-reliance and community. The purpose of these values is to give each of us the confidence that whatever situation we are in that we together as individual members of our local communities can work through the crisis to a successful end.We need to understand that we cannot pass off the health of our communities or nation to someone else. It is now clearly our responsibility.

3. We need to emphasize the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship education and development for our children, and provide the practical structures where they can learn to be self-reliant and collaborative.  If you are unsure what this means read Peter Drucker's Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The opposite of this approach is a one size fits all system that is highly integrated and efficient. Instead, every person and family needs to develop multiple streams of income in order to provide a buffer against financial loss.  And the place to start to find it is at your local community college.

4.  The bright spot in this financial mess for me is that I've seen this shift to greater self-reliance, community-building, innovation and entrepreneurship already at work in many, many ways. I already see a growing emphasis on entrepreneurship that is both technological and social.  I see a growing willingness of people to put aside their own personal needs to care for those in much worse shape. 

However, I don't see this happening by large institutions like the kind that Washington is bailing out. I see it in local communities, where individuals and small organizations are both connected and independent. And for this, our financial mess will encourage these counter measures, and will strengthen our communities and build greater resilience to the challenges that will inevitably come.

Quick Takes: What about the Community Banks?

Joe Nocera, NY Times business columnist, received an email from a banker that is revealing as to the realities of the financial crisis. Here are two quotes that capture the importance of this bankers message.

The government has already done plenty for the big banks. It needs to stop worrying about them now. Instead, it need to pump money into the local community banks because those are the bankers who understand their markets, and know the businesses in their markets. They lunch with small business owners at Rotary Clubs and Chamber meetings. They learn, first-hand, about their businesses and the challenges they face. They go to their stores and factories and “kick the boxes.” And most importantly, they learn about the ways in which those business owners are making the tough decisions in cutting back expenses to stay ahead of this economic crisis.
...

Why do the big banks act like this? Because they don’t have a personal relationship with their small business customers. Instead, over the years, they have come to rely on impersonal credit scoring. They let a computer make the decisions previously made by the local bankers. Then they started to “reduce paperwork” and processing time. They allowed businesses to use a one-page form for loan applications where the owners could “state revenue and income and personal assets” without verification. Then, for loans under $150,000, the banks decided the small business borrowers didn’t have to file UCC filings. These filings are important because they tell all the other banks who lent money to whom. So loans made by one bank became invisible to everyone else. And since business loans, which the owners personally guarantee, are not reported to credit agencies on personal credit reports, they are even more invisible.

So far, despite doling out more than $125 billion in new capital to banks, the government has been unwilling to do anything more than politely ask the banks to make more loans. That approach is never going to work. Since 1999, the government has issued several guidelines to the banks, warning them of the potentially disastrous consequences of diving into the risky subprime mortgage market. It has urged them to curtail this behavior. The banks refused to listen and went head-long into that market, driven solely by greed. For the government to now believe that the big banks are somehow going to have an epiphany and change their behavior is delusional.

This is a message that is not being discussed by the candidates. The US economy isn't the European one. We have always been a nation of small businesses. And they are the ones suffering the most in this time of financial turmoil. We aren't talking about greedy capitalists. We are talking about the foundation of social welfare of the nation at the most basic level, the local community. 

Make sure you read the whole coluimn. It isn't very long. Well worth reading, and shared with your network of friends and associates.

Sharing in the USA - USAToday Special Section

USAToday has a special section today on philanthropy in America - Sharing in the USA.

The project that this young man is involved in a water project similar to the kind that RandomKid, a kid's charity that our family is involved in, is doing.  Here is a description of RandomKid's water projects and a post I made on their project.. Here's the article about kid's involved in charities.

Read about what is going on. This is the foundation of the leadership that we need to be giving our nation.

Pick up a copy or read it onlinehttp://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-07-charity-newface_N.htm .

A Counter-intuitive Paradoxical Social Being

There are some paradoxical notions that float around about networks and community. One of those notions is the more diverse your network the better. The other is is having a tight network of close associates is better. The problem comes from thinking too superficially about networks and community building.

A closed network like the one on the left is filled with people who know one another well, who think alike, who share similar values, aims, ambitions and approaches.

An open, diverse network serves a different function. It provides access to information and influence that your close group of buddies cannot provide. It would be nice if it is just so simple to have both. This is more difficult that it may seem. The solution is not making a choice between open or closed networks, but rather how you function within both.

Instead of seeing these networks as static, formalized sets of relationships. Let's think of them operating on a shared spectrum of degree of closed-ness and openness. So, a closed group could become more open, and a open group more closed. What would cause this to happen?

It will happen by necessity. If a closed group doesn't open up to the outside world, it loses its vitality and eventually dies. If an open group never discovers a binding purpose, then it will not hold together. So both types of networks, need the kind of strength that the other brings to it.

Leaders who are savy about networks and community building will understand how to constantly push a closed networks boundaries out to include more people. The reason for this is access to new ideas and opportunities for the community to thrive. A leader who has a wide, diverse, open network of relationships may enjoy the benefits of having those individual relationships, and as a result, never establish him or her self as a network hub for all those relationships. For that to happen, there has to be some draw to a center that creates a boundary around the periphery of the circle of relationships. This could some value that everyone shares, or an opportunity for impact that leverages the disperse influence and resources of a wide,open network.

This counter-intuitive paradoxial social function simply means that a function of leadership is to maintain openness while build bonds of commitment. For the leader this requires clarity about one's purpose and direction. An open, diverse network may come together for a period of time and their disperse. A close network may open itself up to outsiders for a period of time, and then retrench.  The task of leadership is to learn how to use both the opening and closing of networks as an opportunity to expand and strength the ability of a group of people to make the most of their relationships with one another.