The document discusses the need for leadership and provides strategies for effective leadership. It outlines 6 leadership "superpowers": adopting a wide-angle view; building diverse networks; embracing openness; encouraging experimentation; adding unique value; and cultivating next-generation leaders. For each superpower, it gives examples of how organizations and leaders have demonstrated that quality. The document is intended for a leadership deep dive session focused on advising leaders in the fictional town of "Sixtown" on how to address economic opportunity challenges. Participants will discuss leadership best practices, important actions leaders could take, and the skills/tools needed.
8. “Part of that struggle is that there’s
no vision for what’s emerging. It’s
not just that the old world doesn’t
work anymore, it’s also that the old
story that gave it meaning isn’t
believable and there’s no credible
story to replace it.”
14. ADOPTAWIDE
ANGLE
VIEW
6 WEadership
Superpowers
BUILD
DIVERSE
NETWORKS
EMBRACE
OPENNESS
ENCOURAGE
EXPERIMENTA-
TION
ADDUNIQUE
VALUE
CULTIVATE
NEXT
GENERATION
LEADERS
Description Examples
Leaders look for new ways to apply their resources
and expertise. They focus on solving important
community problems.
- IBM & volunteerism as leadership
development, retention, innovation strategy
- Public leaders working on regional economies
- Children of inmates & Miss America
Leaders collaborate with partners creatively, using
informal networks alongside traditional hierarchies.
- “Ask the intern”
- Apollo 13
- Collective Impact models
Leaders share the role of leadership with staff,
partners, and the public. They use social technologies
to listen, inform, and collaborate.
- Working out loud
- Code for America
- Mesh, share economy platforms
Leaders know their industry needs new ideas,
and new ideas need testing.
Leaders find ways their unique contributions can
make a real difference in their communities. Those
who add value remain relevant.
Leaders build skills and share knowledge in order
to develop new leaders in their fields and in their
communities.
- Community/Issue Labs
- Prototyping, piloting, scaling, risk mgmt
- Big data + constant iteration
- “How can I help?”
- “What can we do together that we can’t
do alone?
- Measuring impact, always
- Embrace multigenerational workplace..and
boardroom
- Not everyone under 30 is “techie,” but young
people have much to offer
24. SIXTOWN HAS A PROBLEM
Too many people lack
access to economic
opportunity
Promising solutions
are not scaling
Global Prosperity
Institute conducted
research, finds
leadership a key
challenge
You are here to help
25. GUIDING QUESTIONS
What leadership
practices have you
found success with in
similar situations that
you could share with
Sixtown leaders?
What are the most
important actions
specific leaders could
take to move Sixtown
forward? Why these
actions? What’s in the
way?
What tools, skills,
processes do these
actions require?
We’re here to explore the issue of leadership.By way of intros – I’m Kristin Wolff, Portland, ORResearcher with SPR, own a business, am a student – doing it DIY and so far, loving it…My question to you is why leadership? Why are we talking about this? I asked a few people yesterday, and here are some things they said (I hope some of you were among the people I asked…)(Complete on Monday)Let me suggest that some of the reasons leadership matter are obvious…
Image credit: http://www.toonaripost.com/2012/01/world-news/the-great-transformation-davos-2012/Here we have the Great Transformation panel (also the theme of the conference). Now I’m sure all of these people have some very important things to share, and one of them is a person of color, but I don’t know, this just doesn’t look terribly greatly transformational.I can have a sense of humour to an extent, but let me share three stories that I think have a lot to do with why we need to talk about leadership.
I can have a sense of humour to an extent, but let me share three stories that I think have a lot to do with why we need to talk about leadership.
One story is about a crisis of institutional leadership – governments, financial institutions, corporations, even the US military.Wall St. photo credit: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/07/24/570181/two-years-after-financial-reform-republicans-rake-in-wall-street-fundraising-dollars/Woman = istockphotoHere are a few factoids I heard in a radio program last week:18% of Americans interested in buying stock, 76% not interested at all. This cuts across generations. ¾ of American adults are completely uninterested in the stock market. 3 out of 4.As a result, since 2008 (4 yrs), $410B left the market – most significant reason? Lack of trust in financial institutions and in the system itself.These positions are not fringe positions, they are quite mainstream, though you don’t hear much about this because the great transformers we saw in the first slide are largely hosting the conversations.Gallup poll, lowest confidence in banks and financial institutions ever recorded. Ever recorded! This is through the savings and loan crisis, the bursting of the tech bubble in 2001, a couple more recessions and then the Great Recession – through all that, trust continued to decline, hitting its low point four years after the eye of the storm. June 2012 – Gallup, lowest since 1973…
I can have a sense of humour to an extent, but let me share three stories that I think have a lot to do with why we need to talk about leadership.
Wall Street bankers may be among the worst offenders, but they do have good company.Greece: http://m.spokesman.com/galleries/2012/sep/25/today-photos-sept-25/Poverty: Exceeds 21% - more than one in five.Spain: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9432212/Spanish-jobless-rate-24.6pc-youth-unemployment-at-53pc.htmlUnemployment rate for under 25s – 54.2% (more than one in two)China: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/13/chinas-leadership-change-over-will-have-far-reaching-effects-in-canada-and-across-the-globe/Global Times newspaper conducted a survey just before the recent election, 81% want political reform (4/5), two biggest reasons:1) Rich/Poor income gap, 2) Inadequate social safety net.Best sellers in business in Changi airport… Increasingly, the narrative accompanying all thee stories in one not of unpredicted crisis, but one of failed institutions, and failed institutional leadership.
The second story is about new ideas for economic progress moving from the fringe to the mainstream, or perhaps more accurately, crafting a new narrative altogether. Painting a picture not just of the next “new industry” but of an economy built on a different set of assumptions and values. This values battle is going on everywhere…Social impact investing – so much excitement conceptually but…as it growth, new models.Is the fund about investing in good businesses and how are they measured? Is is about investing in good outcomes (social impact bond-like instruments), or is it about blended value (and if so, are VC funds even the right tool?)San Francisco story about Air BnB… - Air BnB just rented mega office space, ten year lease, in SF, counting on big growth.City Treasurer and tax collector wants hotel tax of 14%.Mayor sees differently.Lyfte, Rideshare,PUC issued a ceast and desist order wanting them to be licensed and certified – these are in SF where cabs reportedly come less than 40% of the time – and on ride share, people can rate drivers!
The third story is one of roll-up-your-shirtsleeves change – participation with the system that needs changing.St. Louise. An activist joins city council, supported by an unlikely cast of characters.In this story, he’s pleading with all the critics and commentators to join him in fixing instead of complaining. Know that it take time, but that’s the work of progress. It’s a marathon that only seems like a sprint.Something a little bit back to the future about this story – isn’t this what citizen government is supposed to be about?
These stories came from the three days before I left Portland, but lots of people have been raising fundamental questions about the nature and practice of leadership for a long time, and in particular, the last decade.Here’s another interesting datapoint about leadership…As one data point, Amazon books before 2005 and after.Today a search yields 97,092Before 2000 = 31,971Before 2006 = 53,76540 + K between 2006 and now.Before 2009 = 68,296Last 90 days = 2,375 (no wonder I cannot keep up)And more leadership books are “coming soon” as a proportion of leadership books in 90 days, than books generally. Leadership books in fact are coming out at a more frequent rate than books on other subjects. In 2011, my colleagues and I worked a project in the sector we call workforce development. It was a project supported by the US Department of Labor, although I don’t think they knew what they were getting into when they hired us.They had in mind a project that looks like this: Person at computer, focus groupsInstead, our project looked more like this: Simulations, social media, videoAnd what we found was that, just like is other professional fields, leaders in the sector we studied were moving away from traditional hierarchical models, and adopting more collaborative practices and moving away from the idea that leaders are exclusively people of rank and status.We identified six key practices that defined this new model of leadership, which we call Weadership, with a bit if a wink, but also in a nod to its collaborative nature.I’ll be your tour guide for a brief introduction to these six practices.One more things, I have a TEDX talk in Tucson, Arizona about this subject and used a superhero frame to explain them. That’s how I came to call them superpowers, which I kind of liked, so I’ll call them superpowers here, too.
In 2011, my colleagues and I worked a project in the sector we call workforce development. It was a project supported by the US Department of Labor, although I don’t think they knew what they were getting into when they hired us.They had in mind a project that looks like this: Person at computer, focus groupsInstead, our project looked more like this: Simulations, social media, videoAnd what we found was that, just like is other professional fields, leaders in the sector we studied were moving away from traditional hierarchical models, and adopting more collaborative practices and moving away from the idea that leaders are exclusively people of rank and status.We identified six key practices that defined this new model of leadership, which we call Weadership, with a bit if a wink, but also in a nod to its collaborative nature.I’ll be your tour guide for a brief introduction to these six practices.One more things, I have a TEDX talk in Tucson, Arizona about this subject and used a superhero frame to explain them. That’s how I came to call them superpowers, which I kind of liked, so I’ll call them superpowers here, too. Just to be clear though, the idea for the superhero theme was moving away from hero as leader toward a set of shared superpowers that anyone can master, just in case there was any confusion.
A few of points:They are interrelated and complementary. I think you’ll see why as we talk about them, but I thought I’d make the point.None of the practices are particularly earthshattering in and of themselves – I don’t think they will sound all that new to you. However, what we’re trying to do here is define a new way of leading, a new approach to leadership. Weadership is not about throwing the six practices into your skillset or style now and again, it is about using the six practices to lead, placing the leadership questions squarely in the middle of the work, not just in Boardrooms or offices of high ranking officials. Weadership is as much about culture as the practices of any single leader. Some of the specific examples we’ll go through are small and subtle. They are easy to do, which also makes them easy not to do. The Weadership model asks us to be attentive to practice of leadership across our networks and organizations, not just during strategy reviews or succession planning.
This is on your tables you can use it to follow along or not.
The first superpower has to do with where and how we look for solutions to our problems.When we employ a wide angle view, we look all around us for information, ideas, and resources we can use and for contributions we can make. We look for tools, methods, and practices in professional fields, disciplines other than our own.Or an Oregon professor in the school of forestry wondered how mussels could cling so tightly to boats and rocks, despite crashing waves, whipped up a soy concoction in his kitchen that had a similar makeup, and created an inexpensive, sustainable adhesive that revolutionized the way wood waster gets turned into usable building materials. Or another example, Miss America issue this year is mentoring the children of inmates.We know that the linking ideas, resources, and people is at the heart of innovation.A wide angle view helps of locate an infinite supply of all of these.
Super Power #2 is about relationships – their depth, breadth, and diversity. Networks are essential for current and emerging leaders. - Networks are not fixed groups (boards, committees, teams, groups). They are about connectivity, not rank or hierarchy. They enable different kinds of engagement by different people at different times. They can have a wide range of shapes and dimensions. Networks are more resilient than hierarchies because they have no permanent membership or single center of power. Diversity is a key determinant of effective networks. Borrowing from LaniGuinier, some of you may remember the Apollo 13 mission, and others may have seen the film. There is a desperate scene in which astronauts in flight are inhaling carbon dioxide because of a leak. “Houston we have a problem.” The NASA administrator then assembles a team of people – designers, engineers, process technicians – differently skilled people with different points of view and representing different ranks in the NASA hierarchy. He gives them the same materials the astronauts have in-flight and asks them to avert catastrophe by solving the problem. And they do. That’s the power of diversity.
We have never been more connected, globally. The internet has made our organizations more porous and enabled new ways of organizing – and just how these new modes will work out in the end is unclear (which is just fine with me). (Clay Shirky)A few different dimensions:Social (listening, communication, framing, learning, narrative, and most importantly, doing much of this “out loud) (tshirt)Share data (open date, big data, etc.)New kinds of platforms, for banks, schools, stores, hotels – at the edge of what institutions do/did. Rachel Botsman calls this collaborative consumption, Lisa Gansky calls it “The Mesh” and we can save quibbling over the differences in these frames for laterInternships, returnships, externships, secondments, fellowships a la Code for America.Like Skillshare, which helps people learn but is not a school.And Kiva, which loans money to entrepreneurs but isnot a bank.And ThredUp, which helps kids find new clothes, but is not a store.Openness removes barriers and enables collaboration so that innovative solutions to shared problems can be realized.
What would it look like if every social enterprise, agency, or organization was a lab? If the approach that TACSI takes were the way we actually did business?It may yet happen. All of us can help. Superpower number 4 is the ability to experiment – all of us, all the time. Iteratively.The willingness to fail fast, learn, try something else until it works. This is a cultural shift.We need experimentation to become part of the DNA of our workplaces, homes, and communities at every level.
Knowing where and how you add value seems really obvious (kind of like asking what business you are in), but here are some practical problems I run into all the time:- Labor Market Data that looks like this, instead of this…- Misunderstanding of collaboration, especially in those messy public/private/non-profit spaces. It’s not just an exchange, it creating something that wasn’t there before.- Time horizons matter, sometime small, ongoing changes add up to big things, even if the first change doesn’t seem like a terrifically innovative idea. Impact is not always immediate –
Knowing where and how you add value seems really obvious (kind of like asking what business you are in), but here are some practical problems I run into all the time:- Labor Market Data that looks like this, instead of this…- Misunderstanding of collaboration, especially in those messy public/private/non-profit spaces. It’s not just an exchange, it creating something that wasn’t there before.- Time horizons matter, sometime small, ongoing changes add up to big things, even if the first change doesn’t seem like a terrifically innovative idea. Impact is not always immediate –
6. The sixth and final superpower is about, well, helping more people develop more superpowers. The Millennial generation is poised to succeed in a Weadership world – they have grown up “hacking” their futures. And our generation and those that came before hold the kind of wisdom that comes only from experience.Finding ways to practice the other five superpowers together, across generations, will make us stronger and better prepared to meet the challenges of the future. But it doesn’t happen by accident. Intern and coffee, Obama and Vanity Fair (Mark Bowden’s piece).
That’s Weadership.A new kind of leadership based on these superpowers:Weadership is collaborative and can be practiced by anyone who masters the six Weadership superpowers.Those are the SIX practices, now its time for us to work together, but first, I have to go get a special guest to get us started. In the mean time, about the colored envelopes in front of you:They contain letterName tag, with a roleAnd the envelopes are colored – an invitation to join your peers with similarly colored envelopes. What colors do we have? Blue – Red – Yellow –Green – Find your tables, and take a few minutes to read the letter, while I get our special guest.
Photo…This was a simulation, obviously, but it was also an invitation to actually engage with each other as leaders.What was the experience at the tables like?Did a leader emerge? How did that happens? How you know?What would you have done differently if you had to do this over again (in the same amount of time)?How was this exercise similar or different from your work in your home communities?What surprised you? Were you using Weadership or Leadership or some combinations?How did you use weadership?Ultimately, leadership is about advancing an agenda in some form. Of the practices and advice you offered Sixtown leaders, what have you found to be most useful in moving agenda in your own communities and why?
We’re here to explore the issue of leadership.By way of intros – I’m Kristin Wolff, Portland, ORResearcher with SPR, own a business, am a student – doing it DIY and so far, loving it…Image credit: http://www.toonaripost.com/2012/01/world-news/the-great-transformation-davos-2012/My question to you is why leadership? Why are we talking about this? I asked a few people yesterday, and here are some things they said (I hope some of you were among the people I asked…)(Complete on Monday)Let me suggest that some of the reasons leadership matter are obvious…