look to the margins

talk from the side walk

Back in the 80’s I had a partnership with Roy Langmaid called The Changes Consultancy that specialised in delivering transformational training for the advertising and market research community, before transformation was mainstream.  Vision and mission were new ideas. I wrote a paragraph for a resource paper that started something like this …

“Don’t look for change in the mainstream, look to the margins. Middle-aged, white men in positions of power will always be the last to change.”

One of the issues right on the margins in the mid 1980’s was “being green.” We ran Green Lunches making the connection for advertisers between dropping litter in Charing Cross Road and the destruction of the Amazon Rain Forests. People thought we were nuts!

We also talked about the rise of what back then Roy and I termed “the spiritual sector”. We predicted that within twenty years this would be a mainstream market for books, films, healthcare products, seminars and conferences. Honestly, in 1987 no one knew or even cared what we were talking about.

Remember, this was at least 10 years before we had The Matrix or desk tops, never mind lap tops, MP3 or i-phones …

Here’s the thing, I came across these terms from the world of digital technology - disruptive innovation or disruptive technology - that have been around since about ’97; there’s a whole body of theory about these concepts, but essentially it boils down to this – an idea or an innovation comes along that improves things in an unpredictable way. Something upsets the applecart in such a way that after the apples are finally loaded back everything is much better. These ideas are often seen as threatening by the mainstream because they are in competition with the existing mindset and are coming from an entirely new direction. Intuitively people sense that this new idea could come to dominate.

Over Christmas and the New Year I found myself wondering about Disruptive Leadership and making this connection. The baby boomers are getting ready for retirement. Typically in the past a top leader in politics, business or industry was a man of fifties or sixties. Blair was in his forties so is Obama and it is still coming down. Today men and women in their twenties or thirties are forging the future … globally .. It’s easy to name  Mark Zukerberg (Facebook) 25; Shawn Fanning (Napster) 29; Larry Page and Sergei Brin (Google) both 36 but just look around the internet and you will find a host of other young global leaders out there, making a difference in education, industry, diplomacy, commerce, finance, policy, social enterprise and public service.

At the beginning of the 21^st century we didn’t have i-pods or blackberries, we didn’t down load music or film, we didn’t watch anything on u-tube, we weren’t part of any groups on facebook, nobody tweeted … and we still thought that we had control. 9/11 and the great recession turned that belief around.

Here’s my point. It’s time for disruptive leadership. The young people who are now in their early and mid- twenties coming into our organisations … whether it is the Health Service, a bank, a charity, a school … whichever … have a different set of expectations and values. They have a different mindset and world view. They move quickly, very quickly. They communicate globally, literally. They know when they are being listened to, heard and respected. They participate in global events from their bedrooms and they are concerned about the future.

So here are seven ideas to kick start a decade of disruptive leadership:

Change the game … make sure your leadership serves a higher social purpose, choose significant social ambitions and noble destinations. Poor and uninspiring leadership is a drag on performance. This is the new direction Ø Planet Ø People, Ø Possibility Ø Performance Ø Profit Ø

Shake things up … you cannot expect to roll out the same old stuff for the next ten years and imagine it will make a difference. Create a new ecology where everyone has an accountability, knows what results they are accountable for and is willing to be held to account (not blame!). Create a culture where everyone succeeds (their failure is my failure) and everyone is expanding their potential.

Create problems … don’t be afraid of chaos, conflict or confusion. These are all the most potent avenues to new solutions, new possibilities and new futures. Resistance to change is a dead end street. Empower the mavericks and the divergent thinkers. Diversity and difference are the tools for transformation.

Push for the breakdown … innovation, natural growth and breakthroughs never come from the status quo. Take on challenges you do not know how to meet. Make promises you do not know how to keep. You will either succeed or you will fail. Either way you will learn more than you ever could standing still

From pyramids to circles … Eliminate the pathologies of power. Redesign your hierarchies to create more inclusive frameworks. Redistribute power and decision making. Reward contribution not position.

Create an epidemic … design and build networks that inspire people to join in and take action. Give everyone a voice. Let the people shape the organisation and their own lives within the organisation.

Watch your mouth … there’s an old paradigm of speaking in organisations which is all about strategy, efficiency, objectives, targets, resources and competition. These are all battle based metaphors and do little or nothing to inspire and empower. This new decade must begin to engage and expand our moral imagination with ideas that touch our souls. Use the language of truth, honour, justice, forgiveness and beauty.

That’s it for the moment. Watch out for more talk from the side walk.

Happy New Year

mo

Please feel free to circulate this news letter. My only request is that you credit me as the author and don’t  plagiarise, filch, steal, usurp or appropriate this as your own

I can be contacted on mo@mocohen.com

Talk from the side walk is the newsletter of Mo Cohen. Mo is a writer, coach, speaker and peace builder.

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