PEOPLE AND EVENTS, KNOWLEDGE, LEADERSHIP AND CHOICE

A WEEK OF IDEAS:

It has been a fab week meeting and listening to 3 world class speakers on leadership, change and management: Jim Lawless, Mike King and Julian Stodd  (see links below) and I look forward to following @jimlawless @julianstodd @MikeKingLT on twitter.

Learning however is not about listening and accepting what you’ve heard, but instead about thinking, reflecting and applying this to your world. Below are some thoughts arising from their ideas and where they overlap and conflict with each-other causing interesting ripples  of logic which, to me, seem worth reflecting upon.

THE IMPACT OF PEOPLE AND EVENTS

The Leadership Trust taster talked about the impact we have on people and events, and vice versa the impact people and events have upon us as well as the impact we have upon ourselves.  I highly recommend their course.

THE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE

I did however challenge whether the impact of knowledge  was potentially more important than the impact of other things, since knowledge can profoundly affect your attitude, behaviours and feelings towards self, people and events.

Ironically the Leadership Trust event involved a team challenge, where some additional information (added knowledge) made a profound difference to the event and behaviours. Moreover since the course is about imparting knowledge (of self and others) and the value of the course is how we use that I think this is a critical factor.

However I am a knowledge junkie, a facts and figures guy. A analyse and think way too much and so whilst I’ve made a logical case for the pursuit of knowledge I realise those with differing personality profiles and cultural experiences will disagree.

Meeting Julian Stodd  within 24 hours of the Leadership Trust course proved timey and rewarding.

KNOWLEDGE IS NOT POWER

In his book (which I highly recommend, see link below) he started by talking about the importance of knowledge. This made me happy. He then continued marching on making the point that knowledge isn’t really that important since the sum of all human knowledge the world has ever known is about 3 clicks away on Google. 

My world wobbled a bit. All those courses I’ve done, all those books I’ve read, all the people that I have met and talked with; all the knowledge that I have acquired and stored is more readily available to you via Google Search. I am redundant. We all are.

However the title of Julian’s book gives a hint to the solution:  The Social Leadership Handbook.

SOCIAL LEADERSHIP IS CONTEXT AND TIMING

Knowledge has no value unless it is shared, and will not be accepted unless it has meaning.  Einstein would be a forgotten person if he never told anyone that E=MC2 (squared!), or taken the opportunity to explain the significance of this to us all.

This makes sense to me. As Founder for ciChange and Curator for TEDxStHelier, both of which are about sharing knowledge, new ideas, new thinking and challenging people, leaders and community to harness the opportunities I absolutely “get-it”.

You see knowledge without application is pointless, despite my predilection for gathering it. The application of knowledge is only likely to happen in when it adds meaning to the context. When you are struggling with a problem (person, event or self) the right knowledge made available at the right time, in the right way is like the well placed wrench when you find a loose bolt.

The challenge for leaders is not necessarily to equip everyone with a complete toolkit but instead the well timed availability of exactly the right tool at just the time when it starts to dawn on people that this might be useful.

THE ROLE OF A LEADER

I was delighted to find that Julian is a paddler and emailed him as follows…

Good to see you. Let me know if you want a paddle, but feel free to hook-up with these guys if you prefer {I included some links}  Don’t feel you have to take any option, happy to just give you the choice.

In that moment I realised something. In writing “..Don’t feel you have to take any option, happy to just give you the choice…” I considered that perhaps this is the role of leadership. It isn’t command and control, and it isn’t motivate and empower, it is give people knowledge (information that has value and meaning) then simply offer them the choice.

                                                

The ones that exercise that choice are your followers and the ones that don’t are still very nice people. I’d suggest any effort in trying to command and control, or motivate and empower maybe wasted on the latter group.

 USEFUK LINKS

Jim Lawless has presented to JT and many of the top States’ people
http://www.jimlawless.com/

Mike King and The Leadership Trust has launched their new programme in Jersey
http://leadership.org.uk/leading-with-impact/

Julian Stodd  is presenting at Prosperity 24.7 - Leadership in the Social Age
https://julianstodd.wordpress.com/

https://julianstodd.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/the-social-leadership-handbook-launching-today/

THE AUTHOR

Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He is Programme Manager for the commercialization of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the Incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.

Tim HJ Rogers   

PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner

Http://www.timhjrogers.com | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051

Curator TEDxStHelier (http://www. TEDxStHelier.com)

Founder ciChange (http://www. ciChange.org)