Recently I was part of an innovative process design to explore how a business could either make or save money through the use of using social technology. The participants were put into groups and the process involved incubating and hatching ideas with lots of participation from all involved. There was no shortage of ideas on both sides of the fence!
As I looked through all the various ideas – some obvious and others less so, it occurred to me that there was one major common theme underpinning both sets of ideas. It was quite a startling epiphany, although on reflection, I shouldn’t have been surprised! Underpinning virtually every idea around either making or saving money by using social technology, was the issue of control. To realize any of the ideas put forward the issue of control would first have to be address. If the ideas hatched were to be developed into useful practices then leaders would need to relinquish control. It was that simple; it 
was that complicated. I have written on this theme several times and said it in various ways before, but never had I seen it as clearly and practically demonstrated as this exercise revealed. It was amazing! Any leader or business unit head would look through the list of ideas and immediately recognize the validity of so many of them. So why not implement them? Well, It would mean relinquishing control. Control of time, of information, of space, of processes and even perhaps structure. All the pegs which leaders like to hang their hats on would be under question and that is well…just too hard to entertain.
Charlene Li in her book, Open Leadership writes that whilst letting go control may not be comfortable or easy, it is inevitable. Of course letting go control requires doing so at the right time, at the right place and in the right amount. Perhaps the first step is the recognition that you are not in control! The reward is ultimately not the quest for control but rather, the ability to influence the outcome. Influence and not control will be what shapes the outcomes in the new world of work. Leaders will need to understand what this means and social technology – compounded by a generation arriving in the work place who ‘get ST’ – will be the tipping point.
Maybe the starting point for leaders is not the intimidating philosophical issue around control, but rather a discussion as to the benefits of social technology going forward. From this springboard tackling the deeper shifts required by leaders might then prove to be an easier pill to swallow. The reality is…there really isn’t a choice!
I agree. I encountered this new reality in doing lots of facilitation recently where I had to be brave enough to trust that the participants would get to a “good” outcome without my explicit or even implicit steering of the process towards the briefing client’s “desired outcome”.
I had a little frisson of recognition from my advertising days – as – for me – “trusting your audience to make the connection for themselves” is the hallmark of good advertising.
A friend of mine in an international peacekeeping organisation says that the only intervention that they allow themselves in the peacekeeping agenda is a simple withdrawal of their otherwise tacit support. Interesting thought that! Leadership through inaction – defining outcomes by occupying and giving substance to the negative space?
This kind of facilitation is an existing but lesser role of leaders that will have to become their primary competence. In short – we may be moving from a masculine model of leadership (based on power) to a feminine model (based on nurturing potential).
Thanks for the comments Jacques. Semler talks about leadership through ‘omission’ and I think that in many instances, withdrawing ‘leadership’ support might well result in a better outcome. I’m waiting for the day when all training programmes are suspended and then the workforce given the opportunity to rebuild what they need and how it is delivered! Again Semler has proved that such notions are entirely possible. Why don’t we go down this route…full circle back to control!