Power

I believe that the nature of power is changing.

Power is really what I am talking about every day when I talk to clients and conferences about Web 2.0. It is not about technology but about a shift in behaviours from a command and control mentality to an instigate and nurture one. It is the change from knowledge is power meaning holding on to it to knowledge is power meaning to give it away. It is about trust. It is about being half full instead of half empty. It is about being prepared to see the best in everyone. Everyone!

Listening to Seth Godin's Tribes at the moment on Audiblle the section on leadership really chimed with my experience. The power of leaders who instigate and support but don't disempower by forcing particular outcomes, as Jimmy Wales does with Wikipedia and I did with our forum at the BBC, is replacing the power of the directive, problem solving, macho male.

David Weinberger has a great post celebrating the election of Obama as US president and in it he has these two inspiring paragraphs:

To live up to the ideal we just embraced, we have to do intentionally what Obama does by nature. He listens to those with whom he disagrees, but he responds only to the goodness expressed in even the most fear-driven of statements. Ignore the small, the petty, the self-involved, the defensive, and respond to the moments of goodness in all of us.

This is a practical program. I’ve seen it adopted on purpose and I’ve seen it work. Avoiding getting dragged into negative shoutfests is basic troll management. Learning to hear and respond to what is good and shared in an expression we find detestable is harder. The best teachers do this routinely. We can all learn to do it. We can. Yes, we can.

I constantly wonder whether my belief that the nature of power is changing is over optimistic and naive. The fact that my belief is reinforced by the behaviour of the most powerful man in the world makes me more confident that it is not.

Comments

[david cushman]

It's a wonderful affirmation. Hail to the chief node!

[joy]

It's also heartening that Obama is inviting further participation from his supporters - according to Rebecca Walker (writing in today's Guardian http://preview.tinyurl.com/65z87n ) he "has already sent his supporters an email requesting our suggestions on public policy". I guess the test will be in how many suggestions get listened to, but I'm living in hope that he finds a way of turning his amazing campaign into an ongoing inspiring experiment in participatory democracy...

[Henriette Weber]

I did a talk about "why every company should be a rockband" at shift08 that also touched a lot upon the power struggle within the company..

leaders needs to be more than control for sure... People are not having it anymore =)

[JJ Commoner]

Well ... oh, never mind. You know what I think.

[Nick Reynolds]

Well I wish I shared your optimism, but I don't.

However I did think this was interesting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7715264.stm

Clearly social media can make people feel they have more of a stake/influence over what people with power do. The question is whether that feeling translates into any real change or action.

And indeed I suspect that for most people, the feeling may be enough.

[Euan Semple]

I wasn't writing about the increased potential for democracy offered by social media - which is in itself interesting and I agree dependent on people actually doing something with the technologies - but I was writing about the change in the way people already in positions of power of influence behave.

[Simon Carswell]

Do you remember the song by The Police, "Every Breath You Take", and how it was adapted at the end of the Spitting Image series? The line "I'll be watching you" was re-directed by them at politicians. At the time, maybe 10-15 years ago, the watchdog was a satirical puppet show. Now it's everyone: as that Chinese politician who (allegedly) attacked a girl in a restaurant found out. Obama, of course, understands this, and is well-positioned to tap the collective psyche. But he will also have to wield power in more old-fashioned ways, at times. I hope he gets the balance right. At the moment, I'm optimistic that he will. Fingers crossed.

[Euan]

It is certainly going to fascinating to watch!