The hole in the wall and open knowledge
Opportunities, leadership and windows
Today’s Briefing note is about natural leadership and open knowledge.
It starts with a real story from over 16 years ago about a hole in the wall
It finishes with an inspiring interview on my podcast BoldNewBreed with Florence Devouard, from Wikipedia and Wiki in Africa, who is on a mission for open knowledge.
The noise goes down, a leader appears...
Leadership is like the marvelous “Hole in the Wall" experiment I wrote about in 2005, sixteen years ago, describing an early initiative in the ongoing work of educational pioneer Sugata Mitra. In 1999, he broke a hole in the wall between his office and a slum in India and made a computer available to children who had never before seen one.
A quote from the BBC article caught my attention back in 2005. Mitra, observing the children, said:
You find that the noise level begins to come down, and from somewhere a leader appears. Often his face is not visible in the crowd, but he is controlling the mouse because suddenly you see the mouse begin to move in an orderly fashion.
Since then, Mitra has gone far in his work and you can hear about it firsthand in his TED talk in 2010 and again in 2013 where he won the TED Prize of one million dollars:
"Help me design the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children can explore and learn from each other — using resources and mentoring from the cloud."
As I said in my blog post back then, "This (story) illustrates how leaders emerge naturally and groups are capable of self-regulation and self-teaching given the opportunity, time and motivation."
Do you see the real leaders in your organization?
Leadership is not a question of level or position, although organizations do have “so-called” leaders at different points in the hierarchy. It is not a question of personality. Warm charismatic people are good dinner companions, but do not necessarily qualify as leaders.
There is much literature on leadership, most of it dedicated to leadership in management. However, if you think about the following leadership characteristics, you will begin to see leaders all around you.
Leaders are humble and know how to listen.
Leaders have followers.
Leaders motivate others.
Most organizations have a few if not quite a few people like this, even though they are rarely part of the “leadership” contingent.
Leadership "happens" in a given context at a given point in time: You lead in one situation, you follow in other situations.
Florence Devouard on a mission for open knowledge
Florence Devouard is a 19-year Wikipedia pioneer and that says a lot since the Wikipedia is 20 years old this year! Florence is now leading Wiki in Africa to bring meaningful change to many young people
I encourage you to listen to our conversation. Florence is a gig mindsetter through and through.
Among the points we talk about…
Balancing the stories on the internet and Wikipedia through helping Africans represent their real lives
Preparing children who are offline today to become our digital global citizens of tomorrow
How photography is a powerful tool for communicating life
Final note: the Bold New Breed Community is alive and kicking!
As I said last time, I am on a mission to bring gig mindsetters, nonconformists and mavericks together in a private space to interact and share. There are several conversations going on there now - lots of back and forth.
After the publication in May of The Gig Mindset Advantage–A Bold New Breed I had reactions from people around the world telling me they felt like gig mindsetters. Many were surprised and reassured by this new identity. Many of them felt excluded from their organizations, not understood by management, and not included in critical conversations. Others, on the other hand, are successful in bringing change to their organization. Either way, they all deserve to be recognized!
To this purpose, I have created the Bold New Breed Community and invite you to request an invitation either by contacting me here.
Don’t forget to check out my book The Gig Mindset Advantage, available from online book sellers, including Amazon.
Stay safe and focus on what’s important.
Jane McConnell