Stewardship
Martin Lyle lent me Peter Block's book Stewardship. After having read through quite a bit of it, it strikes me as one of those books that has one central good idea padded out to the length of a proper book. He proposes that leadership is not something that we should look for in an organisation, but a sense of personal authority. He proposes that big companies like General Motors, AT&T and Xerox should forego a strong visionary leader and instead have everyone responsible for their own area of responsibility. I think he's half right, but I see a problem in relating this to what he says are 99% of the total number of companies in existence - SMEs. What I see is very simple: companies like GM, AT&T and Xerox would not exist if someone hadn't started them. Lots of people have good ideas about the way things should be done, but very few people put those ideas into reality, and attract other people into that reality.
A solution needs a seed in order to form crystals. And change in the way that Block suggests needs someone to take that first step. I think Block describes leadership as a bad thing by implying that leadership is something that a CEO takes by virtue of the job title or personal power, rather than something which is granted by his or her followers.
Having said that, he has some interesting principles which I believe apply to excellerate. He calls them the 'Four requirements of partnership' of which there are five...
The way I see excellerate evolving is simple, but not so easy to describe. Here's one metaphor that I came up with.
Imagine a fleet of ships. Each ship has its own captain. That captain is you.
Sometimes, you are the only person on your ship, but it's still your ship and you are the captain. Sometimes, you might enlist your own crew because you are embarking on a particular kind of voyage, something that is very unique in itself and doesn't require you to be part of the fleet.
When you are sailing alone, you are the captain of your own ship and introduce yourself as such. When you are sailing with the fleet, you are a captain of the fleet.
You are not Captain Bloggs of the HMS Bloggs, working with the excellerate fleet.
You are Captain Bloggs of the Excellerate Fleet.
Sure, the fleet has an Admiral too. Without an Admiral, the fleet would be uncoordinated and would not survive an engagement with the enemy. The fleet would become a flotilla, an aimless collection of ships each heading in different directions, some crashing into each other, others sailing off in random directions. The role of the Admiral is to keep the fleet together.
So having chosen an adventure that requires a fleet to be assembled, you have the chance to join your ship with the fleet and sail off together in pursuit of that dream.
A solution needs a seed in order to form crystals. And change in the way that Block suggests needs someone to take that first step. I think Block describes leadership as a bad thing by implying that leadership is something that a CEO takes by virtue of the job title or personal power, rather than something which is granted by his or her followers.
Having said that, he has some interesting principles which I believe apply to excellerate. He calls them the 'Four requirements of partnership' of which there are five...
- Exchange of purpose (i.e. shared purpose rather than dictated by one person at the top)
- Right to say no
- Joint accountability (I think this is a bit vague. How can we be jointly accountable? The UK legal term here is 'joint and several' which I think is better. Neither of us can simply blame the other)
- Absolute honesty
- No abdication (We don't back out when it gets tough)
The way I see excellerate evolving is simple, but not so easy to describe. Here's one metaphor that I came up with.
Imagine a fleet of ships. Each ship has its own captain. That captain is you.
Sometimes, you are the only person on your ship, but it's still your ship and you are the captain. Sometimes, you might enlist your own crew because you are embarking on a particular kind of voyage, something that is very unique in itself and doesn't require you to be part of the fleet.
When you are sailing alone, you are the captain of your own ship and introduce yourself as such. When you are sailing with the fleet, you are a captain of the fleet.
You are not Captain Bloggs of the HMS Bloggs, working with the excellerate fleet.
You are Captain Bloggs of the Excellerate Fleet.
Sure, the fleet has an Admiral too. Without an Admiral, the fleet would be uncoordinated and would not survive an engagement with the enemy. The fleet would become a flotilla, an aimless collection of ships each heading in different directions, some crashing into each other, others sailing off in random directions. The role of the Admiral is to keep the fleet together.
So having chosen an adventure that requires a fleet to be assembled, you have the chance to join your ship with the fleet and sail off together in pursuit of that dream.
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