In The World is Flat (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005), author and N.Y. Times columist Thomas Friedman introduced the masses to notion of a borderless world. The way we do business has changed more significantly in the last ten years than perhaps any ten year period in history.
Technology has knocked down barriers, or, at least found a way through, around, or over the barriers. Having a meeting simultaneously with someone in India, someone in Germany, and someone in Japan is as easy as turning on your computer and looking into the webcam. The world has gotten much smaller and change happens much quicker than any previous time. Friedman drew our attention to how this impacts business, politics, and even daily life (yes, that is someone in India helping you in Dallas make your Delta Air reservations for travel to New York).
Now, Seth Godin has tackled leadership in this flat world. His new book, Tribes, We Need You to Lead Us (Portfolio Hardover, 2008), also reminds us that many barriers have been eliminated by technology.
Distance? Eliminated with the world wide web. Time? Not an issue with global access via the web. Language? Rapidly becoming a non-issue.
On the very first page of the book, Godin defines a tribe as “any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader and an idea.” The rest of the book describes the kind of leadership needed for these tribes. Technology makes it easier to share ideas, eliminates barriers of time and space, and has made the world very flat. However, it cannot lead people. Technology cannot motivate, encourage, coach or counsel. Technology cannot sense frustration, offer meaningful reward, or unite a group into a team. People – leaders – do that.
Godin helps us see that we have many possibilities to lead our tribes into the future, if only we accept the challenge. First, we must find the right tribes, then unite the tribes around a common purpose, and then lead them into the future. The world is changing and leaders are needed to help people get through that change successfully. To see a list of ideas of help build up tribes as compiled by Godin’s readers, click here.
How has your leadership role changed with the advent of technology? How have you adjusted? How are you building and leading your tribe into the new future?
