Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations
Word count this issue: 352
Estimated reading time: 2.00 minutes
Re-imagine Vancouver is a project produced by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue asking the people who live work and play here to imagine the Vancouver of 2040. There are some interesting stories, including, at the risk of immodesty, one of mine. http://reimaginedowntown.com/your-stories-the-impact-of-digital-technology/content The exercise got me thinking, what do you imagine for yourself as a leader in 25 years?
I believe we live in a revolutionary time. Digital technology is dramatically changing how we live and work. The first iPhone was announced in January, 2007. What would life be like without your smart phone today?
Digital technologies are changing the way we work as AI and Big Data change marketing and service industries. Bots are changing manufacturing, and IBM is teaching the technology that defeated the best Jeopardy champions in 2011 everything from business decision-making to cancer research. http://www.wired.com/2014/01/watson-cloud/ A revolution as dramatic and life changing as the Industrial Revolution was is happening right here, right now.
I believe the key question for us will be who are we to become as leaders in the next 25 years?
Leonard Nimoy, the actor known mostly for his role in Star Trek as Spock died in February. Through Nimoy’s Spock, we imagined a world of time and space travel, of great leaps that solve the seemingly intractable problems of today. Importantly, we loved Spock because he was an outsider, he was different, and he was included.
A simple contrast is to imagine a city in the Terminator series of films.
I see we have a choice. Are we simply autonomous beings out for our own ends, or are we at our best selves, collaborators, colleagues and friends of each other. As Spock said, “I am and always have been your friend.” That’s the kind of ethic I want to reimagine for us all.
I am curious, what do you think?