Leadership Notes -- Thoughts on Leading People and Making a Difference in Organizations

Word count this issue: 539

Estimated reading time:  3:40

My friend and colleague, David Gouthro http://www.theconsultingedge.com introduced me to Joshua Cooper Ramo’s fascinating new book “ The Seventh Sense.” https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B015ERLVBA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 

Ramo’s thesis is that we are in the midst of a revolution that is as massive, both positively and negatively, as the Industrial Revolution. This revolution might be called, the “network revolution.” All around us individual nodes are being connected and dramatically enhanced into networks; financial services, terrorists, and research are all dramatically enhanced by networks, and we are only at the beginning of a new epoch.

Here is a simple example; looking for a job. Any of us who have found ourselves unemployed in the past few years will have found the speed with which we have been able to get back into the workforce is predicated on the strength and reach of our network. The longer we are out of work, the less powerful our network and the less likely we can get back in. Hence the strength of LinkedIn. 

My own work on 5 Thrives for the Digital (R)evolution explores networks and connectivity, and so I am thrilled to read Ramos’ work. I commend to it to each of you.

Ramos’s work reminds me a little of the revolutionary thinking of a hero of mine, Marshall McLuhan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan  and his famous book, “The Medium is the Massage”. (The title of the book plays with his famous aphorism, the ‘medium is the message’). McLuhan’s basic point was that media were the big change agents in society, and not the content in the particular medium. For example, the mass printing of books had a much more important impact on European culture than did that content of any of the books that were printed. Or the fact that televisions were in virtually every home in North America by the mid 1960’s had a greater impact on our society than the content of any particular TV show or movie. And now today, as we are in the midst of a mobile digital revolution that significantly increases the creation and growth of networks is far more important than the data (content) moving across those networks. Once again it is the medium; mobile data devices facilitating networks, that is the message. 

So besides communications nerds like me, who might be interested in this brief look at Ramos and McLuhan, and a taste of my wondering? I think as leaders we need to be thinking about the networks we are connected into. Are they diverse enough? 

My work around “Connectivity” suggests not just that we are networked, but the danger of only being linked into like minded networks. In the same way that genetics requires that new genes enter into the system, networks need the same diversity to delay entropy and death. 

Take a few moments this week for three small shifts:

1. Invite someone new into your network,
2. Add yourself to a feed from a group that has a different political agenda than you,
3. Take a different route home and use your senses to explore what’s different. 

You might just find a new perspective or gain a new insight.