Hierarchy is not your enemy. Bad leadership is!
Why leaders who enable peer to peer learning accelerate creativity, innovation and set the foundation for high-performance culture
Well, are you?
Am I what?
Are you a bad leader? Are you a bad manager?
Do you go home at night and think, okay, did I get that wrong? How can I get that better? How can I rework that?
Do you feel guilty for saying the wrong thing?
Frankly, if you go home at night and say these things to yourself, then I would argue that you are a good leader.
What?
Yup. Someone who can question their behavior, who can reflect on the consequences of their words and deeds, is somebody who is open to learning.
I am going to say something heretical now; please, if you are from the human resource community, then you may want to turn away or cover eyes up right now:
I think all those 360 feedback questionnaires are a total waste of money and time. I have been on the other end of these tools, and frankly, they are just a means to give HR meaning. They are solely a technique used to torture managers. It’s process applicable for bureaucratic organizations. If you are using these processes to implement culture change and behavior improvements, then you should seriously reflect on the role and objectives and experiences of your leaders, or lack of leadership in your businesses.
What about peer to peer learning?
Right; this means you have a group of people with an agreed objective. In shorthand, you have a team. So, how are going to learn? How are you going to equip yourselves to adapt to changing circumstances, be agile and blow your targets?
Well, you need a leader. That’s a fact. Somebody who can pull things together and help you all collaborate intelligently. Somebody who actually cares about your growth and pursuit of excellence. Don’t get me wrong here, I am not talking about somebody who is permanently nice, who never says a bad word and is always kind etc. You want that, get a therapist.
No, I am talking about someone who is genuinely interested in all of your performance and is importantly willing to confront you with your skills gap. This is someone who gets you as a team to see yourselves in the mirror. Someone who insists — really insists — on getting you all to ask yourselves questions. It is not the job of the leader or manager to deliver the answers; those days are over. It’s your job, peer-to-peer, to work together to create the answers.
Let’s take a look at video games to get some inspiration and best practice on collaborative and community-based learning.
World of Warcraft is one of the oldest and most famous MMORPGs created. At its highest level, it had 10 million people playing worldwide across many different languages and time zones.
“Hundreds of thousands of players — sometimes millions — interact daily in highly complex virtual environments. These players self-organize, develop skills, and settle into various roles. Leaders emerge that are capable of recruiting, organizing, motivating, and directing large groups of players toward a common goal. And decisions are made quickly, with ample, but imperfect, information. Sound familiar?” — IBM Global Innovation Outlook
This quote and diagram above are from IMB Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders white paper. It is an excellent paper in introducing business people to a world that primarily thinks playing video games is an illness best avoided and a necessary evil that adolescents grow out of. You should read it.
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