Fast Forward Leadership

Obviously, I underestimated the magnitude of leadership of The Global Summit on Social Responsibility. Oh, I was prepared for major, over-the-top, beyond-my-dreams encounters and I was not prepared enough. 

It’s a week since the third day and closing session of the mega event around the world with more than 860 leaders of national and international associations, businesses, non-profit organizations, United Nations representatives and MORE and I’m still in my own version of a decompression chamber.

I honestly thought I would "blog from the floor" of the summit and have no problems blogging every day thereafter. The challenge is clear–overload and a lot of great, new things happening, that all deserve quality attention and follow through.  Others had the same idea and did a bit better.  Christy Jones, director of membership for the American Association of University Women said, "I would get back to my room at 11 p.m. after these very intense, totally exhausting three days and still manage to blog." 

In a nutshell, let’s fast forward since the last blog post and then keep this going on a daily basis, shall we?

Wednesday, April 30th was the day for Discovery. This was all about open exploration of associations in the next phases of social responsibility. Following an agenda of guided inquiry, conversations and presentations in small groups and in front of all involved–in the massive ballroom of the Gaylord at National Harbor (Washington, DC area) and more than 18 connected sites all working in real time and with streaming video/audio/intake capture.  Together, we discovered and connected the universe of strengths in a whole system of internal and extrenal stakeholders who care about and have a stake in the future of all of the initiatives that would come out of this summit.

Thursday, May 1st was the day for Dream and Design. Hundreds of us, totally and at the same time, honored our differences and found areas for action where we have common-ground images for the future we want to help create.  From this day we generated the concrete areas of initiatives, defined them and then voted with our feet.  Like a scene on the floor of the New York Stock exchange, we moved to the initiative area that captured our greatest passion, used our highest strengths, and would absolutely provide platforms to make dreams happen, without pause, detours or dropping back to old habits of less productive activity.

Friday, May 2nd was the day for Destiny.  This was the day to go deep into innovation, creation of pilot projects, rapid development of prototypes and putting absolutely achievable actions on our individual and group appointment calendars and to do lists. Because the "whole system" was involved, we all found a newer, easier way to deliver on promises to act in way that everyone could support and "make it happen."  The initiative team that captured my involvement is called "7 Wonders of Social Responsibility" and this is the branding, defining, communication, massive understanding team that provides the glue for all other initiatives.  That’s right–a group of raging visionaries with pioneering experience and collective track records of knowing how to turn wishes into actions that enroll, empower and advance many leaders and their organizations.  On this topic (7 Wonders) we will blog profusely and deeply.  It’s now a work in progress and we are already into the first of three plans formulated and finalized on that day: The 3-week plan.  The 3-months plan.  The 1-3 years plan.

If you are one of the 25,000 or so association executives that were not at the Global Summit, rest assured there is now a plan in motion that provides hundreds of ways to connect, ramp up, join in and participate fully in the social responsibility initiatives.  That’s all part of the 1-3 year plan. It’s focused on doing good and doing well.  Can you be more prosperous doing the socially responsible business? Absolutely.  Stay engaged in this and you’ll experience it for yourself.

To wrap this up for today, here’s something discovered in the first week out that has everything to do with what happened at the Global Summit.  It’s an article in the current issue of The Conference Board Review May/June 2008 –Have We Learned Anything About Leadership Development? by Robert J. Kramer.  Every word is worth digesting into our thoughts and actions from now on.  In particular these thoughts covered a lot of the discussions that started at the summit:"Technology is driving new thinking in the leadership
field–particularly affecting how leaders connect to and communicate with those
around them. By transforming the nature
of the organization, technology is changing the context in which leadership actually
takes place."

Bruce J. Avolio of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
Gallup Leadership Institute takes this thought to the new bottom line of business and communications technology today:  "To be successful in this new contest for
leadership, you must learn about shared leadership. To be a leader you are often a follower, and
as a follower you often have to take the lead. Technology has made this exchange even more dynamic and more rapid."

Global Connections

This week is shaping up to be one of the most exciting weeks of the year.  It could be bigger than envisioned.  By the time we get to May 1 (May Day) 2008, we might discover that we have actually done or restarted, what we set out to do when we were 20 years old:  Change the World.

Like hundreds of rivers that have traveled for thousands of miles, only to converge into one, wide and fast-moving river, more than 800 leaders of national and international associations and businesses will come together, starting tomorrow, at the Global Summit for Social Responsibility, organized by the American Society of Association Executives & Center Social Responsibility Initiative.   Most of these national and global leaders are a decade or three past 20 years old.

There are more than 8,000 reasons why we wouldn’t miss this and this blog posting is the beginning of a series on leadership, connections, global customers, and passionate organizations.  That’s a lot to cover so you’ll just have to grab your inner tube and jump in this river with us, participate in the conversations and enjoy the adventure with unconditional wonder.

I will be among the 700 or so gathered in person at the big, new Gaylord National Harbor in the Washington, DC metro area for the Global Summit. Another 100 or more will be joining us virtually from 18 connection sites in many countries.   If you’ve ever been to the Gaylord Opreyland complex in Nashville, you have an idea of the environment where we’ll be this week.  It’s like an entire world, under very high,
massive glass roof structures.  It always reminds me of Thunderdome.

David Cooperrider, an organizational development expert and faculty leader at the Center for Business As An Agent of World Benefit,who developed the methodology for organizational renewal known as Appreciative Inquiry will be our guide on a day of "Discovery" on Wednesday, then a day of "Dream & Design" on Thursday, then on to "Destiny" on Friday.

All of that provides plenty of fascinating, immediately useful and relevant information to feed this blog and your appetite for participation for the rest of the year.  Maybe longer. It’s really up to you and depends on your active involvement.  Just to be on the safe side, go ahead and put this blog in your RSS feeder so you don’t miss all the good parts.

What about the other 7,200 you ask?  There’s another global community we will involve in our journey and you might want to get thee to this website and dive in:  Global MindShift. There’s a lot to love about this, starting with their focus: "To change the world, change your mind."  Now THERE’S social responsibility, globally.  What was it Michael Jackson said?  "I’m starting with the man in the mirror."

Other things we love about this site:

• You are invited to "connect with others in a conversation that matters."
• The site is well organized and responsible.  It has real people behind it with names, addresses and phone numbers that they answer, in Palo Alto, CA. (As a rule, we don’t frequent places that are way too virtual and unsafe.)
• There is data all over the site that tells you exactly how many are in the Global MindShift Community and who is in what conversation.  In other words, this is like a well-managed convention with great topics, good signage to help you get to the right conversations, and just enough rules to keep the conversations productive and not chaotic.

Let’s blog and see how these worlds connect, shall we?

The First Is Often The Best

The first blog is so thoughtful, visionary and full of energy. 

When you find a blog that sings to you and connects with so many of your needs and experiences, do you ever ask, How long have I been missing this blog?  When did it start?  What was the first blog posting? 

Did the author state intentions or promise of blogs to come?  Or did the blog writer just fly into it, keep at it, and somehow it just became a great blog? We hope you find a lot you like about this blog and send all of your friends back over here to subscribe.

This is not our first blog, but we sure hope it will become the best.That’s going to be a challenge because my first blog–Customers Count, started out at the #1 position.  I learned from the master, John Jantsch, who invited me to be among the first honored to join him in his new idea–a whole set of channel blogs in the Duct Tape Marketing Blog, more than two years ago.

Everything about that blog works and it taught us the value and rigor of blogging with many experts, while staying true to the niche of your blog, which is essential for increasing our community of regular readers and those who care enough to comment.

When your name is The Communicators and you have one of the first domain names ever assigned on the Internet–communicators.com, expectations run high.  Nothing less than fabulous or wow is what our clients and colleagues have asked for, every day.  We do our best to keep that trust without over promising or piddling in areas that are bleeding edge.   We’ll do our best to make this blog enlightening,innovative and intensely practical for you.

We help our clients create blogs and make them vital.  Can you see why creating this blog was not a walk
in the park?  For the past year everyone kept asking, "Now that you’ve gotten our blog up and flying, when are you going to create the ultimate blog for The Communicators?"

Not sure about that ultimate part, but we can say this blog will appeal to the following people:

• Business leaders, mentors, and high-achieving professionals.
• Association executives who think communications and leadership are essential for success.
• Certification industry leaders and managers who want to connect completely to their diverse communities of multiple standards and opinions about what is excellence.
• Professional services business owners and entrepreneurs.
• Coaches and inspired visionaries in knowledge businesses and customer service companies.
• Anyone who thinks creativity is at the core of their work and has had an epiphany or two.

We named our blog Leadership Headlights because that is what we are all about, what we do, and what attracts. As one of he first on the Internet highway, we turned on our headlights, so everyone riding with us and those coming up behind us could travel confidently, see where they were going and what was just up ahead.  In strategic planning and market research, when we find clients examining their shoe tops with a flashlight and we take our headlights and point it out to the future and to customers they have not yet met.

Just for you, we have thousands of great stories, examples of what works, and great blogs ahead on what really matters the most in the balance of business and personal fulfillment. 

Come back often or just go ahead, get a little gutsy and stick this in your RSS reader.