This is an addendum to my previous post on Collaborative Leadership, which I wrote as a framing post for a twitter chat #smchat where I was guest moderator last Wednesday. It encompasses some of what I learned from the chat experience, and some new thoughts based on it. Transcript ~ meat starts at about page 4/5. (IMO)

My first focus in the chat was to find out from the participants whether they thought Social Media was an ‘enabler’ for successful collaborative leadership. There were many comments and much information that did affirm that Social Media brings tools facilitating better (more collaborative) leaders, with perhaps the proviso that it is the tools in the hands of the leader, and please don’t get lost in the tools

This led to my next line of thought, and a comparison. First, Boris Pluskowski’s excellent post Defining the Social Team (bought up during the chat by Debra Ellis), led me to ask: Can one rugby team have two captains on the playing field at the same time? The rules of the game absolutely don’t allow for this, of course. However, the positive trickle-down effect of a captain proficient in Social Media should not be minimized. I contrast this with an “online gaming” mindset; where leaders (more than one) collaborate via several social formats; IM, chat, online discussion forum, VoIP, etc.; to solve the problem of the day (the game) with very specific skills. Game leaders (and my sense is more than one, working in a highly collaborative environment), can come from anywhere; training, education, social background, or location do not determine who they are or how high they rise. It is the skills and accomplishments (proven) of the moment, which determine their leadership role(s). The captain of the rugby team (yes, I grew up on rugby) would never be someone who just happened in from the village………..

This difference leads me to question the idea whether an “online games” mindset,  can be replicated in corporate or business environments? The skill sets required of online gamers; are they relevant, and can they, will they, be brought into being in the future? There is probably too much social engineering required in the corporate space today ~ except perhaps the ‘Start Up’ space to facilitate this in the near future, but I do know several of you are working on opening the doors to enable a Social Media or similar focus to infiltrate corporate America. Will the online “game playing” group (gen OG?) be adequately, or better, prepared for Collaborative Leadership, or collaborative anything and create corporate problem-solving structures more like online games? What a concept…………

The second focus of the chat was the flip side; did collaborative leadership enhance and contribute to the success of Social Media? Lots more good info in the transcript, and a definite positive affirmation.

The chat experience itself was also a great learning experience for me. This was the first time I had been a guest moderator, though I had previously taken the lead of a smaller chat when the moderator was indisposed. I was told ‘great framing post’, and questions in advance but what I could surmise at the end (hindsight being 20 20….) is that I had left too much of the post for conclusions by others, and the questions were not explicit enough for the subject at hand. However, in reading the transcript (and much that I had missed during the chat), I’d delete that last sentence. My fabulous chat support friends and all the savvy #smchat participants really came through with some compelling exchanges!

In addition I was a bit under prepared for over 90 participants and a rate of over 700 tph (tweets per hour) and a squirrelly twitter, which required three attempts to post, or didn’t post at all ~ I had not pre-designed a list of appropriate info which I could instantly post, I wanted to improvise as the discussion evolved…. HA! It all went way too fast to accommodate ‘think time’ , which obviously the replies and the subject matter required. Belated apologies to those to whom I did not reply and should have!

All in all a very fun experience, and I’ll be better prepared to rise to the task next time. Thanks for the opportunity, Chris Jones!

CASUDI

Building Bridges Between People ~ Designing Success

Special thanks to Heidi Cool for the use of her great wildlife image above of Blue-footed booby’s in the Galapagos. Heidi is gravity0069 on Flickr and @hacool on twitter.