Leading in an Open, Social and Participatory World
ILD 831, Week Eight
If I may be honest, part of me did not want to take this course on leadership and technology. I will also confess that the pace of change and the consequences of the changes we experience in the networked world, wear me out at times. I am old enough to remember an old country and western song from the 1960s, “Make the World Go Away,” popularized by Eddy Arnold and others. More than once in recent years I have thought about the sentiments expressed in that song title. But there is no avoiding or turning back the clock on this technological revolution, any more than the industrial revolution was turned back. Leaders in this networked, social and participatory world must embrace the revolution that is underway and accept there are numerous obligations that come with leading in this environment. It would have been a big mistake had I not taken this course. First, the readings and the conversations with classmates in this course have compelled me to evaluate how leadership will be expressed very differently in the future and how I need to adjust to the necessities and realities of leadership in a digital age. Secondly, it has encouraged and re-motivated me to continue leading for transformative changes and the innovations I first introduced to my staff three years ago. Thirdly, I am reminded of my responsibilities to those I lead to help them better understand that digital is disruptive, that the disruption is accelerating, and that change is imperative if we are to stay relevant to our parent organization. Finally, this course helped me to see that I need to help deliver a vision of change, to frame it positively, and to build a diverse and creative team that has the capabilities to make change happen.
In my opinion, effective and successful leadership will manifest itself differently in the future as a consequence of technological advances. It will be imperative for leaders to comprehend the trends in technological development and understand the impact of breakthrough technologies on their institution, organization, or workplace. Hierarchical and bureaucratic leadership models concerned with balancing various interests, maintaining order, and seeking consensus, are not well suited to address the dynamic changes, or the pace of the changes, that are occurring. Weinberger (2011) has noted several challenges that hierarchical leadership faces in a networked environment. For example, distributed decision making excels when decisions require a great deal of local knowledge and when the situations are “fluid and diverse.” Hierarchical organizations, he added, “are not as resilient as organizations that distribute leadership throughout a connected network” (Weinberger, p. 164).
Different eras, by necessity, have eventually produced different forms of leadership (Marcum, 2016) and this technological era will as well. Much of the current leadership structure across business, government, and education institutions is composed of digital immigrants rather than digital natives. For the digital immigrant, developing an understanding of the networked world and being acquainted with the use of Web 2.0 tools is a continual challenge. That challenge relates to leaders remaining relevant and valued by their institution or organization (Lommen, 2016). In this era, the ability to function and to make good decisions is directly tied to an understanding of and use of technology. Leaders should be able to speak the language to technology, they should know the basics, and they should be aware of the larger picture in order to plan and to set a vision for their organizations. To do this, leaders may need to reset the materials on their reading lists, adopt a lifestyle of continuous learning, and make their own technological education and development a strategic priority. Jesse Stoner, writing about the information age, noted nine essential leadership strategies. Among those strategies, Stoner believes that developing a comprehensive digital strategy and a shared vision is critical. Having a shared vision, she continues, allows leadership to be demonstrated and emergent at a variety of levels across the institution. Within this reality, Stone indicates, are the mandates that current leadership values the institutions’ diversity and that current leaders need to proactively develop other leaders (Stoner, 2015).
Several years ago, Tomalee Doan of Purdue University wrote that “There is a generally held belief in the business world that in the global knowledge economy (GKE) and organization must innovate or risk death” (Doan, 2009). I would postulate that all organizations and institutions, not just the business world, now face this reality. It is certainly true for my world of academic libraries. In a time of constant change, ubiquitous information, and competing venues for knowledge sharing, academic libraries must acknowledge that we need to keep pace with our user needs and expectations, we have information competitors, we must innovate in order to be meaningful, and we are part of a larger organization with larger objectives than our own. Through our strategic planning and purposeful consideration it is imperative that as leaders in the information age we must focus on the most meaningful innovation opportunities. In the instance of academic libraries, solutions that meet the needs and expectations of students and faculty should drive innovations. We must demonstrate value to our parent organizations and be in alignment with their larger goals and objectives or face extinction.
References
Doan, T. (2009). Innovation, creativity and meaning: Leading in the information age.
Journal of Business and Finance Librarianship, 14:4, 348-358.
DOI: 10.1080/08963560802424011.
Lommen, K. (2016). Ethical leadership in a digital age. Leadership, 45:4, 20-22.
Marcum, D. (2016). Library leadership for the digital age. Information Services & Use, 36,
105-111. DOI: 10.3233/ISU-160796.
Stoner, J. (2015). The 9 essential leadership strategies in the age of information. Seapoint
Center. Retrieved from http://seapointcenter.com/essential-leadership-strategies/.
Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know: Rethinking knowledge now that the facts aren’t
the facts, experts are everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room.
[Books 24×7 version] Available from http://library.pittstate.edu:2059/toc.aspx
?bookid=45313
Randy Roberts
Site Title 
I like your assertion that “leaders in this networked, social and participatory world must embrace the revolution that is underway.” I also like your discussion of digital immigrants vs. digital natives. How will your leadership style change based on this course?
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Professor Robinson:
Thank you for your comments and for leading an eye-opening course. I believe I now have a greater appreciation for being able to choose the most appropriate style of leadership, based upon the context. In the current environment, all servant leadership or all transformational leadership may not be best for the situation. I continue to believe that transformational is my primary focus because it revolves around integrity, authenticity, accountability, emotional intelligence and self awareness. We struggle to get past the hierarchical approaches in higher education, but definitely I will be aware of the need to develop other leaders and aware of leadership emerging from a variety of levels and roles.
Randy Roberts
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I enjoyed your post, and I agree that leadership will look different as technology advances and that it will be important for leaders to comprehend trends. Once comprehended how do you see leaders communicating or sharing these technological advances with their teams and do you think training will look any different. I believe that the workplace will be flatter as you said and agree hierarchical and bureaucratize leadership will not be effective. Personally, I feel that leaders play more of a mentor/coach role. Leaders will monitor and oversee but be hands on in everyday happenings of a team.
SONeal
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SONeal:
Thank you for the comments and questions. I have always wanted to be hands on. Not micromanaging, but supporting and contributing. In my role as an academic dean, I encounter some people who think I am wrong to “get my hands dirty.” But it is who I am. I had an interesting mini-retreat with the faculty I lead this morning. We talked quite a bit about trends, challenges, and what training we need. I feel they did a great job of identifying some ways we need to look different in the future. It was good to open the door to these discussions and watch how they responded. I think it is too much to try to communicate every technology change that comes along, but it is important to identify needs and then purpose to find which technology will help us achieve our mission and goals.
Randy Roberts
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In a world of digital and Internet technology where there is a movement towards freer access to knowledge and information, how do you think that the global network of libraries can make this more possible? What Web 2.0 tools will be most useful to this effect? In what ways do you think that libraries and library administration can help flatten a spikey world (Florida, 2005) in the area of information and access to knowledge?
Reference:
Florida, R. (2005). The world is spiky: Globalization has changed the economic playing field, but hasn’t leveled it. Atlantic Monthly, 296(3), 48.
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Edletech:
I believe libraries will continue to provide some filters for networked information that will help people find what they are looking for and believe that libraries provide reliable information. Libraries are also producers of information now, not just curators and storehouses. Many of us are involved in digitization and scholarly publishing, for example. I feel that libraries can also help insure that all peoples have access and diminish the divide between digital haves and have nots.
Randy Roberts
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I enjoyed reading your post. In your blog you stated that in this era, the ability to function and to make good decisions is directly tied to an understanding of and use of technology. I do agree with your statement. You gave excellent examples how leaders can accomplish understanding the use of technology. What type of practice would you use to help your employees understand the use of technology?
~Marsha
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Marsha:
I am finding that we need to improve the level and frequency of communications. Also, we are understanding that purposeful, internal training is necessary as well as cross training. Many different people are bringing new technological developments and new applications of technology to our attention across the institution.
Randy
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Hello Randy,
I appreciate your honesty about having misgivings concerning this course since I was in the same boat and like you, I am now thankful to have learned quite a bit these past several weeks. I am also glad you brought up micromanaging since I think this ‘style’ of leadership will only get worse in the advancing digital age. I believe a successful leader or host exhibits many attributes, but a true leader can help to achieve the group’s goals by using all available tools and knowing when to jump in or stay hands-off as a way to build confidence, trust, and convey values and principles among the team members. However, I agree with Weinberger (2011) that inflexible and hierarchical leaders fall short in this area and tend to follow buzzword management styles. The examples used in some of the course readings and videos reminded me so much of managers in my own organization that try to improve their leadership skills by reading the latest leadership tome on the New York Times’ bestseller list. Today’s leaders could learn from the advice of Martin (2015) by putting others before themselves and motivating employees with common and beneficial goals. Unfortunately, our increasingly connected world gives today’s organizations a myriad of ways to contact (micromanage) the leader in the field to inquire, re-direct, and sometimes second guess the decisions on the ground. Most leaders do not enjoy this type of armchair quarterbacking and this reinforces your thoughts that successful leaders build a team and let the team accomplish their goals without micromanaging everything. Ben Hammer
References:
Martin, M. (2015, December). A deep dive into thinking about 21st century leadership. [Blog]. Retrieved from http://www.michelemmartin.com/thebambooprojectblog/2015/12/work-in-progress-the-leadership-lab.html
Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know: Rethinking knowledge now that the facts aren’t the facts, experts are everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room. New York: Basic Books.
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Ben:
Thank you for all of your thoughtful insights this term. As I have thought about the leadership styles we need to practice, moving forward, I have wondered for several days about the true value of trust between leader and follower in this environment. I always felt fortunate that I moved up to leadership in my current position, rather than being hired to lead in a new position and with employees I did not know in advance. I guess both have advantages and disadvantages. In this position, however, we have been constantly changing for the last four years. Thankfully, the people here, apart from the four I have hired, knew me and knew my intentions. Perhaps I was more fortunate than I realized.
Randy
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I enjoyed your post! I was especially drawn to the paragraph that mentioned that leaders need to be able to speak the language of technology and use it to help make decisions. I find that at my current job, in addition to my previous job, there were always leaders who preferred to ignore the “tech” and muddle through “the way they always have – because that worked!” I recall one previous boss saying that his time was more valuable going out and making sales for our company than learning how to use a new software program – so he just assumed we would all learn the software and take care of that aspect.
As these leaders are generally very successful in their jobs and have been for a while, how do you suggest convincing them that learning new software and tech practices could make them even more successful in the bigger picture, and that the investment of their time would absolutely be worth it? I think there are some underlying anxiety issues at play with learning new skills….
I look forward to hearing your suggestion!
Andrea
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Thank you for your reflection this week. I truly enjoyed reading about your perspective and your take aways from this course. You mentioned a few times that change is inevitable and that technology is apart of that change if we want to stay relevant to those that we are leading. With that in mind, I also appreciated that first part of your reflection which made me think about how new is not always better and that sometime the best way to do something is to take the past into account or remain true to how things have been done. How do you think that we can balance these competing perspectives? I agree that technology is helpful and creates many efficiencies but I sometimes wonder if we are losing something too by using technology. Thoughts?
Take care,
Katie
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