Even a tribe of leaders need a leader

Introduction Amplified is a superb event that takes place across the UK to promote innovation across the online/social media space. So as you can imagine, it is a gathering of some of the greatest minds and leaders in the field. Which is why I was surprised a few days later when I realised that I had my first ‘we need someone to lead us’ moment since reading Seth Godin’s brilliant book: Tribes.

For me, Amplified was a great event but it could have been an even better event had it had more leadership as there seemed to be quite a bit of confusion as to who was talking about what and when and no-one was really stepping up to the plate to sort this out. When talking to my fellow digital PR class lecturer and amplified attendee about the event, she told me that the organisers (who did a great job putting it all together) where operating under the philosophy of not wanting to claim leadership for themselves (which is fair enough as there would have been a lot of disgruntled moaner-types otherwise) and, I suppose, allowing such a gathering of leaders and minds to self organise into their own groups. Had I been part of this committee, I probably would have agreed with the idea as it seems like the right thing to do with such a crowd but in reality, it didn’t work. So even in such ‘high level’ tribe, Seth’s theories of leadership ring true: even a tribe of leaders need a leader.

How do we make Amplified better then?

Nobody really wants to take the mantle and run with it, not because of apathy but because of the fact that pretty much everyone attending is a leader-type and no-one has the audacity to think they are the leader of leaders. Actually most probably think they are but wouldn’t be audacious enough to do it!

So my humble solution to this issue is my solution to most things: democracy and social vetting.

• Amplified has a wiki so a few weeks/months before the event, allow the community to suggest burning issues that they would like to discuss.

• Have a mechanism in place that allows people to agree with the suggestion, naturally raising the most pressing issues to the top.

• Once the relevant topics rise to the top, nominate and vote on a relevant leader/ring master to prepare and run each session at Amplified. Obviously the qualities of said leader need to be discussed but the ability to spurn conversation between attendees comes to mind.

• The nominee/s need to commit once nominated, ensuring they arrive for the event and that they have a long time to prepare and ask questions on what people want to talk about in the session.

• The community should also nominate and vote for an overall organising committee for that event including a host, an administrator, a sponsorship raising person and someone to take care of logistics.

• The person in charge of logistics should definitely set up a central timetable for all talks and locations of said talks at the event to keep things running efficiently.

• Perhaps these people should be made unavailable for nomination at the next event (bar one to ensure continuity) so that one group of people does not dominate the event’s bearings. This would also to spread the burden of organising such a key and necessary event amongst the community.

So in a way, the Wiki (or whichever tool is used) becomes the ultimate leader of the Amplified movement and actual leaders for the specific events are found democratically silencing the egos and critics and pushing this movement through in one unified voice.

Just a thought...