tisdag 24 februari 2009

About La Bomba de Tiempo, shared leadership and listening

So yesterday I was here: http://www.ciudadculturalkonex.org/web/actividades.php?codigo=29 and I am not sure where to start to express the excitement I feel after having been amazed by “La Bomba de Tiempo” yesterday. In short, the group consists of around 15 guys, they are playing drums and they are awesome! The beauty was that it was all improvised, invented and created on the spot. What amazed me was that all happened as the leadership was rotating. Thus, a very practical application of shared leadership. As the leadership was rotating, every individual where contributing their creativity as they where leading, but also assuming responsibility to follow as they were following. Shared leadership is “not about not” having a direction, it is just about having different people assuming different roles at different times, but all assuming the responsibility for the whole. The application of when these dynamics really works where articulated beautifully yesterday.

It always amazes me how well music, sport or other similar articulations serves as brilliant metaphors for how organizations and societies could work more creatively. About a year ago, I was attending a conference in Ireland where the highlight was a Danish conductor using conducting as a leadership development tool. As you were conducting you got feedback on the way you were leading musicians’ based on how it sounded. The key message was around the importance to listen to the responses of the organization as you are leading it. The metaphor was brilliant because you got the feedback incredibly fast. In real life it is important to recognize the delay effect the feedback has, but the key learning is really to remember to listen and follow the effects of your actions even though they are distant in time.

From one perspective the body works really well to articulate the same point. We can live our life as we want until our body indicates that we are not living in harmony with it. We might get fever or feel stressed. These are just symptoms of a lifestyle which clearly has not been in harmony with all aspects of our personality. Sometimes, we just get a cold, a signal from the body that something is wrong, our actions on that symptom will ultimately determine if we will recover fast or becoming even sicker. It is really from this perspective I have come to understand the for example the issue of climate change. Our nature is indicating that it has fever. The sickness of the nature is articulated through natural disasters, e.g. flooding, hurricanes etc,. The symptoms of our natural fever are causing humanitarian disastrous, such as poverty, starvation and a rising food prices just to mention a few. I believe using the metaphor of our body, something everyone can relate to, as a tool to explain the issue of climate change in combination with the importance of listening to the feedback on our actions, immediately helps me to understand the issue and how it connects to me, the “La Bomba de Tiempo” helped me to understand the role I need to play.

I realize I disappeared in a larger conversation here, however, after the concert we went for a classical Argentinean asado (bbq) as we had enjoyed the food we came to realize that we didn’t have money enough to cover the bill. The Spanish got a test and the restaurant eventually allowed us to come back tomorrow to pay. Amazing and for sure unique for the environment here. As I wanted to leave my driving licenses as a proof that I actually would come back the person just said he trusted my to return today, which I certainly will!

Tonight I shall look forward to be playing football. 9 Argentineans and me☺

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