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Lessons from Bogota for Leeds?

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Great film showing the impact of cycle routes, public spaces and other aspects of the ‘public realm’ on the development of the city.  Benefits accrue in all sorts of areas including:

  • inclusion and access
  • health
  • economy and
  • social capital

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGycx75mqRk]

Could it work in Leeds with our weather and hills?  The investment would certainly create jobs.

You can read more about the development of Bogota, a city being developed with happiness as a central theme, here http://shareable.net/blog/can-we-design-cities-for-happiness

Complexity from Simplicity

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This video provides a useful and at times very beautiful introduction to the topics of complexity and emergence – which offer us a very different way to think about our organisations and how we manage them.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdQgoNitl1g]

and this one takes the journey a little further:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5NRNG1r_jI]

If you want to see how you can use these ideas to improve your leadership and management then do get in touch.

Anger Does Pay – Big Time

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They usually write a lot of sense over at management issues, which is why I was a little surprised to read an article called Anger Doesn’t Pay.

In my book it is perhaps the most important driver for change and innovation. Anger serves a  surprising purpose .  It gives us a clue, a sign that there is something here that we can have the energy and creativity to make better.  Anger pays much more than indifference which at time seems ubiquitous.

What does not pay of course is losing your temper.  Shouting and displaying your anger in ways that alienate people rather than recruit them to your cause.

So value your anger, cultivate it, harness it and make progress.  Just don’t let it ignite your temper!

I help accidental managers become outstanding managers – if I can help you give me a call – 0113 815 3765 (UK)

Next Generation Leadership Talent

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The fine and august City of Leeds hosted an NCVO curry club dinner last night in troubled Clarence Dock.  The Y&H Region managed a splendid turnout of 7 to explore the leadership challenges facing civic society as part of Leadership2020.  Perhaps there is a message here about the power of the existing leadership to convene conversations that matter?  Or perhaps as a region we just don’t really know how to play our part as effective followers?

Conversation was varied and interesting and here are my key takeways:

  1. We need to avoid conceiving of leadership as the province of the anointed.  Leadership is a participation sport, a social process, in which all stakeholders must be encourages to play a role.   The challenge is not to recruit, retain and develop the few in a leadership elite, but to find ways of engaging all who wish to be engaged in co-creating the future.
  2. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy
  3. We should not ape the ‘talent management’ processes of the private and public sector.  Our sector has distinct values and these must be reflected in our leadership constructs and processes
  4. We need to find ways in which leadership can unite more diverse voices and opinions in common cause.  Leadership processes that emphasise opportunities for mutuality and association rather than competition
  5. Leadership processes must work for those whom we purport to serve – not just for the state to exploit the third sector as a low cost route to market
  6. Managing processes of dialogue (barriers being time and knowhow) should be high on the agenda for the development of effective leadership processes
  7. We must learn to engage volunteers in a cause rather than a ‘career’ stepping stone
  8. We must drop an infatuation with leadership ‘skills’.  There always other keys to the kingdom. We should instead major on self managed learning process, reflective practice and above all awareness of impact in relation to intentions.

Any of that make sense to you?