Billions With Zero Knowledge

As more companies look to harness the power of communities, I think the role of corporate and community leadership will begin to merge. This is goodness as I believe they are one and the same thing.

My friends and I email each other quotes and passages from great things we are reading.

This was a recent exchange with two friends exchanging quotes on leadership.

“What do you mean? What do you demand of your captain? Are you, then, so easily turned from your design? Did you not call this a glorious expedition? And whenceforth was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as the southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror, because at every new incident your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited, because danger and death surrounded it, and these you were brave to overcome. For this was it glorious, for this was it an honorable undertaking. You were hereafter to be hailed as the benefactors of your species, your names to be adored as belonging to brave men who encountered death for honor and the benefit of mankind. And now, you behold with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away and are content to be handed down as men who had not the strength to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm fireplace. Why, that requires not this preparation; ye need not have come thus far and dragged your captain to the shame of defeat merely to prove yourselves cowards. Oh! Be men, or be more than men. Be steady to your purpose and firm as a rock. This ice is not made of such stuff as your hearts may be; it is mutable and cannot withstand you if you say that it shall not. Do not return to your families with the stigma of disgrace marked on your brows. Return as heros who have fought and conquered and who know not what it is to turn their backs on the foe.”

I couldn’t place the quote - so I had to ask. She was only nineteen when she wrote it.

This is a great quote and reminds me of the role I’ve aspired to play as a corporate leader.

To which my friend (and Project Ojibwe’s Chief Architect) Oliver added,

As an aside, here’s my absolutely favorite quote on leadership. It’s from Tao, the central philosophy of ancient china. While, like many ancient thought systems, it’s hard to date, the text is roughly 3000 years old and central to the origins of eastern philosophical, and political thought. (Sadly it’s now banned under pain of torture in the Republic of China, of course) .
Note that today Tao is sometimes called a religion because in modernity the philosophy intermingled with “new” religious cults like buddhism, zen-buddhism, etc. Religious Taoism is actually quite a recent creation on these time-scales.
In any event, I think there are tonnes of connections between these ideas, and guiding an online community, growing a company, etc. Tao notions like moving people towards goals indirectly seem quite relevant …….

A few tricky terms in the text:
“Tao” means “Way”: the pattern of nature that is pervasive in all of reality.
“Master” is not quite an accurate translation, and has a lot of dominant connotations that aren’t really right. Another common translation is “Sage”: someone who is fit to govern people because they have acquired enough wisdom to be able to act selflessly. The purpose of the text is to teach the reader the wisdom of Sages (or Masters, in this translation).

57

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.
The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.
Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.

---

58

If a country is governed with tolerance,
the people are comfortable and honest.
If a country is governed with repression,
the people are depressed and crafty.
When the will to power is in charge,
the higher the ideals, the lower the results.
Try to make people happy,
and you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral,
and you lay the groundwork for vice.
Thus the Master is content
to serve as an example
and not to impose her will.
She is pointed, but doesn’t pierce.
Straightforward, but supple.
Radiant, but easy on the eyes.

---

59

For governing a country well
there is nothing better than moderation.
The mark of a moderate man
is freedom from his own ideas.
Tolerant like the sky,
all-pervading like sunlight,
firm like a mountain,
supple like a tree in the wind,
he has no destination in view
and makes use of anything
life happens to bring his way.
Nothing is impossible for him.
Because he has let go,
he can care for the people’s welfare
as a mother cares for her child.

---

60

Governing a large country
is like frying a small fish.
You spoil it with too much poking.
Center your country in the Tao
and evil will have no power.
Not that it isn’t there,
but you’ll be able to step out of its way.
Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.

---

61

When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting the Tao,
thus never needing to be defensive.
A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy
as the shadow that he himself casts.
If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn’t meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.

I don’t view these quotes as competing ideas - but the Tao quotes on leadership is what I aspire to be as a community leader.

This reminds me of my favorite session of Web 2.0 which was World Domination via Collaboration. Lisa Stone, Caterina Fake, Jory Des Jardins and Jessica Hardwick led an incredible discussion on how to lead and nurture communities.
The entire session spoke of leadership, principles, community values and co-operative learning along with the community. The whole principle of letting go of many aspects of your business is going to be a central theme this year as the memes of harnessing collective intelligence, wikinomics, crowdsourcing and community production begin to spread. I think there are going to be new aspects of leadership that will be required for those companies wishing to compete in this era.

I’ve been looking to the incredible examples that the field of social entrepreneurship offers for my research on leadership models. There are so many lessons to be learned from leaders who affect widespread change with no traditional resources through the use of community leadership. My friend David Bornstein’s book How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas should be on every CEO’s reading list.

On Thu 23 Nov 2006.