What is the role of technology in supporting network leadership?

Networks are effective ways of sharing information, communicating and collaborating.  They are flexible and adaptable, morphing in response to the people involved and the task at hand.  They are dynamic by nature and have the potential to produce lasting effects.   We believe that if we focus the energy of networks, and spark connections, we can accomplish unprecedented results in the social sector.  Technology elevates the potential and impact of networks, making it an intrinsic element of our discussion on network leadership.

Increasingly, groups of people are using technology to go beyond connection and information sharing into collaborative action, typically in response to crises.  These are some examples of how technology is bringing down barriers of location and time, optimizing the communication flow, and nurturing innovation and creativity. 

Prior to the recent earthquake in Haiti, the Open Street Map of Port-au-Prince was underdeveloped compared to other regions of the world.  The maps are populated by people all over the world – they operate on a community-generated data model.  After the earthquake, GeoEye released satellite imagery and allowed the open-source community to use it.  People around the world began editing the map and filling in the missing information, highlighting refugee camps and other crucial information.  The group worked together – yet, remotely – exercising leadership, perhaps in a non-traditional way, by leveraging data and ultimately playing a significant role in this relief effort.  (Berners-Lee 2010)

Another great example is Ushahidi, an open-source project that seeks to create a platform that any person or organization can use to collect information and visualize it.  The platform aggregates the information and allows people to track trends and inform decisions.  It was originally developed to track reports of ethnic violence in Kenya in 2008, but has been growing ever since, playing a key role in recent relief efforts.  By 2009, the platform had been used for monitoring elections in India and Mexico, and coordinating storm cleanup after Washington, D.C.’s “Snowmaggedon.” (Bernholz et al. 2010)  Ushahidi has been used to achieve tangible results (people donating, providing support, continuing to spread awareness/campaigns all over the world). By opening up access to information, Ushahidi is modeling the type of collaboration needed to respond to crises more effectively.

These network models of collaborating and solving problems together are different from organizational models – they are driven by groups and individuals who are motivated by a desire to find social solutions, and who think about accountability in more flexible and practical terms (Bernholz et al. 2010).  However, the lack of formal structure – for instance, in the case of Ushahidi – has proven to be a challenge when it comes to applying for funds from foundations (Bernholz et al. 2010).  We will address issues of network funding and support in another section of this report.

So what does this mean for you? How can you leverage technology to support your leadership work?  A recent report, Social by Social (Gibson et al. n.d.), outlines a series of important propositions for understanding what technology means and how it should be leveraged:

• “People make technology matter”: Technology is a great ally in the collaborative process, but it is a supporter rather than a driver. Ideas and relationships are far more important than the technology that supports them.
• “Know your limits”: While technology is a great tool to help groups brainstorm, connect and even execute ideas, it has its limitations.
• “In user-centric design, everyone is right”: Adapt your technology and tools to meet the needs of the network participants.
• Focus on the early adopters of the technology – they will become your evangelists.
• “Failure is useful”: Learn from the good and the bad – what worked and what didn’t work.

Some of those propositions resonate with the principles of network leadership: openness, empowerment, decentralization, and experimentation.   More than ever, technology is proving to be a great ally in advancing the principles and impact of network leadership.

References:
Berners-Lee, T., 2010. Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide. Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_the_year_open_data_went_worldwi....
 
Bernholz, L., Skloot, E. & Varela, B., 2010. Disrupting Philanthropy Technology and the Future of the Social Sector, Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University. Available at: http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/DisruptingPhil_online_....
 
Gibson, A. et al., Social by Social, Available at:

http://www.socialbysocial.com/sites/www.socialbysocial.com/files/social_by_social_pdf_download_creative_commons.pdf.

This article is part of the Leadership and Networks series, which is currently being developed as part of the Leadership for a New Era (LNE) collaborative research initiative.  LNE was launched in 2009 by the Leadership Learning Community; a nonprofit organization transforming the way leadership is conceived, conducted and evaluated in the nonprofit sector. LNE focuses on promoting leadership approaches that are more inclusive, networked and collective. Through this initiative we are working with several partners to produce a publication (Leadership and Networks) that seeks to influence how leadership is cultivated and supported in the social sector; and to more effectively support efforts to mobilize collective action across sectors to address complex social and environmental issues.  In the next couple of weeks we will develop a series of articles exploring topics related to network leadership – this is one of the first articles of the series. For more information please visit http://www.leadershipforanewera.org/