The Ideas Butterfly: a social way of working (out loud)

In many ways, the idea is the easy part: making something of it is what counts and, in the Social Age, we do that within and alongside our communities. Today i took part in Chat2Lrn, a regular Twitter Chat, covering Social Leadership. I’d written an original blog post for them, then through nine structured questions, we carried out a community wide discussion.

The germ of an idea is pollinated within our communities. The butterflies of input, challenge, support make it better.

The value of these things, of this #WorkingOutLoud approach, is that it socialises and exposes your ideas and you benefit from the inputs, challenges, cross pollination and support of a vibrant community.

It makes our ideas better.

‘Humility‘ is something i often talk about in Social Leadership, but until today i’ve been somewhat hesitant using that term in organisations. It sounds soft, vague, loose. But today it was a term that echoed through the community: the foundations of Social Leadership are grounded in humility.

I still may not have the language right about how it’s expressed in an organisational context, but i’m far more confident about it being in the mix. That’s a process of reflection and working that is strengthened through community engagement.

So thank you to everyone for taking part and sharing their wisdom, helping me create my own narrative, which, in turn, i’ll share back into the community.

The idea may be a flower, but it’s all of us working together, the bees and butterflies, that pollinate it, that give it meaning.