#WorkingOutLoud on ‘The Social Leadership Handbook’, Second Edition

The problem with books lies in the print: they are neither iterative nor adaptive, but rather set in stone. Or, more precisely, letterset on the page. Good as they are, they have a shelf life, and the time has come to update the Social Leadership Handbook. I know it’s two years old, but it’s outgrown it’s covers and, let’s be honest, you can do a lot of thinking in two years if you put your mind to it.

The NET Model of Social Leadership in full, showing the three Dimensions and nine Components

I’ve put aside time next week to do two things: firstly, to review the main text of the book, correct a few typos (sorry about that… the hazards of proofreading… but thanks to everyone in the community who helped to track them down), and secondly to add a new section based upon new writing over the last year.

I’m still pleased with the main body of text, but want to expand a couple of sections: the chapters on ‘Storytelling’ and ‘Social Capital’ in particular. When it comes to stories, i’ve had a whole load of new ideas since that chapter was written, not the least of which are developed out of a couple of full leadership programmes we’ve built and run based on this work. So now i can ground more of the theory in lived experience.

The piece on Social Capital i’ve worked on extensively: really building out the layers around humility, equality and fairness, so it feels like the right time to embed that into the core model more deeply. Perhaps i should say ‘more coherently’, because whilst it was there before, i feel it’s more connected now. Why? Because i’ve rehearsed it more: i’ve done more thinking, and that thinking is better, because it’s so heavily grounded in this community and in my professional practice.

For the new section at the end, i will add in some the pieces about ‘the leadership we need’, some of the reasons why Social Leadership is particularly relevant, and how it’s developed and grounded within organisations.

I think i’ll also include the new writing from last week, exploring social and formal layers of change, and the role of Social Leadership in this.

My mind has been largely on the Dynamic Change work this year and the end of last: the whole text of that book is now complete and i’m just writing some linking passages and finishing illustrations. But i want to get the update to the Social Leadership work clear first, which i think i can do in a week, and which is a foundation for Dynamic Change. So expect two new books in rapid succession: one brand new, the other updated to reflect my new understanding.