I’ve been working on a series of longer pieces around Social Leadership as i explore the idea of a 3rd Edition of the Social Leadership Handbook, or possibly a separate book around the subject.
Today, thinking about Collective Capability, and the idea of the ‘key’. We talk about ‘unlocking potential’, but a key fits a single lock. When we consider ‘collective’, we may either need to think about many keys, or many locks, or simply that the metaphor is outdated (and possibly autocratic and controlling in any case).
So what – or who – unlocks capability… or frees it?
Reflecting that we act upon each other: through our words, actions, but also the folklore that surrounds us (of success or failure).
That learning is not a linear process, but that some connections re-contextualise that which came before.
So – perhaps – leadership is an act of re-contextualisation?
Is the key something made or traded? Or is curiosity, or learning, a lock-pick?
A reminder to myself to research when locks were invented – because i assume it was by people who had power (or wealth) and wished to retain it. Or that the knowledge was locked away. Or was it to lock people up?
Locks as the act of separation and division. Keys as power.
More on this tomorrow.
julianstodd
Julian Stodd's Learning Blog 