In Seth Godin's latest TED Talk, he challenges us about the way that leadership happens. Seth shares three phases of how leadership has manifested itself. First it came through factories and industrial efficiency. Then it came through television and mass media. Now he says that leadership is exhibited through ideas. And the groups that form around ideas are called Tribes (the name of his new book).
"That what we do for a living now, all of us, I think, is find something worth changing, and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread the idea and spread the idea. And it becomes something far bigger than ourselves. It becomes a movement. So when Al Gore set out to change the world again, he didn't do it by himself. And he didn't do it by buying a lot of ads. He did it by creating a movement. Thousands of people around the country who could give his presentation for him. Because he can't be in 100 or 200 or 500 cities in each night." Seth Godin
This talk highlights a significant change from industrial power to media savvy and finally to the harnessing of information. It is so important for any missional innovator to understand this trending. This trending looks overwhelming but it is very good news for nonprofits. Why is that?
It is simple. In our nonprofit reality, we don't have huge factories that push out our services. We also don't have the money to take advantage of the mass media the way that the large companies do. But we do have ideas. We have ideas that can be honed, harnessed and delivered to those who will be passionate about them. We are probably more suited to create powerful ideas that move people's hearts than anyone else.
So this latest movement of leadership into the hands of those who formulate and present ideas gives us all some exciting opportunities. This means that you don't have to have the infrastructure to produce product or the money to fund advertising to make a difference.
So listen to Seth's talk above, and begin thinking more about your big idea. How will you lead out? How will you present your idea to the world and use it to change the world for the better? How will your innovation bring glory to the Kingdom? That's our task as mission innovators.
