ACTivity/ Not on Google

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

Manila, 3 July 2019 — Learning leadership beyond what’s on Google, what will that look like? Want to find out?

The Swimming Pool

My friend and thought leader Pete Cook wrote today how he respected a doctor’s choice to consult Google while seeing a patient. I agree with him on this. It’s impossible to know everything, and today’s leaders (and doctors) are swimming in information, and getting even more is at their beck and call from Google.

Pete’s story reminded me of what my Tao master once told me, that each of us is swimming in an Olympic-size pool of energy. We just need to learn, he said, how to connect to it better. The same predicament might apply to learning how to deal with our information overwhelm.

Today, being a leader is being a curator of information, to choose what is relevant, when, and where. To be, in the words of Pete Cook, across your field, and able to “add your perspective ... to the thinking.” Right?

Well, yes and no.

Curating information is just one of the many skills that leaders need to cultivate. And it’s not the skill that will give you the deepest impact.

When it comes to learning about leadership, and to leveling up your leadership skills, there is a roomful—or an Olympic-size swimming poolful—of resources available around us, that are Not on Google.

What am I talking about?

The Pool of Peers

In the same train of thought as the Tao master, I am pointing you to the wealth of tacit knowledge that is all around you, embedded in the experiences of fellow leaders who are your peers, and who, like you, want to create positive change in their life and workplace.

I’m thinking about peer leaders who, like you, want to make the world more sustainable. Who, like you, want to find better solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. And who, perhaps like you, are tired of seeing how the necessary changes are taking an unnecessary amount of time to kick off and gain momentum.

Are you with me so far?

Growing Your Leadership

What we know from research is that the bulk of your growth as a leader comes, not from absorbing information, but from taking on challenges (70%), supported by helpful feedback from your peers, mentors and coaches (20%), and informed by structured learning from education and training (10%).

This is known as the 70:20:10 rule of leadership development, and it tells us that what’s Not on Google is the learning together through challenges and experiences, as peers. This is largely missing from today’s leadership development programs, and I believe it’s time to change that.

From what I can see, it’s time for a community of sustainability leaders who learn together, from each other’s experiences, how to make changes happen in our businesses and organizations so that they can develop better solutions for the world’s most pressing problems. And, the sooner the better.

Community of Leaders

In such a community, we can bring together development professionals who see themselves as today’s sustainability advocates, and want to become tomorrow’s change makers. Still with me there?

Such learning, such transformation, is Not on Google. However, it’s available to you, to co-create together with similarly-minded peer leaders. This can happen when you take on the challenge of growing leaders around you, even as you work on your own communication and leadership skills.

Is such a community for you?

Yes — if you are passionate about sustainability and you are an executive, an expert, or an emerging leader with at least two years of working experience after your college degree.

Yes — if you are an engineer, city planner, water manager, social entrepreneur, or other development professional and you want to become a change maker.

Yes — if you are ready to get out of your comfort zone to take on the challenge of growing leaders around you while you work on your own communication and leadership skills.

So here is my question to you.

If co-creating such a community of peers sounds like something you could benefit from, and could contribute to, and you would like to find out more about it, I would love to hear from you.

Joining me in co-creating this community will be free of charge—not free of commitment.

Click here to express your interest, and we will set up a call to discuss it with you soon.