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About this episode

While at the Amplified 08 event I asked a number of people about the importance of social media for social change - and how they would help people understand the potential, and start using new tools.Ken Thompson is a specialist in network communication and collaboration, drawing on lessons from the biological world. He is using his Swarmteams approach in engagement marketing, as you can see here.I asked Ken how best to engage people, and whether you could sell them social media - knowing you can't really. Ken gave me this brilliant analogy:I go back to my experience of learning to fly a light aircraft and sitting in the cockpit with the instructor, hoping at the start that by watching the instructor I could pick up the skills and then realising, no, I have to start taking some risks and get my hands dirtyI followed up by asking Ken What he would suggest:Create a safe play environment. For example, sending me up in an aircraft by myself and telling me to learn it is not a safe environment - start someone off, you be their fingers at the start, make it safe, make it so they can't be embarrassed.Ken went on to talk about lessons from the biological world, including the role of collective rather than individual leadership, and the importance of lots of short messages. That's how you produce useful action. Documents aren't the only way to build consensus.He added: More and more the leader role today is the talent scout. The bee queen has no idea what is happening in the colony - they just keep promoting it. The most important leadership role is not the micro-manager but somebody who spots talent, gets it into the organisation and keeps it happening.

• Release Date

  Jan 22, 2009

• Runtime

  03:13