1.
collaborative leadership:
harnessing the value of diversity
ebbf keynote
Nousha Etemad

2.
collaborative leadership:
harnessing the value of diversity
Unity and collaboration - To create meaningful and purposeful organizations ready for the 21st century
Oct 1 – Oct 4, 2015
Barcelona, Spain
(by Nousha Etemad)

3.
2015: the world has
changed
The world’s
most popular
media owner
creates NO
content
1
The most
valuable
retailer has
NO
inventory
2
The
world's
largest
“taxi”
company
owns NO
vehicles
3 The world’s
largest
accommodation
provider owns
NO real estate
4
3

4.
The age of disruption
Advances in technology have disrupted our economy- yet
more than four out of five organizations aren’t ready for it
4
old disappeared
new leaders

5.
Traditional Models
5

6.
How do we prepare?
6
1. A culture that promotes,
encourages and provides
incentives for innovative
behaviours and practices
2. Organizational agility to embrace
new ways of working and making
decisions
3. Enable change through the crowd

7.
Because if you don’t,
no one will…
7
• Model applies equally to
those in formal
management positions
and to individual
contributors
• In one-on-one and small-
group interactions we are
all capable of leading to
the degree that we’re
willing to learn, and to
bring people together and
allow each individual’s
strengths to contribute to
a common goal

8.
Principle based
“The permanence and stability achieved by any
association, group or nation is a result of -- and dependent
upon -- the soundness and worth of the principles
upon which it bases the running of its affairs and the
direction of its activities.”
- Shoghi Effendi, 18 December 1925
8

9.
Principle of unity
“One cannot create a unified world with partial,
fragmentary, arrested selves which by their very nature
must either produce aggressive conflict or regressive
isolation…To be on friendly terms with every part of
mankind, one must be on equally friendly terms with
every part of oneself; and to do justice to the
formative elements in world culture…one must
nourish the formative elements in the human self.”- Lewis
Mumford
9

10.
Harnessing the value
of diversity
“Learn from the eyes the
way to develop unity and
oneness. The two eyes
appear different but their
vision is one.” - Indian Sufism
10

11.
“When you have a diverse team working on a project or managing
some particular task, the consultation process will benefit from a
richer variety of views and perspectives. Some individuals will be
systematic and analytic, will look at a problem with a mathematician’s
mind. Others will be more intuitive and their minds will look at
problems in the context of relationships and prior experiences.
Others may bring a time perspective which may be highly valuable
but can be gained only through many years of work and
considerable “trial and error”. Diversity is enriching because it
expands the range of human capabilities that are brought to bear on
the analysis of a particular problem, the search for a particular
solution.”
- “Why diversity in the workplace matters” by Dr. Augusto Lopez-Claros - BreakThru Magazine, March/April 2008, no. 2, pp. 14-22
-
Consultation
11

12.
Industrialized
Crowdsourcing
12
“No matter who you are, most
of the smartest people work for
someone else.” - Billy Joy

13.
Inspire with
Vision
Be Directive
Create
Networks
Build Hierarchy
Command &
Control
Support &
Empower
Lead
change
Trust
Fear
Failure
Follow a Strict
Plan
A new leadership
mindset
13
✓
✗
Learn & Grow
new
old

14.
Inspire with vision
▪ Describe “the frame”, allow the team to plan the details
▪ Strong and visible leadership is required to define a set of
shared goals for teams to enable successful self
organization and collaboration
14

15.
Lead change
15
▪ Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to
change, grow and improve
▪ Be open to changing direction

16.
▪ Operate as organizational networks than regular
hierarchical structures
Create networks
16

17.
Support & Empower
17
“I try never to forget that the conductor is silent and the music is
made by the players. The conductor’s job is to awaken possibility in
others. My only power is that which comes from making others
powerful.” -Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra

18.
Trust
18

19.
Learn & Grow
19

20.
Inspire with
Vision
Be Directive
Create
Networks
Build Hierarchy
Command &
Control
Support &
Empower
Lead
change
Trust
Fear
Failure
Follow a Strict
Plan
The time is now
20
✓
✗
Learn & Grow