About This Book
This book uses the analogy of peer-to-peer information technology architecture to demonstrate how technological advances can help guide our thinking about a new paradigm for leadership and organizational design. It does not view technology as a barrier or a threat, but rather sees it as an enabler of greater understanding about the integral connections between individuals in organizations and how work can be organized for optimal success. It introduces a new way to define, measure, and express leadership in a world that is now hyper-digitally connected and brings the challenges that prevent us from altering the way we think about leadership to the surface.
Peer to peer (P2P) IT architecture is a radical, architectural shift that has transformed the computing industry and influenced how society uses computer technology. Beyond that, it has ignited an interest in examining many social peer-to-peer processes and relationships where interaction—especially in large organizations—traditionally occurs in accordance with the model of command-and-control leadership. With P2P, it becomes possible for leaders to relinquish some of that command and control, and for individuals to be equals.
The book itself is organized around two important concepts—leadership and organization design. There are three elements and patterns: (1) node communities, (2) equipotency, and (3) relational dynamics. Like the colors and patterns in a kaleidoscope, these themes weave a new tapestry for leadership and for organization design. Their interplay forms a somewhat abstract but integrated look at the whole organization.
While the first chapter takes a look at the current state of leadership, the language of leadership, and the language of the peer-to-peer architecture (P2P), chapters two through four each deal with a particularly important piece of P2P architecture: nodes and node communities, equipotency, and relational dynamics, respectively. Chapters five through eight provide guidance and background for understanding the importance of and need for a fundamental shift, as well as examples of people and organizations that have put P2P leadership and organizational structure into practice. Chapters nine and ten outline the P2P implications for leadership, for organization design, and for how P2P can be practiced in the twenty-first-century organization. I talk about how decisions in organizations are influenced by their leadership practices and their organizational design, about possibilities and a vision for the future of leadership, and about the mindset, perspective, and behaviors needed to realize a new vision. The book also highlights a few companies that are already on the P2P path and authors who are outlining new behaviors consistent with P2P network communities. In addition to presenting ideas, the book provides examples of what we could do differently to build momentum toward the vision of P2P leadership. To that end, the book is more about ideas than practices and frameworks. It is an invitation for you to put yourself in a new scenario and a new reality—one that is almost undeniably imminent, whether our organizations are ready for it or not. It is intended to provoke thought, spark questions, and conjure images of possibilities that can be tested and tried in the arenas of leadership and organizational design.
This book is for doers, thinkers, and helpers. It is for those who must take action, those who enjoy thinking and inquiry, and those who are committed to helping others. It is not for pessimists, for those who are comfortable with the outcomes of current practices, or for those who think the state of leadership is well and will continue to flourish as it is. Regardless of organizational position or status, it is for and will benefit those who think and feel passionately that we can and must improve the quality of leadership actions, research, teaching, and consulting, as well as the overall design of organizations and leadership programs.
The book is not a review of theories or a book of facts. It is not a scholarly treatise on leadership. Rather, it is a journey on a new road—a road not taken before. There is a quote carved on a bench in front of my children’s upper school that reads: “I believe in the sun even when it rains.” To this day, this quote is the first that comes to mind when
I think about moving forward by embracing the opportunity presented at the moment. In that spirit, I invite you to join me on a new road.
Mila N. Baker
New York, New York