Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Emeritus Professor of Education at Stanford University. Last year, she became the founding president for the Learning Policy Institute, which conducts and communicates independent, high quality research to improve education policy and practice.
One could argue that the most recent findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer suggest that our peers have never mattered more than they do today. The growing influence of our peers has been evident since Edelman reported that trust shifted from authorities to peers in 2005 and, a year later, revealed that “a person like me emerged as a credible spokesperson.” According to the 2017 installment, we trust our peers as credible spokespersons as much as we trust academic and technical experts. Consider also that employees now trust one another more than they trust their CEO or other senior executives. This is powerful information for business leaders – especially those who understand how much culture matters to leading a healthy organization. Harnessing the power of peers properly can mean the difference between inspiring employees who want to be leaders and those who seek relevance by being ringleaders. Let me explain.
Several years ago, Paola Schifino, principal at Florida-based advertising and branding agency Schifino Lee, told me a story about her daughter’s soccer team I’ll never forget. Turns out, there was a girl who wasn’t very happy with the way the coach was leading the team. This girl shared her feelings with her teammates in an effort to build support for her point of view, which then triggered a groundswell of negativity. Upon learning what was happening, Paola gently offered the girl a piece of advice. She said, “Be a leader not a ringleader!”
I’m not sure I can recall hearing a sentence that was so short, yet communicated so much. We’ve all come across ringleaders in organizations where we’ve worked, right? Peers wield enormous power when it comes to influencing their fellow employees. It’s power that can be a force for good (leader) or one that can breed negativity (ringleader).
What do you do to recognize and leverage the power of peers in your organization? How do you approach inspiring leaders as opposed to perpetuating a culture that breeds ringleaders?
Etienne Wenger-Trayner is a globally recognized thought leader in the field of social learning and communities of practice. He has authored and co-authored seminal articles and books including Situated Learning, where the term “community of practice” was coined; Cultivating Communities of Practice; and Digital Habitats, which tackles issues of technology, community, and what it means to be together.
Beverly Wenger-Trayner is a consultant specializing in social learning systems. Her work with international organizations such as the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the International Labor Organization, and The World Bank have given her substantial experience in coaching conveners and in supporting multi-lingual groups across cultures, time-zones, and geographic locations. She has published chapters and articles about learning in internationally distributed communities.
JimKouzes is an experienced executive, bestselling author, respected educator, and award-winning speaker. Jim served as president, CEO, and chairman of the Tom Peters Company for more than a decade, and as an academic administrator for 17 years. He is the coauthor, with Barry Posner, of more than 30 publications, including The Leadership Challenge (with more than two million copies in print) and their most recent book, Learning Leadership. Jim also serves as Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, at Santa Clara University and delivers lectures on leadership around the world.
This is Part III of a (somewhat accidental) series involving why peer groups work, how they work (the conditions necessary for their success), and at least one perspective about how they could be led – that would be this post!
In Part I, I offered an illustration of a reinforcing loop involving a process of learning, sharing, applying and achieving to show why peer groups work so well, not only when it comes to embedding what we learn, but also with giving us the courage to implement new strategies and actually benefit from them. Part II simply suggested that this process doesn’t happen unless you have the right people in the room, a safe/confidential environment, a process for interacting that brings value, a culture of peer-to-peer accountability, and good servant leadership.
In the book, The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success, we don’t take a position on whether a group should be led by a professional facilitator, a member on a rotating basis, or anything that may fall in between. What we do suggest is that no matter who is in charge, the responsibilities are the same: to be sure the conditions or factors outlined in Part II are present, and that the group leader should maximize all the assets in the room to drive the reinforcing loop we described. The high performing groups we studied have this in common.
If you think of it visually, we didn’t see an all powerful leader who stands apart from the group, engaging in dyads with the members, each looking to the leader for guidance and support. Instead, we pictured a more participatory environment with the leader as a part of the group, using a triad model we picked up from a terrific book called Tribal Leadership and through conversations with one of its coauthors, Dave Logan.
With each entity accepting their role as “having the back” of the relationship and being accountable to one another, it allows everyone to extract the most value possible from the experience and ultimately serve everyone’s purpose for being there.
This “series” may have been a happy accident, but I hope it was an informative one. Please share your thoughts and experiences on any aspect of this in the comments section. Thank you!
Like many of you this morning, I woke up reflecting on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what his leadership meant to the civil rights movement and our understanding of the efficacy of non-violent protest. As we celebrate the man, the movement, and the progress we’ve made as a society, we can’t forget how much work there is still left to be done.
To that end, I just read the sobering results of the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer. According to the Harvard Business Review Daily Alert, “For 17 years the Edelman Trust Barometer has surveyed tens of thousands of people across dozens of countries about their level of trust in business, media, government, and NGOs. This year was the first time the study found a decline in trust across all four of these institutions. In almost two-thirds of the 28 countries we surveyed, the general population did not trust the four institutions to ‘do what is right’ — the average level of trust in all four institutions combined was below 50%.”
Among 10 insights from the study, I point you to #7 (Peers Highly Credible) “For the first time, ‘a person like yourself’ is as credible a source for information about a company as a technical or academic expert (all three at 60%).” And to #10 (With the People) “The trust crisis demands a new operating model for organizations by which they listen to all stakeholders; provide context on the issues that challenge their lives; engage in dialogue with them; and tap peers, especially employees, to lead communications and advocacy efforts.”
One of the most disturbing facts, which we’ve touched on in this blog, is that too many people have stopped listening. In #6 (Media Echo Chamber), we learn that “People are nearly four times more likely to ignore information that supports a position they don’t believe in; don’t regularly listen to those with whom they often disagree (53%); and are more likely to believe search engines (59%) over human editors (41%).
In my recent podcast with Charlene Li, she said that it will take leaders to move from what she described as the “bully pulpit” on social media back to our having true dialogue and conversations again. So with Dr. King’s powerful example in mind, let’s use the 2017 results as a peer-to-peer call to action to restore trust both here in the U.S. and around the world by having the courage to trust first – to listen more than talk, to learn rather than judge, and to allow the “content of our character” to shine more brightly.
Charlene is the Founder and CEO of Altimeter Group and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Open Leadership. She is also the coauthor of the critically acclaimed, bestselling book Groundswell, which was named one of the best business books in 2008. Her latest book “The Engaged Leader” was published in March 2015.
Charlene shares her peer-to-peer experiences at Harvard Business School, Forrester, YPO, and most recently at Prophet. She also offers her perspective about the evolution of how we engage one another in the digital world and talks about why it’s so important for today’s leaders. Watch our interview here or listen to this podcast on iTunes, GooglePlay or any of your favorite podcast platforms.
Next week’s guest will be Rich Karlgaard, Publisher and Global Futurist for Forbes!
Listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name, you’ll find twelve “must reads” for the Year of the Peer. Read one a month starting in January. If you’ve read one or more of them already, offer your reviews or add a title of your own you may not see here! If you’re so inclined, any one of these books would be a wonderful holiday gift for a friend or colleague!
Last night’s election results were a big surprise to many – me included. Political strategist Steve Schmidt said that because trust in institutions (government, media, business, non-governmental organizations), both here in the U.S. and around the world, is at an all-time low, voters were seeking an alternative to the establishment/institutional candidate. It was the year of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. No matter how much the media (see list of untrustworthy institutions) told us the election was over, the voters said, “Not so fast.” It appears that when Americans were faced with the choice of staying the course or trying something new, Trump’s argument, “What do you have to lose by voting for me?” resonated with just enough people in enough states for him to win the election.
In what I regard as the most divisive political contest of my lifetime, we’re going to be challenged as never before to bring our country together. I can only hope that the collaborative tone Trump struck in his acceptance speech rings for the next four years. As I wrote in an earlier post, Collaboration Trumps Competition, we have our hands full and we will all have to play our part in healing our nation. My hope is that between now and January 20th, we can begin to see ourselves once again, not in terms defined by partisan politics, but as peers – as Americans – united in doing what’s best for our country and to serve as an example to the world in the years ahead. I look forward to touching on this subject during our Year of the Peer Podcast Series. Now that your vote was heard on behalf of your candidate, lend your voice to unite our country.
In preparation for the new year, I’m working with Randy Cantrell out of Dallas/Ft.Worth, Texas to create a professionally produced podcast series titled The Year of the Peer, with Leo Bottary. The series will begin on Thursday, January 12th and post on the second and fourth Thursday of every month.
My guests will be top leaders, authors, journalists and scholars from all walks of life. We’ll talk about a universally accepted truth with myriad dimensions – who you surround yourself with matters. This is especially noteworthy in a world where trust in our institutions is low, and where the complexity and blistering pace of change are affecting everyone. Leaders today are challenged more than ever to prepare for a future most of us can barely imagine.
There’s simply never been a time where understanding and experiencing true peer advantage has ever been more essential. We’ll have conversations about leadership, accountability, vulnerability, and collaboration, among other things, that you just won’t get anywhere else. If you’re a leader at any level, or you want to be one someday, this show is for you!
In the next few weeks, I’ll release the names of our guests for the first quarter of the year – some of whom played a critical role in the development of The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success – as well as other voices who will join us for what promises to be an even larger conversation. You won’t want to miss it, so keep checking back for details about how you can subscribe.
If you think of it visually, we didn’t see an all powerful leader who stands apart from the group, engaging in dyads with the members, each looking to the leader for guidance and support. Instead, we pictured a more participatory environment with the leader as a part of the group, using a triad model we picked up from a terrific book called 
