The Second Survival Skill: Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence

Mike Summers, who is vice president for Global Talent Management at Dell Computers, told me that his greatest concern was young people’s lack of leadershp skills. “Kids just out of school have an amazing lack of preparedness in general leadership skills and collaborative skills,” he explained. “They lack the ability to influence versus direct and command.” In other words, the only kind of leadership young people have experienced is one that relies on obedience versus the kind of reasoning and persuasion that is the new leaderhip style demanded by businesses organized in teams and networks.

He went on, “Students have a naivete about how work gets done in the corporate environment. They have a predisposition toward believing that everything is clearly outlined, and then people give directions, and then other people execute until there’s a new set of directions. They don’t understand the complexities of an organization – that boundaries are fluid, that rearely does one group have everything they need to get a job done. How do you solve a problem when people who own what you need are outside your organization or don’t report to you, or the total solution requires a consortium of different people? How do you influence things that are out of your direct control?”

How can teachers and librarians help students develop this skill?

Image citation: Peace by Cayusa.

The powerpoint and other information for the session can be found on the wiki created for the presentation.

One of the presenters is the founder of globalschoolnet.org, a non-profit organization that supports teachers using technology for collaborative projects. Some of the ways that she suggested that collaborative technologies could impact learning are:

flexbooks – wiki versions of textbooks that could be easily update
co-created content where students work in teams to solve a problem or create something
global competition
blended learning spaces where some time is spent in face to face learning and some time is spent with online learning

Several collaborative tools were discussed also.

It is easy to see the value of having students collaborate and write for an authentic audience of their peers.