21st Century Leadership The Mayvin Game

Martin Saville and James TraegerDecember 2011

Session Aims

• Defining some pivotal changes we can work with

• Investigate some OD tools• Support your organisation’s leadership

potential

Why we need a game-changing approach

• Ever-more complexity• Blurring of organisational boundaries• Increasing importance of Purpose• Social Media and networked identities• Gen Y• Lost organisations, lost times• ‘Strategy’, ‘Mission’ and ‘Values’ are no longer enough• The ‘rational’ organisation is increasingly a myth

Capacities of C21L

• Collective Intelligence: ‘the edge has many eyes’

• Wisdom of Multiple Intelligences• Enabling Truths• Networked Leadership• Human Purposes

Who is this relevant for?

• Top leaders• Aspiring leadership• Gen Y• People working on the ‘edge’ of the system• Anyone seeking more creativity• Those with ‘Drive’ (Dan Pink)• Those who seek ‘Flow’ (Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi)• (and who might resist this worldview?)

Possibilities for HR / OD/L&D People

• Connectivity• ‘Mercurianism’ (story-telling)• Relationship• Values-based change (holding people to

account)• Encouraging potential (at the edge)• Modelling ‘multiple intelligences’

Foundation Principles of C21L

• Transformational and Systemic possibility

• Sceptical of (and supportive of) hierarchy

• Helping leaders ‘let go’• Knowledge is local, timely

and specific

• Change processes are ‘always beta’

• Openness and unpredictability of change

• Darwinism: ‘proliferation’

Think of organisations as…

“Patterns of ongoing interaction between people [which] produce further patterns of interaction”

(Ralph Stacey)

Where is the balance in your organisation?

A Fundamental Tension

Energy Containment

What saved the bank?

• The ability to observe the world from 30,000ft and analyse at 3”

• The ability to inspire and enable followers• Being there when it counts – willing to stand

up and be counted• Pathological collaboration with peers to solve

problems and get things done

Mayvins and Connectors

• Mayvin (also ‘Maven’) from the Yiddish: one who understands stuff, and seeks to pass on the knowledge to others

• Mayvins work best with ‘connectors’: those with a wide network of casual acquaintances

• Based on a number of ancient and modern sources, such as Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point)

Principles of the Mayvin Game

• The organisation IS the systems of relationships that serve it (and don’t!)

• Choose which system(s) you serve

• Choose your (human) purposes

• You can be both Mayvin and Connector

• You are always in the right place

• Make ‘available and adjacent’ moves

• Meet your immediate needs in support of the system

• Help others do the same

Let’s Play!

• Round One – Locate our Connectors:– Find out everyone in the room who:

• You have spoken a few words with them – black & white dot

• You have had a conversation – pink dot• You know them well enough to lend them money and know

you’d get it back – red dot• Be honest about it – we need a good picture of our

connectivity

• What are the implications and possibilities of the stickers for us?

Stories – Show and Tell

• In pairs, A & B: A says why networking is important

• In pairs, B tells A about a time when they or someone they knew made something happen through networking

Let’s Play!

• Round Two• Form groups of up to 5• Make a good circle (The quality of stories

improves in a circle)• Introduce yourselves - establish relationship• Hear from everyone in the group – circle to

the left• Timekeeper follows storyteller

Stories

• Each tell a 2 min story about a time when you felt you were doing something (at work) you were really good at (in your ‘flow’)

• Don’t be modest!• Describe the detail - let others interpret• Not information or argument! (advocacy)• ‘Show’ vs ‘Tell’ (inquiry)• Best told as if you are there: what can you see,

hear, taste, touch, smell, feel?

Stories - themes

• After you’ve heard all stories:– Be curious – ask anyone in the circle anything you

want• After you’ve done the cross-questioning:

– What were the common themes/conditions of Mayvin-ness?

Where does our Mayvin authority come from?

John Heron

CONTEXT

SOCIAL ROLE

CONTENT

GRAMMAR / SYNTAX

FEELINGS

BODY PRESENCE

So what?

• How can you use the mindset & tools we have used here?

• How are you a Mayvin?• Which Mayvins in your organisation can you

support, and how?• What is the most ‘Purposeful’ narrative you

can support and how?

Get in touchMartin Savillemartin.saville@mayvin.co.uk+44 (0)7968 719940

www.mayvin.co.uk

James Traegerjames.traeger@mayvin.co.uk+44 (0)7778 647712

www.mayvin.co.uk