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The Art of Asking: Collaborative Creation

How does a leader create things? I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that a leader can have an idea and then get a group of people together and create something new. Something didn’t exist, and then magically it does. In 2006 there wasn’t an iPhone and then, magically, in 2007 there was. How does that happen? In this post, I’ll look at different models of leadership and how the best leaders don’t seem to be leading at all.

Companies are like giant organisms, with everyone contributing to the whole. Every employee helps their boss achieve their goals. Each boss marshals their employees to do so, all the way up to the CEO, who reports to the board and shareholders. It’s an interconnected structure where everyone supporting their direct manager eventually gets the company to achieve its goals.

From an employee’s perspective, this makes perfect sense. The boss pays you and you do work. But how does the boss get you to do work?

The most natural way to think of a boss is as a field marshall who commands his team to achieve his goals. Frederick Herzberg, calls this the KITA (Kick In The Ass) method.1 It relies on extrinsic motivators like rewards and punishments. While it works well in the short term, it puts managers at odds with employees. While it gets people to do their job in the near term, it does a very poor job of producing long-term engagement. It leads to resentment, decreased job satisfaction, and high turnover rates.

Really good managers, Hertzberg writes, inspire their teams by creating a supportive environment where each person feels valued and motivated. These managers understood the importance of intrinsic motivation. They focus on providing opportunities for achievement, recognizing individual contributions, and encouraging personal growth. By fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility, they can build committed and innovative teams.

But the most interesting leader is the one who doesn’t seem to lead at all. They look at the organizational organism and see how it moves. Then they nudge it to move in various directions. It appears effortless because they use they redirect the energy of the organization. It’s like surfing, where most of the energy comes from the wave. These leaders understand the dynamics at play and harness them to guide their teams smoothly and efficiently. By aligning their actions with the natural flow of events, they achieve goals with minimal resistance, making the process seem almost magical. Their ability to anticipate and adapt is key to their success.

Amanda Palmer talks about this type of leadership in her book The Art of Asking. Palmer, a singer and performance artist, is famous for many things, including being the first person to fund an album on Kickstarter. In her book, Palmer talks about how she partners with her fans to create great art. She does this by asking for help from her fans. Asking for help makes her vulnerable, but it gives fans the opportunity to help create something magical.

She talks about her experience as a street artist. She was a living statue in Harvard Square. This is the lowest form of artist, but she took it very seriously. She stood still, waiting for someone to give her money. When they did, she moved, thanked them, and gave them a flower. Being close to the people paying for her art gave her a unique connection to her customers.

Many people view this as begging. She’s asking for money in exchange for movement and a flower. But Palmer teachers us to look at it differently. She’s giving them the opportunity to participate in her art. Rather than looking at the people on the street as her customers and she’s asking for money, she’s inviting them to participate in a joint project to create something that wasn’t there before.

I found this idea so compelling in so many parts of life. Most of the time we look at the world in this binary way, with everyone having their own separate roles. We have someone selling something and someone else buying it. It’s very adversarial. However, if we flip it around and have a person offering opportunities and another person paying to take advantage of that opportunity, it’s very different.

I recently had a chat with two friends. One said, “I wish I could pay someone to do this for me.” The other one said, “I wish someone would pay me to do this.” They were talking to each other but didn’t see the joint opportunity. I was able to bring them together and they were both thrilled to work together on it.

I’m thinking of something similar for the Yale Record Humor Magazine, where I’m the President. I used to hate fundraising. I don’t like getting these letters from all of these organizations. But thinking about it from Amanda Palmer’s perspective, I’m giving people the opportunity to support something that they really enjoy. Instead of thinking of it as bothering them, I need to think of it as allowing them to support this great organization. Why would I deprive them of that?

Another friend is the CEO of a company. He had an idea, got it funded, and created something very successful. When I asked him, “How does it feel to have something that was in your head become this incredibly successful thing?” he said, “It’s amazing. But you know what’s even better? I have all these wonderful people around here helping me create this.” This sentiment captures the essence of true leadership and creation. It’s not just about the initial idea; it’s about the collaborative effort and shared journey that brings it to life.

Footnotes

  1. Herzberg, F. (1968). One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2003/01/one-more-time-how-do-you-motivate-employees ↩︎