First Follower

If you’re in the Oakland County, MI area, you might have had the opportunity to work with Oakland Schools and their facilitation crew.  Lauren Childs in particular got me thinking the other day, and really bent my mind with a concept I hadn’t come across.  When we hear leaders and leadership, we nearly always think of someone willing to go out in front and/or someone really adept at motivating people to do something.  She introduced the concept of a first follower, however, as the most vital ‘leader’ an organization could have.  I’ve embedded a great TEDex video, 3 minutes long, which lays it out perfectly.

Here’s the essence.  If everyone is out leading, which does happen often, then no one is following.  If no one is following, then there is no organized movement.  The first follower is that person who decides the lone leader has a good idea and should be followed.  And that first follower is the one who convinces another core group of people to also follower the leader.  It takes tremendous courage, humility, and leadership to say, ‘Hey folks, this person has a great idea and we need to support her.’  I saw someone do it once in an organization I was in, and it was a really powerful, galvanizing moment for us.  Thanks to Lauren I have a name for it: First Follower.

Journeys

Some time ago I took a long bike ride, long enough to be lost and frustrated and find myself sitting on a bench staring at the ocean. It was a pretty view, but I couldn’t appreciate it.  A man sat down next to me, also on a bike ride, and started talking spontaneously.  That happens to you on bike ride. People find you more approachable.

He said, ‘You know the good thing about long bike rides and journeys is what you learn and what you learn about yourself. The problem with them is you begin to think they're the only way to have a journey. When you're done with this ride, you're going to think the learning is done, the journey’s done, the adventure’s done, and the mistake we make is to not realize every day is a journey. Every day has new things to see, to discover, to experience and learn. Every day has a view like this (he gestured at the water), but we miss it when we return from the journey.  We go home. We fall back into the regular life, and we don't keep ourselves open to the journey. That's the trick because you spend most your life in the everyday journey and not much of it on the big, broad exciting one. That's the trick--to be in the journey every day.’

Then he got up, and he got on his bike and rode away.

Introduction

In the last year I have come across so many new learning opportunities that I feel like I might explode.  This space seemed like a great place to share ideas, situations, and solutions, especially those from the experts and wonderful leaders I have been blessed to learn from.  With any luck, there’ll be something new to learn every day!