Leadership and Popular CultureThe Group Phenomenon

By Holly Hovland and Bob Laval

Purpose of this Presentation

To awaken a new sense of leadership reflective of the times we are in and moving towards

• What is the role of the leader in this activity?

Sound of Music - Antwerp, Netherlands

• Where you able to identify the leader in this event?• What was the role of the leader/s?• Are there different levels of leadership?• What are the emotions displayed

– by the performers? – by the observers?

• Show of hands ---Would you like to – witness such an event?– participate in one?– organize one?– lead one?

Agenda

• Flash Mobs• Change in social culture • Technology & Popular Culture• Education & Learning• Hope for Humanity

Flash Mobs

• Flash Mob – Definition• Types

– Neutral Mobs• Singing• Choreographed to music or song• Frozen• Lay on ground and stare at the clouds• Laughing (30 seconds in a Farmer’s Market)• Breakfast (bring everything including table and chairs, dress in white)

– Statement Mobs• Combined (bring canned goods)• Political (Greenpeace die-in, Internet neutrality – Google, don’t be evil)

Flash Mobs

• Elements of a Flash Mob– Unexpected – participants blend in surroundings– Starts small (usually one person) and progresses– Participants blend back into the surroundings as if nothing has

happened– Recording

• Walking the edge of chaos• goes past the point of control • Critical Mass

– critical mass is a sociodynamic term to describe the existence of sufficient momentum in a social system such that the momentum becomes self-sustaining and fuels further growth (Wikipedia)

Flash Mobs

Change in social culture

• Focus on group not on individual• Release of individualized ego for group ego• Emergent group intelligence• Shift in Power

– “We have lost the power, and it is going to the people.” Rupert Murdoch, media mogal, and CEO of News Corporation

Change in social culture

• What constitutes the power of this experience?– Accessible– Easy– Sense of belonging, being part of something– Reviewing the recording (when applicable)– Simple purpose: ‘for the joy of it’

• Individual experience and group experience• The shock and awe element of the bystanders• The end result is worth the preparation and coordination• Dissipation of participants when it is over. It is over.

Technology & Popular Culture

• How it affects FlashMobs– Organizing & recording– Tech generation vs other generations

• Technology is changing our ideas of performance in the traditional/formal sense: blurred line between performer and bystander

• Changing society: People are– Defining their own world, e.g. Wikipedia– A society of observers– Developing their own language via texting– Divulging information, e.g. Wikileaks– Disposing of information, e.g. Wiki Dump– Interested in social relevance – TEST– Performing together without being face to face, e.g. Youtube

symphony– Making each other laugh --- e.g. cat symphony

Technology & Popular Culture

Education & Learning• “Although GenY may be adept at obtaining data, many

lack the sophistication to understand and evaluate the information they receive.” (Black, 2010, p.98)

• How could this phenomenon benefit teaching?– Inclusion– Belonging– Momentum – Ownership– Self-esteem

• Challenge/Task for Educators– Nudge learners back into their own lives by:

• Developing better social skills• Rekindle the need to see for “ourselves”• Slow things down a notch

Education & Learning

Reflective Questions• What are the benefits of the flashmob

phenomenon that a leader/educator could capitalize on?

• What are the payoffs for the participants/learners?• In what ways can we re-examine leadership,

motivation, and creating meaning?• What is the power of creating something just for

the fun of it? How could this be harnessed in the classroom to support learning?

Reflective Questions

• What is it in this experience that triggers – a sense of wanting to participate in some capacity

or another – an openness to even consider being an organizer

or leader?

• What is happening to our present sense of identification with leadership?

Hope for Humanity

• How many of you were touched by this? • What is it that makes it so appealing to so many?• Shift in Power• We have the possibility to hold the vision of what we believe

in. Each of us now has access to 1.5 billion people without any gatekeepers.

• The possibility for individuals to step into leadership is endless.

Conclusions• Where is this leading?

– Core social change – towards group spontaneity• Music Metaphor -- Shift from classical to jamming where:

– There is no leader– Everyone feeds off one another– Anyone can change the direction of the music at any time– Everyone contributes to the overall sound

– Popular culture activities based on technology are transitioning to

• Moving as one• Being inclusive• Having fun

Conclusions

• Shift in sense of self – Blurring the boundaries of our sense of separateness– Sense of belonging

• Shift in sense of leadership– Anybody can be a leader– Leader is becoming more invisible– Group activity more important than the leader– The experience of “for the fun of it” for the individuals

overshadows any other purpose

• Hope for humanity

Purpose of this Presentation

To awaken a new sense of leadership reflective of the times we are in and moving towards

Have we accomplished our purpose?

Questions???

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