A new kind of model
Following on from yesterday’s post about a new kind of leadership, in the same article I referred to, there was another fascinating comment by Peter Leyden of the New Politics Institute. Here’s what he had to say:
“What’s amazing is that Hillary (Clinton) built the best campaign that has ever been done in Democratic politics on the old model—she raised more money than anyone before her, she locked down all the party stalwarts, she assembled an all-star team of consultants, and she really mastered this top-down, command-and-control type of outfit. And yet, she’s getting beaten by this political start-up (Barack Obama campaign) that is essentially a totally different model of the new politics.” (Emphasis mine)
My interest in sharing this is not as a political statement. I do think though that there are parallels for those of us who are involved in organisations, businesses, churches, etc. One of the biggest challenges is making sure we don’t become slaves to any one model. Because the world around us is constantly changing we too need to have models that are flexible enough to adapt.
Something we all need to think about is whether we see the world around us through the models we use or whether we see the world around us and then choose models to serve the world as it is.
As well as this, another thing we can draw out from the differences between the Clinton and Obama campaigns is that Clinton was institution based whereas Obama was people based. And the reality is that people’s trust of institution is in rapid decline (particularly amongst the younger generations).
Whatever our organisation, do we want it to be an institutional hierarchy or a people based movement?
If you haven’t already, please reply to the ‘Who Are You?’ post. Thanks!