I love this short video on “how to start a movement” by CD Baby founder Derek Sivers. (If you’d prefer to read it, see Derek’s website.)
His other great points:
• The leader must be easy to follow. And embrace followers as equals.
• A movement must be public.
• Leadership is overpraised; it’s early followership that enables movements.
I think of this when I’m trying to promote a Big Idea or just a small practice that could leverage so much. I’m so grateful for those very few people who think about what I’m proposing and offer a supportive or appreciative comment.
Currently, I’m proposing a a collection of best practices for water management in the greater San Francisco Bay area in California. This region is oddly backward compared to other places I’ve lived (with one exception: SF’s water-reuse requirement for large new buildings). You’d think water reuse and conservation get a great audience in California.
Not so much.
In the meantime, kudos to “first followers.”
Dan
11 Oct 2010Thanks for pointing out this video.
I actually did what the shirtless guy in the video did. I was at an Ornette Coleman concert in 1981, back when he was playing with Prime Time. Ornette’s bassist, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and his drummer, Denardo Colemn, were laying down an unbelievably danceable groove, but no one was dancing because it sounded like free jazz, and everyone knows that you don’t dance to free jazz. Screw that, I thought, I’m gonna get up and dance — and I did, right down in front where several hundred people could see me. Yes, I felt like a lone nut. And how relieved was I when someone else stood up and started dancing? Unbelievably relieved — now I wasn’t a lone nut any more.
Actually, that’s not quite true. I loved Ornette Coleman, and I was going to dance no matter what. The only reason I could be perceived as a leader was because of those first people who stood up to dance after me. Because of them, the aisles were packed with people dancing for the rest of the concert. If it wasn’t for them, I would have been seen for what I was — a lone nut.
Followership is more important than leadership.