Open Source Leadership: Reinventing Management When There’s No More Business as Usual Hardcover – October 24, 2017

I was looking for detailed information about a survey mentioned in the Wharton newsletter but didn't find much

According to Rajeev Peshawaria, the results of a global study – 16,000 respondents in 28 countries – indicate that about 75% of them agree with this statement: “When it comes to achieving breakthrough success for the organization, a significant amount of top-down/bold leadership is required.”Quite true. Not everyone aspires to provide that leadership but most agree that [begin italics] someone [end italics] must if anything truly significant is accomplished. James O’Toole nailed it when suggesting that cultural resistance to organizational change (especially transformation) is the most difficult to overcome, the result of what he so aptly characterizes as “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.”Peshawaria urges his reader to think about issues such as these:o Millions of people are now being trained at great expense for jobs that no longer exist.o An even greater number of people are unqualified for the jobs that do exist.o Meanwhile, global population will be at least nine billion by 2050 and probably sooner, creating increasingly greater pressure on natural resources such as food and water.o And meanwhile, the leadership needed at all levels and in all areas -- to ask the right questions in order to solve the right problems -- is not being developed...at least not in sufficient quantity.o Leaders in almost all organizations lack an open source mentality. They resent and feel threatened by principled dissent, especially from direct reports.o Worse yet, if innovation is involved, collaboration with customers and competitors is incomprehensible to the closed source mentality. In today’s business world, most of the silos are disguised as executives who remain convinced that wet highways cause rain.For almost twenty years, I have read and reviewed several thousand business books for Amazon US, UK, and Canada in addition to my own website, The best of these books serve as a window to new or better ideas as well as a mirror to other ideas that many (most) leaders cherish and sustain. Those now held captive to “the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom” were probably among those who replaced the previous status quo in their organization.It’s time for you to become an open source leader and help replace the status quo in your own organization. Paraphrasing two questions attributed to Hillel the Elder, Rajeev Peshawaria now asks, “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

A fascinating book that claims to be key for ‘reinventing management when there’s no more business as usual’, taking its cue from the changing nature of work and the new networks that govern things. The author argues that once-critical management practices today are ineffective, suggesting that a new counterintuitive approach needs to be taken, overturning many conventional thoughts, approaches and myths along the way.Technological advances have changed the way we work, changed how businesses function and rearranged our demands. No doubt there is more change to come, so if we can even try and be aware and ready to adapt further, that cannot be a bad thing either. The book and its contents certainly gives cause for thought, developing an interesting, inspirational thought process that may have a point. I am always wary of claiming anything is definitive, but feel confident to say that the author certainly has raised a meritorious argument and justifies his claims well.It deserves consideration. You may learn some new approaches or just appreciate better how to apply and utilise your existing knowledge. The book is aimed at leaders and managers, but a lot of its sentiments can be deployed even in one’s personal life. It is an adaptive way of thinking, of serving and of being served. The book is fairly deep and requires the reader’s undivided focus. Questions raised are apposite and relevant, the solutions proffered appear not to be far-fetched, credible and reasonable. It is highly nuanced and giving.Take an executive decision today and invest in the future. Buy the book and consider its contents (at the very least).

This philosophy will involve a massive mind shift, and there are times when it will not be easy. What I am proposing is a move away from almost a century of habit, thought, and practice. That is what the author says when he is talking about employee performance in the chapter, Minimum Supervision, Maximum Performance. That’s probably true for all the major concepts in Open Source Leadership. Employees must manage themselves like entrepreneurs. He says direct managers are not the primary source of an employee’s motivation anymore. Then he did a study to prove it. His study seemed primarily designed to offset a well-known and quoted study that shows people leave a company because of their direct manager. Open Source is his approach for the future, so leaders can be able to handle the massive changes needed.The first part of the book is dedicated to discussions about the changes that the world and businesses are facing if they want to survive. It goes on a bit too much. Overall the book is full of logic, his research, his story and stories of companies and people. Some stories are the same old ones being used over and over in leadership literature, like Uber and Southwest. What I really enjoyed was the international angle and the lesser known stories of inspiring people.The author says this is more of a think book than a how to book. With that as the goal, I agree he has achieved its purpose. You can participate in the survey’s in the book by following the link in the Final Thoughts chapter at the end of the book. Which I did because I wasn’t sold on the logic. I agree almost completely with the Open Source ideas on leadership however, the logic and the research I found faulty and disconnected. The assessment is full of leading questions and description to get the answers he wants. Here’s one example when asked about motivation there are only two choices, internally or external and a slider to put your % in. I wish it were that simple and it’s self-reporting. It’s also missing a situational aspect.The last chapter is about crowdsourcing. The point was innovation is needed for leaders of the future. This chapter seemed like it should have been focused more on innovation than crowdsourcing. It was an interesting primer on crowdsourcing and a bit of a how to do it.I would add another component to Open Source Leadership of the future not addressed, something along the lines of positivity, being humble, and not making others wrong. At times it was hard for me to read it because of the tone of him being right and others wrong. Here’s how I ended up rating this book: The ideas and respect for his work: 5, The inspiring stories: 4, The writing, logic and flow: 3.

An interesting read that raises many important leadership issues for the 21st century and millennials. The only issue is that the presentation of supporting evidence lacks rigour even though the writer clearly has an excellent track record engaging with important clients.