1.3.2 Distributed leadership by a collective
In the context of social movement organising, the tendency is to talk about collectives and the ability of collectives to represent their own interests. So, while individual leaders do of course play a key role, creating the opportunities for leadership to be shared is a central principle of social movement organising.
This can sometimes be as straightforward as using democratic processes of governance and decision-making. If members are given the opportunity to deliberate and vote on a decision, then space has been created for them to represent themselves collectively. However, this principle can be extended to create an organisational culture in which as many members as possible can practise leadership.
This could take the form of rotating roles in informal leadership positions. Different members could lead a particular action or activity at different times, or be given different responsibilities – whether that’s behind the scenes with administrative activity or public speaking. Sharing and rotating roles can allow for new leaders to emerge and nascent leaders to practise their skills and develop confidence. Then perhaps, when a longstanding leader steps down from a formal position, there will be plenty of people in your organisation ready to step up.
Activity 2 Identifying leaders
Below are three fictional characters who work in a school. You and a group of colleagues have decided to organise staff in your workplace into a trade union. As part of the organising drive, you map your workplace to identify potential leaders.
From the description of these individuals, identify how they might fulfil the role of an organic leader. Remember, an organic leader is someone influential who could bring other people along with them, convince them to join a particular activity, or someone people don’t want to disappoint.
Shanice
Shanice is one of the year 5 teachers.
She is well liked by staff, pupils, and parents in year 5 and her work is generally thought to be exceptional.
Shanice works best with peace and quiet so often uses lunch breaks to grab some time to herself and get some work done.
Although she is relatively new to the school, Shanice is very popular with the people who have got to know her.
Michael
Michael is the head of year 5.
He has worked at the school for a while and is an outspoken member of the workplace union.
Michael has a reputation for knowing a lot about politics and often engages in debates in the staffroom during lunch.
He has very clear opinions about the national government’s education policies.
People generally respect his opinion and, indeed, expect him to have an opinion on everything.
He is generally thought of as being a good teacher and is well liked by the team of three teachers he manages.
Kam
Kam is part of the admin team, so knows pretty much everyone who works in the school.
As they work in the school reception, they meet a mixture of staff, pupils, and parents at drop off and pick up times.
Lots of staff rely on Kam in their administrative capacity for their work, and they have a good reputation for delivering work on time and to a high standard.
Kam will go out of their way to help other staff last minute with admin work, but most staff try to avoid this situation as it’s clear that they disapprove of it.
Comment
There are not necessarily any wrong answers here. It is more about looking for people’s leadership potential and giving them the opportunity to develop it. But here are some useful ways of thinking about it:
Shanice
Shanice is a less senior member of staff, which by no means counts her out of leadership potential, but as she is quite new it seems less likely that she has had the opportunity to build rapport with other colleagues. This is also made harder by the fact that she often uses lunch breaks to get work done on her own, which is one of the key opportunities for organising work to take place.
However, people respect her work and get along well with her. This goes for parents as well as teachers, making it more likely for people to take her seriously if she were to raise an issue in the workplace.
Michael
Michael has a formal leadership role as head of year 5 and he has worked at the school for a long time, likely making him generally more trusted, plus he’s already in the union which might give you a head start going forward.
Michael is also thought of as being well versed in politics. However, while this could seem like a plus for leadership potential, it also carries the possibility that people could find him confrontational, strongly disagree with him (quietly or vocally), or think that any issues he might raise at work are just ‘Michael making everything political’. So, perhaps he is one to think twice about.
Kam
Kam is very well networked in the school, not only with staff but with parents as well. Though they don’t have a formal leadership position, the nature of their work means that lots of people rely on them being good at their job, and they are, which means people generally respect them. All big ticks as far as leadership is concerned.
It sounds like Kam has helped people out of a few last-minute scrapes, which again makes it more likely that people will appreciate them in the workplace. However, they clearly don’t appreciate having to drop everything to handle late work. This could go one of two ways: either they have enough respect that other staff will understand and try to avoid disappointing them, or they will find it unreasonable and be less likely to want to follow them. Still, definitely one to think about.
You have covered the basic principles underlying organising:
- Building power by drawing your target constituency into a membership organisation through which they can campaign to represent their interests.
- Using the organisation as a vehicle to develop effective leadership.
Next you will look at some practical tools with which to organise for change in workplaces and communities. Some parts of the following two sections may not, at first, feel relevant to your organising or leadership context. However, no matter the context you are working in, there are good lessons for all kinds of organising to learn. Remember, the basic principles underlying all kinds of organising are largely the same.