Overview

Our leadership models are stuck in an Industrial Age, top-down mentality. But in our complex, data-drenched, 24/7 world, there is simply too much information coming from too many different directions too quickly for any one leader or group to stay on top of it. Hierarchy is breaking down everywhere-why should leadership be any different? Inspired by the peer-to-peer model of computing used in social networking and crowdsource technologies, Mila Baker shows a new way to lead. Organizations, she says, must become networks of ""equipotent"" nodes of power-peer leaders. The job of the leader is now to set the overall goals and direction and optimize the health of that network, not tell it what to do. In these organizations, leadership roles shift rapidly to fit the needs of any given situation. Information flows freely so those who need it can find it easily and act on it immediately. Feedback becomes an organic part of the workflow, enabling rapid course corrections. Baker shows how companies like Gore and Herman Miller have achieved long-term success practicing these principles and provides a structure that any organization can adapt to build flexibility, resiliency, and accountability.

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9781609947477

Table of Contents

Reviews

This will be an important and very timely addition to the leadership literature. Peer-to-peer leadership is the main issue of the future. --Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus, MIT, and author of Humble Inquiry Old-school leaders can still use their authority to command others to shut up and row, but their boats will never be as agile or fast as the ships led using Mila Baker's principles. --Vince Hudson, General Manager, Beauty Care Asia, Procter & Gamble Mila Baker completely reconceptualizes the relationship between leaders and followers as a dynamic exchange that will enable organizations to be more nimble, resilient, and resistant to change. --Betty King, United States Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva Baker captures exactly what we all see happening in organizations. The power of relationships enables positive change regardless of existing systems, processes, and hierarchy. Baker has a keen eye for spotting these trends, investigating the data, and drawing cogent insights. --Joanna B. Miller, cofounder, Miller Black Associates, LLC Baker captures powerful forces overlooked by old-school leadership and management models. Dismiss them at your peril! --Christopher Whitfield, CEO, Batswadi Pharmaceuticals Mila Baker challenges us to rethink all of our basic assumptions about how business enterprises are managed. She very convincingly argues that the hierarchical structure of leadership and management that characterized organizations in the Industrial Age not only has lost its relevance in today's world but might actually be a hindrance and a handicap. Be prepared to unlearn the conventional wisdom of a bygone era. --Emmy Miller, President, Liberty Business Strategies, Ltd. Mila Baker challenges traditional modes of leadership in all institutional and organizational settings--corporate, civic, religious, and political. Technology now brings in

This will be an important and very timely addition to the leadership literature. Peer-to-peer leadership is the main issue of the future. --Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus, MIT, and author of Humble Inquiry Old-school leaders can still use their authority to command others to shut up and row, but their boats will never be as agile or fast as the ships led using Mila Baker's principles. --Vince Hudson, General Manager, Beauty Care Asia, Procter & Gamble Mila Baker completely reconceptualizes the relationship between leaders and followers as a dynamic exchange that will enable organizations to be more nimble, resilient, and resistant to change. --Betty King, United States Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva Baker captures exactly what we all see happening in organizations. The power of relationships enables positive change regardless of existing systems, processes, and hierarchy. Baker has a keen eye for spotting these trends, investigating the data, and drawing cogent insights. --Joanna B. Miller, cofounder, Miller Black Associates, LLC Baker captures powerful forces overlooked by old-school leadership and management models. Dismiss them at your peril! --Christopher Whitfield, CEO, Batswadi Pharmaceuticals Mila Baker challenges us to rethink all of our basic assumptions about how business enterprises are managed. She very convincingly argues that the hierarchical structure of leadership and management that characterized organizations in the Industrial Age not only has lost its relevance in today's world but might actually be a hindrance and a handicap. Be prepared to unlearn the conventional wisdom of a bygone era. --Emmy Miller, President, Liberty Business Strategies, Ltd. Mila Baker challenges traditional modes of leadership in all institutional and organizational settings--corporate, civic, religious, and political. Technology now brings information at the same time to all participants in an enterprise. Therefore, the leader's role must shift--he or she must now manage the process of bringing shared information into the decision-making center and collectively arriving at a course of action where all participants have shared responsibility for outcomes. This book is indeed revolutionary. --Enith Williams, international business consultant and Member, World Ladies Group Peer-to-Peer Leadership may make for uncomfortable reading in organizations reliant on hierarchy. Mila Baker describes and ably exemplifies an organizational peer-to-peer archetype requiring fundamental changes to organizations: to their leadership and their design. Thought provoking--the debate the book is sure to raise is exactly what a peer-to-peer organization would want to start to remodel itself. --Patricia Cichocki, founder, Design to Change, and coauthor of Organization Design Mila Baker's new peer-to-peer model of leadership is designed from the viewpoint that individuals are autonomous, collaborative, self-reliant, and able and willing to deal with changing circumstances to forward the purpose of their organization. Treat everyone as a leader and the organization will strengthen and grow--Baker's book shows how. --Peter Roche, cofounder and Managing Partner, The London Perret Roche Group Mila Baker really nails it in Peer-to-Peer Leadership. She shows leaders how they can unleash the power in their organizations by sharing information openly and freely. This book may make some leaders uncomfortable, but those who will succeed in the 21st century will embrace its cutting-edge ideas and put them to work. --Bud Bilanich, The Common Sense Guy, author and career mentor The paradigm for effective leadership is changing. Companies can no longer rely on single individuals. And teams are not always best suited to address every situation. Fortunately, Mila Baker offers both practical and provocative insights leaders and followers alike can use to lead in an era of globalization, proliferating technology, and nonstop dialogue with customers--what she calls the 'peer-to-peer approach.' --Claudy Jules, Global Lead, Human Capital Strategy, Accenture Are you ready to rethink your notions of leadership and organization design? In this thought-provoking book, Mila Baker gets us to examine the way organizations really function and the way leadership works in a world where collaboration is king. Using examples from politics, business, computing, and education, Mila helps you explore what it means to be a leader and a follower in a networked world. Read this book from cover to cover; you will be glad you did. --Dick and Emily Axelrod, authors of the forthcoming Time Well Spent Equipotency. Take a good look at that word. P2P architecture, as well as your future and mine, is built upon it. Equipotency, node communities, and the 'new' relational dynamics you'll learn about in this book aren't theory. Far from it. They're here now. Box up the old gadgets before it's too late. What an amazing book! I can't wait to buy a full case to share. --David Sanford, author, speaker, consultant, and Director of Institutional Marketing, Corban University Mila Baker has conceived a powerful 21st-century model of human organization. Of particular interest is the fluidity of leading and following when team members work in 'equipotent, ' nonhierarchical relationships. She helps us see and understand the evolution that is occurring in our lifetime and how to harness its full potential. --Ira Chaleff, author of The Courageous Follower A revolution in the concept of leadership is afoot. Baker's paradigm-shattering insight into the nature of peer networking redefines the whole field of leadership studies by illustrating that modern leadership is a characteristic of groups that function more like a peer-to-peer computer network than a command-and-control hierarchy. --Tom Thomson, Adjunct Professor, New York University Applying lessons learned from technology and social media, Mila Baker's Peer-to-Peer Leadership breaks new ground in presenting how peer-to-peer interactions can fundamentally change organizations. A must-read. --Frederick A. Miller, CEO, and Judith H. Katz, Executive Vice President, The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, Inc., and coauthors of The Inclusion Breakthrough and Opening Doors to Teamwork and Collaboration

Author Information

Mila Baker is director of leadership and human capital management programs and academic chair of the MS in human resource management and organization development program at New York University's School for Continuing and Professional Studies. She has served in senior HR and leadership positions at Fortune 500 companies and as a senior consultant/advisor at the World Bank. @MilaBakerNYC

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