LEADERSHIP FOR THE INFORMATION RENAISSANCE: CLARITY, CHALLENGES, OPPORTUNITY : Adding Value
In This article, the author, Dr Gillette, tries to come up with a model that would define leadership in context of today’s period which he likes to define as the information renaissance era. He has divided the article into five main sections:
1. Context of our era -Welcome to the Information Renaissance: The word Renaissance means Rebirth or Revival. The author suggests this name for our era as he proposes that “historic events work out on a concept of increasing returns”, or put to it simply, “One even leads to another” (Leadership for the Information Renaissance, Dr Gillette, p.3). He implies that this era is based on the learnings and achievements that happened in the era before. He further suggests that this era is in no way an information revolution period as revolutions are often dramatic and come to an end abruptly. He states that this era is actually a post revolutionary era. He calls it so as this is when whatever has been attained in revolutionary period can be explored and learned more about.
Additionally, according to the author, this era is most like the European Renaissance period which is discussed in detail in the next section.
2. Characteristics of the European and Information Renaissances: According to the author, the Renaissance times are described as the times of “encouraging positives and distressing negatives”. Positive as new inventions and discoveries are happening leading to major progresses in all fields. On the other hand, the negative is that the old models are not ready to give way to the new ones and henceforth are now fighting back with the weapons of the new. As Dr Gillette puts it, “Renaissance times are times of reformation and counter-reformation. They are the times of revolution and counter-revolution.” (Leadership for the Information Renaissance, Dr Gillette, p.5)
The author tries to draw parallels between the two eras and has come up with some distinct similarities and differences between the European Renaissance and Information Renaissance.
He states that in the European Renaissance period, the publishing technologies were the important inventions and in this era it’s the information and communication technologies that take the importance.
Furthermore, the European era was characterized by explorations and new discoveries just like this era.
However, in the European Renaissance period, it was the trade that came first and then the information followed. However, in today’s era, it’s the information that comes first and trade followed it.
Additionally, in the European Renaissance humans were viewed as “homo faber”, which means “man the maker”. The human is seen as the maker of himself, the society etc. On the other hand, in today’s era humans are defined as “homo sapiens”, which the author translates as “human the knower”, hence emphasizing the importance of information and knowledge. (Leadership for the Information Renaissance, Dr Gillette, p.7)
3. Information Renaissance Success for Individuals and Organizations: The author suggests that in order to succeed in today’s times; we need to be Renaissance men or women just like Leonardo da Vinci and Vittoiria Colonna of the earlier era. We need to continuously keep learning all our life.
The author says that Renaissance person should be a “T-person”. He/she should be “both broadly comprehensive (the T-crossbar), as well as deeply competent (the T-base)-in one complete person”. (Leadership for the Information Renaissance, Dr Gillette, p.9) These attributes help make a person adaptable to any change and gives the professional Utility so that the person can “prosper by adding value”. These, henceforth, help in both personal and professional success.
Furthermore, the author suggests to, “Add knowledge-value to everything that you touch.” Knowledge-value is the coined by the author Taichi Sakaiya. Sakaiya defines it as “the price of, and the value created by, wisdom; and the worth, or price, a society gives to that wisdom.” (Leadership for the Information Renaissance, Dr Gillette, p.10)
Dr Gillette explains this by giving example of Mercedes-Benz, a high end vehicle. He says that these vehicles are not essentially better than their competitors. However, they command higher prices in the market because of their creative wisdom. Hence, an organization should add knowledge value in everything, be its products or services.
4. Information Networking as the Key Component in a Knowledge-Value Society: Out of all the forms of knowledge, information is the key component. The author says that there are two parts of information. One is outside part, that is the news or data that you get from outside. Second part is how this data is converted into information in your mind which further helps you to form ideas and hence get informed.
The author suggests that it’s the information networking that is most important for this era. Information networking comprises of Information, that is the message; and communication, that is the medium used to transmit the message.
The author here comes up with a model that explains how we move and use the information. According to this model, the primary categories of information networking are Access, Filtering, Storage, Retrieval, and Using. These are the main ways of dealing with information.
5. Conclusions and Recommendations: In the end, the author recommends
• To have full confidence in the future and lead with this confidence.
• To succeed in this renaissance era by taking ideas from the European Renaissance men and women.
• To prosper by seeking knowledge and adding value to everything that we touch.
• And last but not the least, use information networking to use the knowledge we have constructively and discover new information that we can put to use. Hence, “sharpen our skills”.
REFERENCES:
• Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity, Dr Jay Edwin Gillette