This video makes a very interesting point about the importance of the first follower. This man starts dancing and he looks like a fool until he gets his first followers, then a chain reaction is started until the whole park is dancing. One by one, people join this dance in a rush of mass insanity. I find this video to be an incredible metaphor for leadership. After all, isn’t leadership a dance? You have to learn the right moves, and someone has to want to dance with you. You look silly dancing by yourself, just as a leader looks foolish trying to lead when no one is following. A good dancer can spread his/her dance like a wildfire. Once the dance is caught, it cannot be squelched. Dance is powerful and contagious. It is also incredibly fun. A good leader can cast a vision that spreads like wildfire, and as the leader leads his/her people, they start to dance like the leader, and just as the dance is fun, people get caught up in the excitement of following something bigger than themselves. When the dance in this video started, it was one man, alone. He could not have continued for long without a follower. After the first handful of followers came, people started coming in groups until the masses were flocking to the leader/dancer to become part of something bigger than themselves. He began as a dancer, but he ended up starting a movement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ
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ReplyDeleteI appreciate the creativity of discussing leadership through the metaphor of dance. It also makes me think how often someone starts to do something on their own, and their enthusiasm is so contagious that they attract others without consciously attempting to do so. In the church, we often decide to take on something new and appoint a leader when often it is the person who just starts something they have a passion for that draws others into their ministry by virtue of their enthusiasm and commitment. This is leadership that rises from the bottom rather than is imposed from the top and I think there is a definite lesson for us. We need to let leadership emerge more organically than we often do.
ReplyDeleteThe other valuable lesson from this video that you point out is the willingness of the leader (and by extension the first followers) to look foolish. Leaders are often given a vision or idea that no one else can initially recognize the value of or discern the relevance of, yet it is critical that the leader step out boldly in pursuit of the vision. If the leader does not kindle for the fire, there is no opportunity for a spark to ignite.