photo by LEGO minifigures

I like everything about being a ninja.  You are mysterious, super agile, capable of amazing moves and you wear a lot of black.  The last part of that is so me!  I am still working on the other stuff.

Being a network ninja is just as cool.  You need to discern and demystify network activity, insights to understand inner network structure and the often underestimated task of managing the context of the network.  Try doing all of that and looking cool.

What is your network

The network is your world.  The world you are changing and making better.  The place you are a leader.  Being a network ninja is being a great leader.

Here’s a great quote from Patti Anklam’s blog:

“Collaboration is an organizational imperative of 21st century.
Networks of relationships are the ultimate resource.
It takes work to create and sustain effective networks.
This is Net Work.”

She wrote a guest post about leadership in the networked world on Beth Kanter’s Blog, one of my favorite daily reads, which inspired me to share some of the points she made with you.  Here’s how she describes the three levels of network leadership:

Leaders also need to work at three levels of network: the personal, the organizational, and the ecosystem in which the organization lives.

Without a strong and diverse personal network, a leader will lack the ability to influence decisions, be unable to bring expertise into the organization as needed, and may not have the emotional resources required to thrive in a complex environment. Leaders need to learn how to cultivate their personal networks, and know when and how to manage the time required to maintain these networks.

The organizational network is best served by a leader who can manage the “net work of leadership:” that is, they create the capacity in others to understand and work in networks and they know how to steward the network by creating conditions for networks to emerge and succeed. These include intentional “weaving” of organizations by developing joint project work, initiating linkages between organizations, creating incentives for people to collaborate across boundaries, and so on.

Successful leaders know that the organization does not succeed or fail on its own, that it is part of an ecosystem of groups and organization that extend well past the boundaries of the corporate hierarchy or even its formal partnership agreements. This value network, or web of formal and informal relationships that must be managed, is the third level of network a leader needs to understand and articulate.

To be adept at all three levels requires the metaphoric skills of a ninja.  The ninjahood, the empowering of ninja networks, the place of the ninja in the universe.

Bruce Lee’s Cousin

When I was a graduate student taking the No. 1 train up to 125th street late at night, I wore a beat up black leather jacket and told everyone Bruce Lee was my cousin.  I wanted to be ninja-worthy and save the world from the bad guys even while I was in music school.  Most of the time people believed me, except for once when my Chopin Preludes  fell out of my bag.  It’s hard to look like you can kick butt when you’re running late to a piano lesson.

But I digress.

You need only to embrace the focus and the commitment to excellence that are characteristic of a ninja and apply that to your work as a creative leader in this networked world we live in.  With that, and your individual passion and vision, we can truly change the world, one ninja at a time.

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