Read:  Future of Management Part I

Website: http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/articles/matter.html

(This will give you excellent background into the dialogue that ensued in much of the IT & Education community)

Blog: How can management be innovative? Does it then become leadership? Where do the lines intersect between management and leadership?

Synchronous Session: Discuss the role of IT in change- is it a promoter or inhibitor of change?

Portfolio Activity: Begin developing a resource section, with links to key resources, sites, etc you find useful to share with other. Post at least three resources.

Project Activity: None!

Blog:

I’ve heard it said that managers take people where they want to go while leaders take people where they need to go.  I’ve thought this was an interesting distinguishment.  But does it really matter?  I don’t think so.  I think a janitor could be a leader given the opportunity.  Leadership is an intrinsic gift, not an external circumstance.  That said, here are the challenges for innovative management:

Challenge 1 – Creating a democracy of ideas
Challenge 2 – Amplifying human imagination
Challenge 3 – Dynamically reallocating resources
Challenge 4 – Aggregating collective wisdom
Challenge 5 – Minimizing the drag of old mental models
Challenge 6 – Giving everyone a chance to opt in

Particularly useful are the examples of Gore, Whole Foods and Google whose founders ignored business school dogma to invent a modular, relevant future for their organizational vision.