Why Do I Love Better Webinars So Much? (Hint: Leadership…)

I love it! When I host a webinar and people are knee-deep in interesting conversation with each other, I feel happy and realize the potential that this technology has to facilitate the work of bringing people together to learn and to be in relationship, facilitating dialogue.

For me, there’s no better way to experience the old paradigm of leadership with its model of the leader as the hero, the expert (individualistic, past-oriented, hierarchical, directive, authority-based) then when you’re stuck in a virtual class with a dull presenter or a speaker full of himself.

But the new leader knows that new leadership 2.0 involves hosting, based on the ability to embrace and deal with new learning. This kind of learning is an encounter with experience, with others, with self, with past, with future. It is in line with the model of shared leadership— the “we” as collective intelligence  (group-oriented, future-oriented, egalitarian, non-directive, inclusive). In this work how we are with each other online becomes key, the glue holding all our ideas together.

When I host better webinars I’m shocked by the power of online hosting in exploring our narratives as a way to reaffirm values, purpose and energy towards a goal. Imagine the power of this work for a team.

What would a webinar look like if the people were willing to engage with each other with questions like:

1. How are we with each other?
2. What kind of conversations can we have?
3. How are these conversations and inquiry purposeful and intentional, open and yet focused?

After the hero myth of leadership and its way of teaching and holding webinars, what’s the new story emerging here, “live” in our online sessions hosted using dialogue and conversations?