The Dance

As the first week of summer holidays draws to a close, so does the first Learning Experience in the online summer course I am taking.  We've been learning all about taking on a leadership role in our school with respect to the integration of technology.  One of the earliest tasks was to watch a video called, The First Follower. The narrator in this video spoke about the role of the leader as well as the often hugely important role of the first followers in making a movement happen. The video shows a lone shirtless man in the middle of a field, doing an unusual dance.  Others are just watching him, probably not so sure what to make of him, until first one person, then a few others join in.  After that, everyone around the shirtless man and his first followers join the dance.  This, the narrator explains, is how  movements are begun.  If one compares a movement to a fire, the leader is the flint and the first followers are the sparks that ignite the movement.

As I have gone through this week, completed various activities, learned from my instructor and learned from my peers, this example stayed in the back of my mind at all times.  I came to realize, that movements and people's roles in them are more complex than a simple structure of leader, first followers and later followers.  Throughout the week, leadership roles keep switching from one person in our course to another.  Each time someone posts an idea that hasn't been mentioned previously, they, like the dancer in the video, take center stage for a while.  Then once the first classmates read and respond to the post, they, like the first followers in the video who affected the direction of the dance, become important to the direction of the online discussion.

No one can lead all the time.  Truly effective leaders often take a step back to learn from others and then in another setting apply what they have learned, but put their own spin on things.  Thus a first follower or even later follower in one context may become a leader in another context.  Leaders, it seems are not born, they are made.  In fact they are made and re-made with every new dance.