Linden Lab has decided not to sponsor SL9B this year. As expected, the SL community is debating whether this is a good thing, a bad thing, both, or a non-event. I’ll give you the link to Honour’s post and you can blog-hop from there if you want. Let me get this part out of the way: I have mixed emotions and thoughts. I can argue all those points of view. That immediately disqualifies me from the conversation, imho. 🙂
So why am I posting on this issue if I’m not discussing it directly? I attended a presentation the other day that I found very interesting, informative, and I think it relates to the LL/SL9B situation. The presentation was by David J. Lanners on Ethical Influence. Most of the talk was on working with other people, both on your team and people outside of your team. The part that resonated most strongly with me was Lanners’ summary of Abraham Zaleznik’s work on the difference between good managers and good leaders. I’m paraphrasing, but basically the point as I understood it was:
If you want things to stay the same, hire a good manager. If you want risk, innovation and change, hire a good leader.
As I do not have permission to share the slide nor the material directly, please understand that what I am posting here is my understanding of what was said and the notes I jotted down from the talk. Any mistakes or flaws in theory are mine.
Good managers are systematic and patient. They are objective and they compromise and reconcile differences. Leaders, by comparison, are emotional and subjective. They are uncompromising and intuitive and, interestingly, anxious. By the way – please note that a good leader is not “better” than a good manager, nor vice versa. They perform different functions.
I think that your reaction to LL/SL9B will be governed a lot by whether you think like a leader or think like a manager. Are you are looking for a leader or a manager for your SL experience?
I don’t know if I’m a leader or a manager. I think the best compliment I have ever received was from one of my mentors who said “She makes things happen.” I look at the adjectives for leaders and managers and I see myself on both lists and on neither list. *grin* But here’s my thinking at this moment….
Maybe a good manager might help at this stage. Someone who could find the proper person at LL with the authority to have a conversation. The manager could try to negotiate a compromise: LL provides sims and the residents (users) can run the event. It’s been done in the past (I believe for SL2B and SL3B). Once the manager changes LL support to limited LL sponsorship, it will be time for the leaders to stand up and bring SL9B on home.
Oh wait. I guess I DID comment directly 🙂
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