Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

I'll start with the best bit - Chapter 9. This promotes the idea that the changes with the greatest potential rewards also tend to have a significant risk of failure, and as a result, failure needs to be handled sensibly, without unnecessary persecution and blame.

It's also the main chapter that does look at all at what to do when things go wrong. While the rest of the book talks about how to evaluate how open you are as a company and as a manager (the assumption throughout the book being that you are relatively senior in the company, not a social networking evangelist lower down the ladder), and benefits that you can see from being more open, there is a shortage of discussion of how it can go wrong.

Throughout the book there are plenty of discussions of open strategies followed by companies like Dell (in fact Chapter 10 reiterates most of them a second time), highlighting how a company managed to become more responsive and more able to deal with an unfolding crisis through being more open.

My main issue is that it doesn't apply the same treatment to the flip side - what issues have arisen because a company became more open, what the risks really are, and how the companies being discussed addressed that. It's too focussed on promoting the open leadership style.

A slightly more minor issue is that it's very focussed on large brands and companies - the kinds of ones where an issue written about by a blogger might manage to hit the news sites. I've no doubt that the majority of execs looking at books like this work for rather smaller companies, where that kind of exploding negative publicity is much less likely, yet there was no discussion about how different sizes of company might as a result have different pressures to be more open.

That said, there are plans and checklists for working out how open you want your company to be, and how open you already are, and if you're wanting to adopt a more open approach, then it will provide reference material for justifying it also. In the sense that a book like this may be largely 'preaching to the choir' and more putting existing ideas of increasing openness on a more solid footing, it serves that purpose well.

I wouldn't necessarily consider it any kind of definite work on business planning, nor compulsory reading, but there are enough anecdotes and plans and so on to make it solid enough to have merit for anyone who is looking at their social networking strategy. The writing style is friendly and doesn't get too bogged down in detail, so it is a book that you can read through relatively quickly for a business-focussed text. It also references website resources to offer further support in implementing a strategy.

So, all in all, good, but not great. A relatively easy read, but more for managers already interested in a social networking strategy than anyone else.

Two years ago Charlene Li and her former colleague Josh Bernoff published a book called the Groundswell, which helped to explain to marketers how social media affected consumers relationships with organisations and brands for marketers. The book became a must-read for marketing directors around the world and helped many of think about how they thought about opening their marketing activity to online.

This time around Li's target audience is the managing director or CEO who wants to get some ideas on how they get their arms the social world putting in place organisational changes to address the social world. Only part of the book is about social media, much of it would ring true to students of modern management theory with themes of transparency, empowerment, bottom - up management and `open' organisations. All of which as themes pre-dated the social media explosion, but have been further validated by it.

Li continues to write an an accessible, easy-to-read style. If you know your Facebook from your Twitter, this probably won't tell you anything that you don't already know, but it will give you a structure to hang all your knowledge on. However it is worthwhile reading if you want to know what ideas the boss is likely to be kicking around next.

Firstly, Id just like to say that it'd be a great experience to meet Charelene and have brunch with her. Why do I say that? Well, her style of rhetoric is ENGAGING. Some may say that's essential for a writer, which i concur. However, when writing about subjects such as marketing and newer technology based concepts related to working methodologies, a lot of related material can seem like hard work simply cause it can become a bit dry and arid in its tone. It's not the fault of any writer per se, but more the subject at hand. Marketing and business, like maths, is something that is best learned BY DOING, rather than sitting through hundreds of pages READING about the subject. This perhaps explains why a lot of marketing seminars are so popular. Business is about REAL TIME interactivity, so seminars are usually pacey , and (hopefully) interactive and/or engaging.

Charlene Li's OPEN LEADERSHIP was of interest to me as i run a couple of businesses. Not on the scale of the organisations mentioned in the book, but for all my embracing of technology - which im currently addressing in an article for an american publication - I also used to find that social networking was sometimes bit flakey in execution, and could be a little more than an aimless self aggrandising tool without "bottom line" rewards. Maybe that's still a prevalent attitude to business and self promotion, which has its plusses and obvious minuses, but in this day and age, social networking tools are there to be utilised, and considering most are free to use, then why not use them?

Charlene makes a lively and entertaining narrator on this subject. She covers some very well known world leading brands to illustrate their progress through the journey of adopting AND adapting to this way of working. She also makes some very salient points about progressing at a pace , and the most useful point ( in my opinion) of not being afraid to FAIL on the way.

So why haven't I given it five stars? Well, like most books on marketing, it can get a little technical here and there. Having studied marketing at degree level, i can remember a lot of diagrammatical conceptualisation. Thankfully Charlene doesnt go down that route too much. However, the aforementioned dryness , which is due to the mechanics of business methodologies DOES creep in, making the text a little hard to ingest sometimes. Having said that, considering that the book (without the useful appendicies), is only 270 pages of linear reading material, Charlene has done an exceptional job of distilling the useful essences requisite to the subject.

In effect, this book is great reading for a large percentage of people. Wether you're an academic looking for further insight on the subject, a business person looking to get into social networking tools to enhance your business bottom line, OR even a social networking fan who may be looking into how your passion can work to helping you get into business, id recommend this wholeheartedly.

It's never too late to get into anything, especially newer creative technologies. On that basis, id say pick up a copy of this book right now; you wont regret it.