Mommy, what's a Chautauqua?

More great stuff via the WorkingStories listserv. This time an invitation to join a Virtual Chautauqua. "Chautau-what?" you ask.

Seth Kahan is facilitating the latest Chautauqua; the topic, his new book, Building Beehives: A Handbook for Creating Communities that Generate Returns.

Inside the main tent Seth too, talks about the democratisation of information and the implications for teachers:

It is now the case, with the coming of the Internet into living rooms worldwide, that any first- or second-grader can show up in the classroom knowing more than about a wide variety of subjects than a teacher can hope to understand… What is the teacher's role now? It is no longer to be the bearer of knowledge, but to be a guide in the learner's quest. Here, then, is an apt metaphor for our new organization's changes.

He goes on to make a plea for a leadership model congruent with our complex world:

We must ask our leaders, our managers, our boards, our directors, to take on new roles that are appropriate to a model of distributed leadership. This is not pie-in-the-sky fantasy. This is the reality of staying abreast of change in a complex world.

Finally Seth provides a link to a thought-provoking paper contrasting two "new leadership" models with very different theoretical underpinnings.

Update: Seth's thoughts appear in almost the same words on his blog, although registering for the Virtual Chautauqua is well worthwhile. Past Chautauqua facilitators include Steve Denning, Brian Alger and Johnnie Moore!