The leader recently presented at the ConnectingUp Conference in Sydney and I as a devout follower was lucky enough to witness his genius. For those who weren’t holding the golden ticket, here is the audio of his sermon. His sermon is also available here

The storytelling by the Leader is tres inspiring and his message, in short, was ‘It can’t be controlled’. Leader – you were controlling me for those 30 minutes.  Key phrases I hastily scribbled down included “the rules have changed”, “hyper-intelligence; pooling of learning”, “entire nature of power has changed”, “cloud = hyper-connection”, “the cloud is organic in growth”, “the cloud can become a storm if pushed” and so on.

While his choice of a ‘genius’ brown jacket over casual top was good, I was hoping for a jumper. Perhaps even a stripy jumper. No matter, there’s always next week’s New Inventors…sidetracked, back to his sermon.

Leader’s assertion was that the move from stagnant, one-way control to organic and community-based engagement and empowerment is already here. Organisations and indeed mainstream media outlets holding onto the old ‘tower of power’, who seek to control what is said about them from spokespeople and ‘approved’ message sticks, need to reassess the way they engage. Clouds of hyper-communities with common interests and common goals are fast becoming the balance of power. The Clouds are organically evolving to continually share information and opinion, with influence coming from 360 degrees and not simply from the top. The Cloud is constantly reforming, and one cannot simply ‘remove’ a leader to mitigate agitators as the Cloud will replace the lost voice with 5 or so new members to take their place. And, once the Cloud is empowered with a single-minded proposition, an issue which seeks attention, the Cloud becomes a storm of action….

Phew… best 30 minutes of my trip to Sydney right there.