Rod Collins
Tell us about yourself. Why did you start writing?
In addition to being an author and a keynote speaker, I am a management consultant who works with forward-thinking leaders who understand that managing great change means changing how they manage. I help businesses learn how to access the most untapped resource in every organization – the collective knowledge of their own people – and then to use this rich resource as a catalyst to make a leap to extraordinary performance.
I began writing because I had a deep need to synthesize the principles that were the basis for a remarkable and unprecedented turnaround during my own corporate experience. As the former chief executive of a $19 billion business alliance, I watched our business end two decades of no-growth and low performance by abandoning a 19th century management and embracing a radically different 21st century alternative.
Tell us about your book and how it came into being.
Leadership in a Wiki World details why top-down hierarchies are rapidly giving way to
Leadership in a Wiki World
peer-to-peer networks. In these first decades of the Digital Age, we are discovering that we can connect with large numbers of people without needing to go through a central organization. This newfound capacity for mass collaboration has made networks far smarter and faster than hierarchies, which means that the power to connect now trumps the power to be in control, as we recently witnessed in Egypt. The purpose of this book is to document this profound change in the dynamics of organizational power.
Tell us about your decision to independently publish.
I originally began this book project with the idea that I would traditionally publish. However, I found most traditional publishers married to the mindset of longstanding 20th century business models. Thus, they couldn’t comprehend the benefits of an overview of a completely different management model. They were interested in “how to” books that focused on one aspect of management.
After continually meeting this resistance, I realized, in a moment of clarity, that a book about 21st century management was meant to be written using a 21st century business model, and so I decided to independently publish using the new technology of our Digital Age.
What has your experience been with CIPA?
For me CIPA has been an invaluable resource. Being new to both the writing and the publishing businesses, CIPA provided a wealth of information at a time of need. The monthly meetings, roundtables, and the CIPA College gave me a firm grounding as I pursued the challenges of a completely new line of work. Because of CIPA, I felt well prepared!
What’s next for you and your book?
I’m converting the content of the book into other marketable products. For example, I’ve recently turned Leadership in a Wiki World into a keynote speech that is gaining some traction. I am in the process of building a three-day seminar program around the book’s key principles. And finally, the book has led to an invitation to participate on a panel of management innovators at the upcoming conference, Revolutionizing the Workplace, in Washington, DC on May 12 & 13.
How can readers find your book?
Readers can find Leadership in a Wiki World by visiting my website at http://wiki-management.com or by searching on Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com
Rod Collins is the author of Leadership in a Wiki World: Leveraging Collective Knowledge to Make the Leap to Extraordinary Performance, 2011 EVVY Award for Business/Finance, 1st Place. Rod’s website is www.wiki-management.com and he can be reached at rodcollins@wiki-management.com
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