Leaders must transform organizations into catalysts for connection
You might remember the Ice Bucket Challenge. Or you might not. Because the Ice Bucket Challenge disappeared almost as quickly as it came. In the heady summer of 2014, throwing a gallon of freezing water over the head of oneself or another was en vogue. Some 2.4 million tagged videos appeared on Facebook as the challenge went viral worldwide. A cool $115 million was raised for health charities in that year alone.
Today, shocking your system with freezing liquid might seem an odd way to raise cash for your favorite cause: most folk have reverted to traditional pursuits, like running, cycling or baking cakes. But for a moment, the Ice Bucket Challenge was where it was at: a dare that defined the zeitgeist; a shared experience that gripped the world.
The story tells an important truth about how times have changed. The attention economy is now the echo chamber of our life. The platforms never were the products: the data we generate is where the value always lay. And this has a profound effect on leaders’ roles.
In times past, movements were led by a spearhead – great leaders with the magnetism to spur people to industry, innovation and invention. Today, movements are dispersed, not centralized; quicker to assemble, easier to scale, faster to fade. What once occurred in an eon, now happens in a heartbeat.
Thus, the leaders who will survive – and thrive – are those who command not adulation, but attention. Leadership today is founded on the ability to connect with people on their own terms. In the attention economy, leaders become influencers that can inspire others to find their own way to success, rather than lay the path down in front of them.
The shift to an attention economy has its genesis in the Covid era. Starved of physical contact with friends and colleagues, people devised new ways to connect. Consider the rise – and subsequent fall – of Clubhouse. Clubhouse was
an app in which users were invited to talk in a virtual space of like-minded people. It came and went more quickly, even, than the Ice Bucket Challenge. It was a response to a clear and present need: in a period devoid of connection, characterized by loneliness, professionals found a way to foster a sense of community.
Podcasts have existed since 2004. Yet, similarly, they exploded during the pandemic when people craved companionship and entertainment during isolation. The concept worked – and their appeal has endured.
In the attention economy, people will seek comradeship and connection however and wherever they can find it. It is as true of customers as it is of employees. Where once leaders were the focus of attention, they are now its enabler. Strategy has been replaced by transformation: the need to identify customers’ changing needs, grab their attention, connect with them. Part of leaders’ brief is an emotional audit – gauging the gap between the assets we have and those we need to command the attention of the people we work and trade with. Unlike strategy, which was devised then delivered, transformation is ever-present. It is the new constant.
As the erstwhile fans of the Ice Bucket Challenge might attest, attention can be intense. Yet it is but fleeting. In the attention economy, leaders must renew continually to make a splash.
Vishal Patel is president of global markets at Duke Corporate Education
