Notes from Remzi Cej’s talk at MSLC 2013

“Leaderless Leadership: Leading in the 21st century”

Fish and birds choose their leaders, just like us!

… except they don’t wait an electoral term. Switching happens rapidly, as soon as the context changes or the expected results weren’t found.

The way we think about ourselves (and, perhaps, our opponents) strongly shapes the way we think about our world. We have a tendency to simplify - to separate the world into binaries of us vs. them - but this is limiting. It changes the way we see the world into a dichotomy which isn’t truly representative of the way the world really works.  It is simply more complex.

Similarly, we separate the “us” into leaders and followers - but is this a genuine understanding of how -we- work?

Quote: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment if destiny.”  MLK Jr.
(Said just before “an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere”)

We have many challenges.  We have an inability to recognize the interconnectedness of the world. We have an apathy deriving from the false assumption that you have no power to change the world around you. We have a fear of responsibility, we don’t think it’s our problem, and we have a fear of failure.

So we need to adopt leaderless leadership. When a leader is no longer acting like one, it’s time for change. Leaderless leadership requires Learning (about problems facing you, your neighborhood, your community, your province, your country and your world), Empathy (with strangers as friends), Appreciation (of privilege/position, and of lack thereof) and Determination (to find the solutions, regardless of the potential challenges).

“El Mundo cambia con tu ejemple no con tu opinion” - The world changes with your example not with your opinion. (as seen on painted on a wall in

Look up Citizendium! One notable example of leaderless leadership (similar to Wikipedia).