Redesigning Leadership (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) 1st Edition

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When designer and computer scientist John Maeda was tapped to bepresident of the celebrated Rhode Island School of Design in 2008, he had to learnhow to be a leader quickly. He had to transform himself from a tenuredprofessor--with a love of argument for argument's sake and the freedom toexperiment--into the head of a hierarchical organization. The professor is free tospeak his mind against "the man." The college president is "theman." Maeda has had to teach himself, through trial and error, aboutleadership. In Redesigning Leadership, he shares his learning process. Maeda, writing as an artist and designer, a technologist, and a professor, discussesintuition and risk-taking, "transparency," and all the things that aconversation can do that an email can't. In his transition from MIT to RISD he findsthat the most effective way to pull people together is not social networking butfree food. Leading a team? The best way for a leader to leverage the collectivepower of a team is to reveal his or her own humanity. Asked if he has stoppeddesigning, Maeda replied (via Twitter) "I'm designing how to talkabout/with/for our #RISD community." Maeda's creative nature makes him adifferent sort of leader--one who prizes experimentation, honest critique, andlearning as you go. With Redesigning Leadership, he uses his experience to reveal anew model of leadership for the next generation of leaders.About The AuthorGraphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist John Maeda is President of the Rhode Island School of Design and founder of the SIMPLICITY Consortium at the MIT Media Lab. His work has been exhibited in Tokyo, New York, London, and Paris andis in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Smithsonian Institution National Design Award in the United States, the Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize in Germany, and the Mainichi Design Prize in Japan.