Returning To Where We All Began
My dear cohort mates. You will be surprised as to where I find myself this Thursday evening desperately attempting to type up this blog post on Open Leadership. We have been in Ireland over the weekend and since Tuesday, in Wales truly enjoying ourselves at Willy and Liz’s home. We have been given the keys to both the car and the home as they flew out to Dubai. Learning to drive on the opposite side of the road has truly been a great motivation for new levels of prayer for both Michelle and I. But where am I tonight?
I am sitting in room 213 at the Lancaster YMCA hotel in London Bayswater district a short walk from the Paddington train station. Yes, the same place we all met each other a little over a year ago. Stay with me as it will end up dealing with this week’s topic of open leadership. I recently acquired a relationship with Airbnb.com. An online site that you can find private individuals who are renting beds out of their home for guest to stay a night, a week, or even months at a time. What a great thought! Save some money, meet new people, and get fed! What a deal. “So,” I say to the wife, “let’s give it a go and find a great place in London for the one night we will be there.” Eager to play along my wife agreed to give it a go.
The idea behind this is that an individual can list their room on the Airbnb.com site and then someone, like me, can find it and book it for the time I need to have a room. Michelle and I attempted to book a bed and breakfast with someone by the name of Victor who has placed his lovely apartment up for “renting” to those desiring to visit London. With this new age of social media Victor can place his apartment up for viewing and I can chose it as one among many options. Though his place was lovely and agreeable to the misses, I chose poorly. Victor delayed in replying with a confirmation. Without internet access on the train from Liz’s home in Wales we arrived at Paddington train station without confirmation as to whether or not Victor’s place was available. His “openness” to social reviews about his place reveled nothing but positive remarks. His ratings were high and his time of response always quick. With such high remarks and a great price we waited, a little too long we waited. Unfortunately, 26 hours later we realized that Victor had failed us. Attempting several other options in the Paddington train station, with limited Wi-Fi also fell through. But I remembered the Lancaster YMCA. So my friends, this is how my loving bride Michelle and I have come to experience the same accommodations that each of you partook in last September when this doctoral work of yours all began.
How does all this fit with Open Leadership by Charlene Li? I am glad you asked. You see, we are living in a new age of not just technology but of relationship as Li notes.[1] No longer can someone like Victor escape the dissatisfaction experienced by potential customers expecting responses. No, my friends, in today’s connected world where doing business is now synonymous with meaningful relationships, and marketing and communication is all about being open to the full expression of customer’s concern, there is going to be amplification of communication through the new dialog of this technological matrix.[2] Victor’s lack of fulfillment will be noted and will be expressed on his “open” site that all will read. His ratings will reflect the grief that he inflicted on this innocent traveling couple who just needed a place to lay their tired little heads tonight. Wrath shall be swift and direct as the open mic is implored by this weary traveler and his bedraggled wife.[3] Victor will have to prove, with a greater resolve, that he does in fact have the intangibles of integrity, honesty, fairness, and respect for people that leaders of their own business/apartments to rent, must have in order to be in the position they aspire to attain.[4] Unlike Zappos, who offer their new trainees $2,000.00 plus their payment during their training to quite after their training, Airbnb.com does no such thing.[5] Thus, scoundrels like Victor can easily slip through the cracks and are allowed to list their homes to unsuspected victims like ourselves. Some companies will allow anyone in.
In today’s desire for openness by both those inside and outside the organization[6] I can actually make a difference to the way Airbnb.com handles such people of ill repute like the Victors out there. I can help the leadership of this organization to change the current policies that will not allow such treatment of potential customers. The key will be whether or not the leadership of Airbnb.com will allow the release of control in order to succeed in today’s culture of sharing and relational guided customer care. For indeed this is the definition of an open leader, one “having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals.”[7] Will Airbnb.com be an open organization with an open leadership that will hear from one of its customers? This is yet to be seen. For tonight I am in the Lancaster hotel reminiscing of our time together and making new memories with my lovely bride. Good night from London!
[1] Charlene Li, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010), 189.
[2] Ibid., 64.
[3] Ibid., 31.
[4] Ibid., 190.
[5] Ibid., 205.
[6] Ibid., 23.
[7] Ibid., 14.
About the Author
Mitch Arbelaez
International Mission Mobilizers with Go To Nations Living and traveling the world from Jacksonville Florida7 responses to “Returning To Where We All Began”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Mitch, you are an incredible writer! What an absolutely beautiful story you tell, and how appropriate to this week’s book! I found myself rejoicing and wishing I was with you at the Lancaster Hall, while at the same time, ready to jump on the next plane and give Victor a piece of my mind! I am surprised Airbnb.com has not entered into the Twitter or Facebook world, like many hotel chains (Marriott, Hilton, etc) and airlines (American, Delta, KLM, etc.), who answer a complaint or give appropriate response within minutes. In fact, I rather enjoy the flying experience with American more now than before. I love getting to the airport, tweeting with the customer service reps, and knowing my loyalty is valuable. It’s all part of the flying experience now, connecting customer with provider in the Twitter-verse through a 140 characters or less. …Now that you’ve had this experience and read this book, how will you incorporate social media into Mission Mobilizers? 🙂
Safe travels home, friend.
This is so great!
What a fun post…and I’m glad that you found a place to stay.
I love that you were able to weave it in seamlessly to our reading.
It will be interesting to see if Victor follows-up with you and whether there is some sense of reconciliation/compensation?
Perhaps you’ll need to make a video like the gentleman with United Air from our text…? 🙂
Anyhow…sleep well in London tonight.
Mitch,
Cool post! Loved it!
I must admit, I had good feelings when I read about where you ended up staying in London. I loved the Lancaster YMCA and I loved the Paddington area. I liked it better than Cape Town. I only have good memories from our London Advance. But this is fodder for another post.
Bummer about Victor. He was all “talk” without follow through. It was not about relationship with him; it was about something else. Maybe we have become too quick to believe everything we see on the Internet; I think I have. Your points about Airbnb.com are pretty right on. It would be way cool if you end up helping them to “get it.” I hope that you will give them (and Victor) some honest feedback soon. We will then see how open they really are.
Mitch,
Nice trip down memory lane. Thanks for taking us back and I’m glad it worked out for you and your wife. Didn’t we have wifi troubles at the Lancaster too? Sounds like you visit overall has been a wonderful experience and I’m sure a welcome opportunity for you both.
As far as connection with our reading goes, I wonder if Victor is relying on the fact that it is also easy to downplay a bad review on the internet. There are many ways to spin negative feedback in open spaces that we can’t do face to face. It’s an interesting dilemma that won’t easily be fixed. Enjoy your travels!
Mitch, I like how you relate this week’s reading with your experience in London. It is too bad Victor failed to reply you and hope the rest of your time went well. Now you have a chance to comment on his site to help him realize his failure☺ You are so right “we are living in a new age of not just technology but of relationship.” I think as leaders in ministry, we need to look at social technologies as medium to build relationship as well as a mean to hold service-providing organizations accountable. Save travels to home!
Ah Mitch! My heart warmed when I thought of you enjoying our lovely home for a week and where we all met. And as you wrote, I thought of another feedback anecdote. Have you seen the post (its been floating around the interweb) about how a restaurant owner responded to a very negative and lengthy Yelp review. The customer was upset that the restaurant did not deliver food to their business meeting. The restaurant owner posted an apology, and also (in a gracious but tongue-in-cheek tone) noted that the restaurant was a high end place that did not have a catering or take out menu or service. It was a feature that they had opted against so that they could be excellent at what the did focus on. Now Victor (that scoundrel!) has no excuse. He needed to be prompt. And he left my friend Mitch standing with his bride at Paddington Station (how dare he!). But part of the open world also requires us to have a gracious and professional response for those who accuse us without warrant. It is the very fear that many have about social media – you can’t control it. But you can indeed respond with wisdom. And when we post our complaint, we darn well be be certain that we really had a valid complaint.
I hope that you had LOVELY time for your night in London. Peace be with you my friend.
Mitch, what a wonderful post. I am jealous that you got to relive the memories, and I didn’t. But I must ask, was I a better roomy than Michelle? Ok, don’t answer that…I don’t think I can handle the truth! You obviously did a brilliant job of tying in your travel experiences (which I really enjoyed hearing about) with the reading this week. It all comes back to this idea that we truly live in a very different world then even 10 years ago. I remember my first mission trip I took with my campus ministry over 30 years ago and the logistics of setting up an international trip when all you had was expensive long distant calls and travel agents to book tickets. Now, as you mention, we can book rooms in private rooms and critic them for others. It is truly amazing how far we’ve come, and to realize the potential for good and for evil that this presents. Glad to have a wonderful cohort to help navigate this challenging times. Have a blessed Thanksgiving week, my friend!