Yesterday we discussed the importance of emotional resonance with regard to effectively reaching an audience (ala Ze Frank). Resonance is an imperative tool for organizers to strive to comprehend, especially when trying to encourage or inspire any sort of group action.

Primal Leadership: The Ascent of Resonance-Consciousness

In 2005, David Goleman authored a book entitled Primal Leadership (co-authored with Annie McKee and Richard Boyatzis) that recognized the significance of resonant leadership. Done wrong, the style appears to be what Michael Scott of The Office is often sloppily fumbling to emulate—the maintenance of a stale, “authentic” connection to his employees. Done right, maintaining a sense of emotional resonance with a base of people requires of the leader the cultivation of emotional intelligence.

The website Values Based Management has a page devoted to Goleman’s concentration on resonance and his leadership styles. It breaks down the assessment of the resonant leader:

“Effective leaders are attuned to other people’s feelings and move them in a positive emotional direction.They speak authentically about their own values, direction and priorities and resonate with the emotions of surrounding people. Under the guidance of an effective leader, people feel a mutual comfort level. Resonance comes naturally to people with a high degree of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management) but involves also intellectual aspects.”

Ze Frank: Resonance Conscious

We spoke yesterday about resonance in the context of Ze Frank and his assertion that it is one of the most important variables when connecting with a crowd. Frank recently put an open call out (via twitter) for folks who were down with giving up their Facebook profiles – and handing them over to him for a week. He received so many responses to his request that he had to take it down nearly immediately. Again, Ze Frank “gets it,” and in the context of this more in-depth study on resonance, it becomes clear that by saying he “gets it,” I am very likely implying that Frank:

1. Has a high emotional intelligence.
2. Knows how to translate said emotional intelligence into a connection/trust with his fellow Twitter users so strong that they are willing to grant him access to their Internet identities – something many of us try hard to keep out of the hands of strangers.

“Resonant Leader Is One in Tune with Himself, Others”

After the release of Primal Leadership, USA Today also looked at Goleman’s take on leadership and resonance. The article, Resonant Leader Is One in Tune with Himself, Others, describes the resonant leader as “in tune with him or herself, and the people they work with.”

The article offers the following conditions for being a resonant leader:

• Mindfulness. The awareness of what is really happening within your body, mind, heart and spirit, while paying attention to what is going on around you. [Mindfulness] can be gained from meditation, prayer, exercise, music and being in nature.
• Hope. They cite research describing hope as charting a course of action on clearly articulated goals, believing the goals can be met and eventually reaching them with a sense of well-being.
• Compassion. To be truly resonant with others, you must genuinely care about them.

Watching the projects Frank is involved with, from his daily webcast to his Color Wars project, he displays an immersion in each of these conditions. He is clearly mindful of himself, his performance, and his audience. His hope in his own projects is displayed clearly by how explicitly he defines and completes his goals (his show lasted for exactly one year). And finally, it is clear that Frank cares about the people who pay attention to him. He is compassionate. He takes time out for the people who recognize him on the street. He takes care to craft the activities he challenges them to engage it.

Organizing with Resonance

Establishing a sense of resonance and working on an increased emotional aptitude isn’t just for middle management and web personalities. Moving forward with any sort of group action, be it encouraging people to sign on to a petition or leading a walk-out, it is important to instill in fellow participants a sense of trust and authenticity. Establishing a sense of resonance with the people you’re trying to move, and the people with whom you are moving, is key for successfully getting any task done. While this may seem obvious, at a time where putting together and executing action appears as simple as clicking a mouse a few times, the importance of tailoring people skills might easily be lost by the wayside for some. In a world of millions of web-petitions, flash-mobs, and other one-off schemes, keeping the upper hand might be as simple as knowing who you are and where you’re coming from as well as knowing and caring about who you’re organizing.

-Filed in Ideas

I very recently had the pleasure of talking with Ze Frank, a web personality who continues to show that he “gets it” more than others [especially with regard to the art of communicating with and moving people online]. Frank is already well known to many for several handfuls of reasons, which include his year-long web show and, most recently, for co-hosting Color Wars, “an internet-wide game in which players from a number of self created teams compete for prizes and medals.” We discussed, in particular, the value of resonance with regard to capturing and motivating an audience, both on and off line.

Frank stressed that resonance, not a necessarily logical or quantitative exponent, is one of the most important variables when it comes to connection with an audience or a crowd. This is important for movement-makers of all shapes and sizes to internalize when trying to mobilize a base.

Consider that before he won the primary, there was an element of faith that was projected unto Barack Obama by his supporters. For many, support for Obama the figure [strong, transcendent, untraditional, "post-partisan"] did not necessarily mirror or represent support for Obama the public servant (based on a number of votes, etc). This embrace was, and case of many continues to be, rooted in part in illogic — to some, the Senator fro Illinois represents youthful optimism, the reinvention of American mythology, opportunity for the disenfranchised, and so-on. Sen. Obama’s allure lies in his mythology; he resonates with people in a way that the other candidates did not.

Understanding how to connect on a movement-to-person level is as fundamental as knowing how to maintain databases, properly leverage the power of Facebook, frequenting all of the right blogs, etc.

Having been to many conferences, talks, and seminars, where suggestions regarding the how-to of maneuvering in a “post 2.0″ world are thrown around with varying degrees of authority; having read thousands of blog entries dealing with “the right components necessary” for putting together successful social movements; having attended hundreds of hours of rigid panel discussions and keynotes about how networking will change everything, I find a topic like resonance to be as refreshing as it is ethereal

The road to establishing a sense of resonance with the audience—be they viewers or potential supporters of a revolution—requires a brand consciousness. I consider one particular episode of Frank’s show, entitled Jon-Benet, to be required viewing when it comes to “getting” branding. In it, he says, “A brand is an emotional aftertaste that’s conjured up by, but not necessarily dependent on, a series of experiences.” Further, “The shared emotional aftertaste of brand is platform-independent. If you leverage those aftertastes, people will pay attention, regardless of where they are. And whether the emotional aftertaste is good or bad is irrelevant! As long as they’re watching.”

Frank is not only excellent at articulating this, he is great at putting it into action. His knack for comprehending resonance is very much the difference between the successful cult following of The Show with Ze Frank and why many other daily vlogs go nearly unwatched. It is the reason he was able to help to put together an Internet-based game and why he knows that people will be really into posing as younger versions of themselves or why they might be willing to compete in a nerd rap battle. His comprehension of how all of this fits together is the reason why there are thousands of people waiting to see what he’ll do next.

Understanding resonance works similarly to what they say about getting your shit on Digg: You can go through the motions but content is key. The only way that one can harness a true sense with any degree of authenticity is not by attending conferences and learning the calculus of maneuvering online, but by knowing who people are, what they connect to, and what they want. To do this, we are required to listen much more than we talk, be willing to digest input as much as we love creating output, and maybe, once in a while, turning our backs on Twitter here and there and talking with someone, outside of our apartments, face to face.

For tomorrow, we’ll take a look at some successful instances of branding.

-Filed in Ideas

…when we:

• Contemplate the importance reciprocity in Internet action with Beth Kanter
• Talk to Justin Massa, founder of MoveSmart.org, about how punk rock led to community development
• Assess the successes and challenges of Meetup organizers with over 10 seasoned players
• Find out what makes The Great Clay Shirky tick
• Take a look at why everyone we interview talks about Saul Alinsky as if he were a deity
• Shoot the shit with Ze Frank
• And much, much more

-Filed in Uncategorized