Analogue leadership in a digital world

Nick Byrne
Leadership Scholar
2018 – 2020

Nick works with leaders from business, government and civil society to help navigate issues at the intersection of technology, society and the next economy.

Over the last 10 years this has resulted in Nick working with many notable people and organisations.  He has launched a number of landmark technology ventures including Australia Post’s Digital iD platform, has helped reinvent civil society organisations such as Australian Red Cross and Oxfam Australia in order to account for the pace of technological change, and acted as a formal advisor to Swinburne University’s Social Innovation Research Institute.

Nick has an interest and belief in the role of government to lead people through the unique challenges presented by technological progress in the 21st Century.

He now works as for the

Nick’s Homepage

Nick’s LinkedIn page

 

What has your Fellowship enabled you to do, explore, or gain that you wouldn’t have otherwise?

Through my Fellowship Intersticia is enabling me to explore how technology is empowering, or disempowering workers globally. Becoming an Intersticia Fellow has opened up networks that were either previously unavailable, or would have been difficult to develop.

What impact has your Fellowship had on your ability to lead in the 21st century?

The Fellowship has made me realised that leadership in the 21st century is messy, as we are forced to lead across different tribes, and influence unfamiliar people. To lead through this requires clarity of vision and purpose; but most importantly networks. Leaders in the 21st Century use networks and trust to bring people together to advance a particularly cause or mission.

How do you imagine your Fellowship will impact on your personal and professional growth in the next chapter of your life?

On a professional level, I imagine the Fellowship will accelerate my career for reasons already stated. But on a personal level I’m hoping that Intersticia Fellowship will help my rounded leadership development; making sure I remain focused on all the other important aspects of life that, ironically, are also important to being an effective leader. These are things like prioritising family and loved ones, taking care of your health, and focusing on the bigger picture.

How is technology empowering, or disempowering workers and what hope is there for the future?

We have a hypothesis that blockchain technology can be used to advance the opportunity for decent work by offering features such as: Transparent, immutable work agreements Labour supply chain transparency Reputation systems.

I would like to use the Fellowship to establish a global network that will position TypeHuman and its members as thought leaders in the domain of work and blockchain.

Key activities in the Fellowship become: Research and writing Travel and meetings.