I posed two questions regarding collaborative leadership in my review of "Linchpin" at http://www.workingdifferently.org/5/post/2013/03/are-you-indispensable.html.  

The first question, was the author, Seth Godin's, "are you indispensable?"  The second was mine: "Why is it so hard to act in a concerted way – in a team, system, or a community – to achieve impact?"  "Linchpin" provides insight to both.

By "indispensible" Godin is not envisioning the superhero community leader or volunteer: "don't worry, I've got it covered," "this is the only way to do it!," "if we had enough money, I'd have this solved."  No, indispensibility is not about ownership, rather it is more humble and inward directed.  It asks its own questions: what value do I add?  Am I willing to share accountability for the outcome?  

In answer to the difficulty of acting in a concerted way, "Linchpin" presents the idea of our “lizard brain” or as Godin alternately describes it: “the resistance.” As he puts it, in order to achieve great things or meaningful solutions, we “don’t need more genius, we need less resistance.” The resistance or lizard brain is the primordial desire to be safe. To avoid the unknown. To not venture out of the cave. Despite the passing of the prehistoric days of the saber-tooth tiger, the lizard brain still pushes us to fit in, to not rock the boat. Don’t be stupid. “Visibility” is dangerous. Embarrassment is the new saber-tooth. Courtesy trumps impact. The resistance permits you to stay still. 

The resistance is an internal aspect of being human, which would prefer to stamp out any insight or art or change. The Devil’s Advocate is a card-carrying member of the resistance. Here are some of the signs of the resistance (both from Seth and myself) – the lizard brain in dominance – that permeate communities failing to achieve greatness.

1) Procrastinate: claiming the need to perfect.
2) Make excuses about lack of money.
3) Set as a goal to have everyone like you...or in Facebook parlance "fan" you.
4) Spend hours obsessing on data collection.
5) Start another committee versus taking action.
6) Excessively criticize/blame the work of your peers, other institutions or sectors.
7) Criticize anyone doing anything differently.
8) Ask too many questions.
9) Don’t ask enough questions.
10) Wrap yourself in jargon.
11) Search for the next big thing while abandoning yesterday’s thing as old.
12) Have an emotional attachment to the status quo.
13) Passionately reject any attempt at accountability.
14) Blame the victims.
15) Have low expectations as to what is possible; what your clients can achieve; what children can learn
16) Zealously argue for an approach while rejecting any method of measuring results
17) Claim that any measure of success destroys the art.
18) Invent anxiety about the side-effects of a new approach
19) Focus on revenge or teaching someone a lesson at the expense of doing the work.
20) Believe it is about gifts and talents and not skill.

Any direction you go besides the direction of success is the work of the resistance. And it is always lurking; to save you from greatness.