This dynamic is documented in the book (for free download) Following-Leading in Risk, A Humanising Dynamic, published in 2014 by Dr Craig Ashhurst and Dr Robert Long. Craig and Rob are currently working on a completely updated second edition due out in September 2026.
Rather than re-hash the nature of the studies we thought it might be best if some of the participants gave their own feedback and review. As follows:
Person 1. – Perth
I have just completed the Following-Leading workshops. We have learnt so much about what Following and Leading is and isn’t. We have read articles, papers and books. We have watched videos which helped us to experience Leading. Having one meeting a week for four weeks allows so much time for reflection. Over 25 years I have been told a lot about leadership. This series of workshops allowed me the time and space to unlearn much of that. Leading is not about being the hero, it is not about exercising power over others, it is not about control or solutions or fixing people.
One of the books we read was Leadership Jazz by Max DePree, a wonderful book that very simply describes a way of leading which is so refreshing and not at all about the individual.
I now have a much deeper appreciation of the importance of language and metaphor to Following-Leading in risk but most of all a deeper appreciation of I-Thou, of how we truly meet with others in the Following-Leading relationship.
Every time I complete SPoR learning I feel something has changed in me. There are insights I have that often I can’t explain only feel. I know that I now know more about myself. It is not often you can say that about safety training!
Person 2. – Iowa USA
I just wrapped up the SPoR modules on Following–Leading last night. We spent time watching Graham Long’s video — him speaking to a few SPoR people — and something in me shifts every time I see it. But after four weeks of learning with Rob Long and Craig Ashhurst, I finally understand why.
This didn’t feel like leadership training. It felt like someone gently turning my head so I could finally see what’s been right in front of me. After 40 years in safety — helping build and teach leadership programs — I’ve never been asked to slow down, notice my own body, and pay attention to the moment before I move.
Following–Leading showed me that leadership isn’t something you perform. It’s something you feel. It’s a movement — a kind of dance — shaped by power, distance, language, and all the unseen stuff we usually skip over. It helped me see how much of my work has been built on the illusion of control, and how wisdom only shows up when I slow down enough to notice.
Each week, I sat in unhurried presence, with a small group online — but part of me wished I was in the room with them in person, sharing the pauses, the laughter, and the quiet shifts that only happen when you’re side by side. I realized that leadership begins in Following — in listening, sensing, and letting meaning form between people. Something in me has shifted, and I don’t think it’s shifting back.
If you’ve seen leadership taught the same old way a hundred times, and you’re ready to learn something that goes deeper, dive into Following–Leading.
I learned so much in this module. I am ready for the next!
Person 3. – Netherlands
The workshop showed me that the dynamic between people is the most important (relationship). It also helped me to see more clearly the i-thou and what is meant by it. Work on this and a lot will fall in to place. Be humble and let the others lead, but also have a vision that is worth following.
I loved the way Graham presented all this and the way he is able to make people follow him because they want to. It also helped me to understand why I often changed a job as I started with a mission to do something and often ended up being the wise guy in the room wishing others to change. My next challenge will be to accept life as it is.
I’ve learned more and started to see more on the effects of metaphors, how they are used, what is trying to be expressed, what to question deeper. I’m building a website for my own little business and will most likely use the dancer as a metaphor and visual (thanks for pointing it out).
I loved to see the differences in the way homework was done and learned a lot of the visuals that Toby and Pedro presented. I could improve here, mostly I just write stuff down :).
Some interesting reads outside your work Humble Inquiry (Schein), Metaphors we live by and a book I’m reading now is about practicing being present in health care. It’s only available in Dutch. But it also very helpful in letting others set the stage, listen and not immediately step forward as the professional who knows everything and will fix the problem. So I would suggest to people start reading and learning outside your own cocoon and pick up things you can use form other disciplines.
The miro board is a handy tool. I’ve used it before, it a nice tool to share stuff.
Person 4. Ireland
I sought a more human‑centred approach to leadership, distinct from the mainstream leadership programmes commonly delivered in Ireland. My experience has reinforced that leadership extends well beyond what is typically taught in universities and management training institutions. It is not about elevating a single “hero” leader, but about understanding leadership as a shared, relational practice.
Key Takeaways
A central concept of the course is the Zone of Reciprocal Relationship. Effective work requires continual movement between following and leading, and it is within this dynamic space that meaningful human interaction occurs.
Meetings were reframed as opportunities to surface insight, risk, and uncertainty, rather than forums to “fix” people or problems. Their purpose is to satisfice risk‑related concerns, not to seek false resolution.
The course placed strong emphasis on practical application. Activities included a language audit, exploring metaphors in conversation, examining leadership types and styles, and analysing what is both said and unsaid in selected video material. These exercises offered a depth of practical learning rarely found in conventional leadership courses.
The course also challenged the prevailing “hero leader” myth, highlighting how such thinking limits dialogue and suppresses healthy engagement with risk. Over‑reliance on data and spreadsheets was critiqued, with a strong case made for semiotics and visualisation as more meaningful ways to understand what is happening in the field.
Language was consistently positioned as more informative than numerical data. Careful attention to the words used by teams provides insight into their thinking, emotions, and concerns, enabling a deeper understanding of organisational dynamics.
Overall, the course provided adaptive tools that can be applied with teams and managers in a holistic, non‑judgemental manner. It reinforced the idea that healthy organisations move fluidly between “mission” and “wishing” stages, and that remaining fixed in either, for too long is counterproductive.
In everyday following‑leading cycles, the ability to listen, reflect, and attend to what is both spoken and unspoken is essential. The tools from this course will support me in strengthening these practices in my work.
Person 5. – Brisbane
This workshop is highly recommended for anyone, not just those interested in safety and risk. You don’t need to be in a particular industry to gain valuable insight, perspective and skills that you can apply in your work and through your leadership.
Look at listening as your motivation to understand what it means to follow and to lead.
This workshop teaches the value of making humble enquiry, using listening to learn, and exploring an understanding of how not to fix people as the pillars of effective, person-centred leadership.
This workshop supports how effective leaders don’t control risk, rather it focuses on the people skills which elevate leaders to engage and manage risk through social engagement.
I’d recommend study in leadership and following to any leader, emerging or experienced, as a valuable tool for your personal leadership toolkit, to help you influence and apply in practice compelling connections with your people.
Person 6. Romania
I recently concluded the twelfth module in the Social Psychology of Risk (SPoR) series named following-leading in Risk. The course was developed and delivered by Prof. Dr. Rob Long with Dr. Craig Ashhurst. Below we have reviewed the most important ideas that we have addressed in the course.
The course started with an analysis of the theoretical concepts used over time and then came up with a very interesting discussion about how to define a good Leader. We analysed together the theoretical model of leadership developed and taught by Dr. Ashhurst. In this session we discussed one of the most asked questions in Leadership courses: was Adolf Hitler a leader, or not? Hitler had the ability to lead and proved it practically, but he cannot be considered a good leader because the way he led was devoid of morality and ethics.
Then we reviewed the various types of power exercised by leaders: Reward, Coercive, Legitimate, Referent, Expert, Relational, Charismatic, Indifferent, Irrational.
Manager and Leader are two very common labels in the corporate environment. For those who are not native English speakers, these two neologisms are understood differently. Essentially, the difference is given by the way power is acquired and used in the organization. The difference is made by the existence or non-existence of an ethical approach. Leaders are ethical by definition – they pursue the good of all members of the community. Managers use their authority to make you conform to the rules of the organization. Those who do not voluntarily comply are abused.
Managers demand compliance, but they don’t earn it. For some people, non-conformity is a way of life. Leaders don’t abuse you but try to understand with humble sincerity the reasons for non-compliance. Leaders know how to develop the relationship and build the social contract with those around them based on ethics and reciprocity.
The most interesting part of the course for me was the one related to the language used in leadership. Language is the foundation of any culture. If you want to change the culture of an organization, you need to change the language and semiotics used in the organization. We know ourselves through the words we use. Unconsciously, when we communicate, we use a lot of metaphors. One of the metaphors used in the course that stuck in my mind is “The leader leads from below, not from above”.
What we talk about matters. The leader’s identity is expressed through the words he uses.
In Social Risk Psychology (SPoR), linguistic auditing and discourse analysis are two very powerful tools for understanding culture. We have learned to realize the speaker’s perspective on the world and his orientation towards power or people.
The concept I – Thou developed by Martin Buber helps us understand that we do not exist individually as islands, but we are social beings. I – It (Me and the Object) is the transactional model that we encounter in organizations where leaders are individualistic heroes suffering from various psychological disorders: narcissism, psychopaths, sociopaths. They abuse the power they have and treat their employees as objects.
i –Thou is the relational model. Our identity is built through the social-dialectical relationship between individuals. The hyphen that joins the two words defines the space in which the real meeting between the leader and those who follow him takes place. To do this, the leader puts aside his own agenda and we approach the others by humbly discovering who they are.
Following – Leading is the name of the concept developed by Prof. Rob Long. With his help we manage to understand in a semiotic way the nature and dynamics of the relationship between Leaders and those who follow him.
The model does not use two nouns: follower and leader. Following-Leading is a word composed of two words that express action. The two words joined by a hyphen become a new word, a stronger word than each of the two taken separately.
Following – Leading is not static; The hyphen expresses and sustains the dynamics and tension of the new word. Following-Leading has its own energy and emotion (e-motion). Following-Leading gives you the energy to move from ”I” to ”Thou” and learn how to be human, to be genuinely interested in a relationship with others. The leader humanizes rather than harmonizes.
It’s first Following and then Leading, it’s not first Leading and then Following.
The leader’s power is not inside him, but it is in the relationship he has with those who follow him.
The leader doesn’t want you to follow him. You follow the leader because you want to. You want to be in a relationship with the leader because you want to be part of something bigger and better than yourself and your own ego. Leading starts with following the followers in their nature, creating the space where people are listened to and give you their trust. When the leader stops and listens to you, he invites you to think. When you start thinking, you are the one who has the power. Following – Leading. The key is in the relationship.
Person 7. Sydney
My journey through life is constantly being shaped through engagement with others. I have recently participated in studying with a SPoR group, on the subject of Following – Leading. In the four weeks together, I have been moved through learning that has sculpted and carved a new position for me to view the topic. I previously held a more rigid pose on what was good leadership, only to explore and re-imagine with others a perspective worth our attention.
In these workshops Rob Long and Craig Ashurst, invite us to read their book; Following and Leading in Risk: A Humanising Dynamic. This book provides the group with ideas and content that has been thoroughly developed and researched, while offering a unique lens to be curious and inquisitive.
I had read this book previously and knew that this offering to experience it with others was an opportunity as a gift. In the group I have been enabled to move from having intrinsic thoughts, contained and limited by my individuality, to expansion through the zone of reciprocal relationship. A concept that is introduced in the book and formed part of the learnings in this study group.
The part of the study I enjoyed the most was an activity we were assigned for asynchronous learning. I watched a video of Rob’s brother Graham Long titled a Conversation with Graham Long on Leadership. In this video Graham doesn’t use the common language of modern leadership, the kind exhausted by experts on social media. He uses language attuned to living and being a human, embedded to a semiotic graph that portrays the fluctuation we all navigate in experiencing life. An excellent exemplar of the dynamics involved in Following – Leading. I made a brief reflective video on what I learned from watching Graham: https://vimeo.com/1178055598
My conclusion is that studying SPoR is a pathway on the journey through life that is worthy of trekking along. It may take some twists and turns and definitely won’t be smooth country but it will give you spectacular vistas as you shape your trip to your destination.
The following semiotic helps explain my response to the video by Graham Long on leading:
Person 8. Pedro Ferreira (PhD) Lisbon
The way I came to understand learning has been one of the most fascinating transformations that I’ve experienced through SPoR. From the common perception of a knowledge-gathering process, I have come to understand learning as the motion that shapes life. Following-leading is one of the fundamental aspects of this motion. As what makes this motion meaningful for life is the movement with and towards one another.
The “pursuit of dreams” is often depicted as the antidote against the materialism that plagues the world. It’s interesting how this idea of “chasing dreams” has developed a positive connotation, as much as it has a negative one. Those who attain some worldly success are “leaving the dream” and their story is often told as the result of someone who believed and never gave up on their dreams. But when things don’t go so bright and shiny, that same person becomes the obsessed lunatic that lives in a dreamworld.
Our social and cultural nature impels us towards one another. While dreams may be powerful drivers, they will eventually isolate you, even from those closest to you. Dreams are from within and therefore, can only feed what’s within. That surely plays a vital part in life but whatever value it may bring, can only come from retrospective reflection on dreams, once you awake.
Contrary to the pursuit of dreams, moving towards others and meeting others, can lead to the discovery of powerful ideas that are worth moving towards in togetherness. As togetherness gains traction through you and others, a mission starts to shape. And as you keep moving with others towards that mission, that mission acquires the power to move you as well. That becomes the motion of learning which you share with others. Contrary to dreams, missions can impel you towards new directions, creating and organising with others in a continuous dance of following-leading-learning.
To help better understand what I learned I have created the following semiotic.
Person 9. Western Victoria
Here are some of the key take-away points I got out of the workshops:
- Good leaders don’t just “lead” they also follow
- Leadership is about people, followers, community and cause.
- Presence, authenticity and integrity matter most
- Leadership is a relationship, not a position
- Culture, perception and relationships influence decisions
- Caring and Helping is what leadership is about, not power, status or control
- Engagement and trust are more powerful than enforcement
- People create safety, not systems, procedures and paperwork
- Listening to what is not said is as important as to what is said
- People are fallible, we all make mistakes
- Not every problem needs a solution
- People serve and follow, not because they have to but, because they want to.
Prof. Robert Long
Latest posts by Prof. Robert Long (see all)
- Weick’s Expectations of the Unexpected - May 13, 2026
- The Non-Revolution in Safety - May 12, 2026
- Suspending Your Agenda to Begin Learning in Risk - May 11, 2026
- The De-Ethicization of the Object in Safety - May 9, 2026
- Weick’s Organising as ‘Consensually Validated Grammar’ - May 9, 2026
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