• My sector
• Points of Pain
• Self Diagnostics
• FREE Insights
• Products & Services
• About Virtual Group
• Our People

Insights

• White Papers
• StrategicSnippets
• Our Favourite Managers
• Other Insights

Leadership Without All The Answers

Peter Drucker, who usually got it right before anyone else, said:

"The root cause of nearly every business crisis is not that things are being done poorly. It is not even that the wrong things are being done. But rather because the assumptions on which the organisation has been built and is being run no longer fit reality."

The best leaders are seekers of truth, but what is truth? As the Indian saying goes:

"What you learn is a handful but what you do not know can fill the world."

Leaders Seek Truth

The best leaders know that we don't know very much about the world we live in. If we were drawing a pie chart, there would be a small slice that represents "what we know." There would be a larger but still small slice that represents "what we know we don't know." And there would be an enormous slice, making up most of the pie chart, that represents "what we don't know we don't know."

Best leaders know that the current business model, now more than 100 years old, is badly flawed. It is based on a number of fallacies disproved by recent discoveries in science.

Fallacies and Truths

In the table below I am somewhat reluctant to use to use the word truths, however, I am sure they are a more useful way of viewing the world and accord more closely with the way science tells us the world works. Some of these fallacies and their corresponding "truths" include:

FALLACY	TRUTH (according to science)
Workplaces are based on mechanics	Workplaces are based on organics
Organisations are hierarchies based on silos and organisational charts	Organisations are closely networked living systems of relationships
People can't be trusted	People can be trusted if you trust them
People need to be controlled	People need to be free
Control leads to more order	Control leads to less order
Topdown management is the natural order	Topdown and bottom-up is natural
People are separate from each other	People are far more closely connected than most people believe
Thinking is about straight line logic and cause and affect	Thinking is about systems thinking, feedback loops, time lags and unintentional consequences
Straight lines are assumed for organisational structure	Natural shapes like spirals, bags, trees and curved lines are a better description for organisational structure
Products and services are pushed out to customers	Customers pull value from the organisation
Taking is the way to success	Giving is the way to success
We live in a world of scarce resources.	We live in a world of plenty, with unlimited knowledge, creativity, relationships, and inspiration.

Strange Behaviours

The old business model based on fallacies lead to strange behaviours that are destructive and unhealthy. The new business model leads to behaviours that are strengthening and life affirming. The main differences are:

FALLACIES LEAD TO	TRUTH LEADS TO
Unnecessary internal competition	Far more collaboration
Top-heavy political power	Lighter and more caring leadership
Lack of passion at the grass-roots	High energy at the grass-roots
Fear, control and isolation	Trust, freedom and connectedness
60% of people disengaged	100% of people engaged
People feel stuck	People feel liberated
People feel less than human	People feel human
People feel abused.	People feel trusted.

The best leaders don't pretend to know everything. Instead, they recognise that in an interconnected world, the most powerful ideas often come from the most unexpected places, and can't be planned, or predicted. Like nearly everything that is important in business, they have to be allowed to emerge. The leaders' main job is to create the conditions where this emergence is more likely to occur.

I call it, "liberating the human spirit at work" but I'd like to know what you think. Please send me your thoughts.

Regards Bruce.
Bruce Holland
Virtual Group Business Consultants
Phone +6421620456 or Skype Bruce.Holland\\www.virtual.co.nz
Go back to Index for Strategic Snippets

Key words: Leadership, leadership development, leadership management, leadership training, leadership program, leadership skills.