Organisational Leadership
Organisations are becoming more complex operating in contexts more fluid than ever before (more details). Yet we still assume that they can be “run”. Whilst some of the old assumptions still hold true, the very context within which they are based is changing (more details), and this results in waste (more details). Taking a view of an organisation as a complex system highlights the need for a new way of seeing things.
Many metaphors exist for this, as do simulations and exercises. Most of those who participate in our simulation, shown in the video to the left, initially feel it is impossible, and are surprised by the outcome… you will see just over two dozen people who have been asked to position themselves in an open space at complete random…
So why did they all laugh? They were asked “What would have happened if we had put one of you in charge?”. And they laughed because they all knew they would never have achieved the task so well if someone had tried to lead or manage the process.. Yet many leaders try to do just that – over-control their organisations and get frustrated, because complexity does not work like that!
So how did they do it? It was a highly complex exercise which was done quickly without a nominated leader. Indeed if it had been given an assigned leader it would probably not succeed. There were 8 principles in place to enable the team to do an very complex task without a leader. These principles can be organised into four complementary pairs, and two groups of mainly “hard” (yang) and mainly “soft” (yin) principles, as shown below. And they can be applied to organisations.
At the same time as these organisational principles need to be in place, a wider view of how individual leadership is practiced needs to be understood. Like a fractal this forms an important part of the people’s skill/will principle (more details)… Having these principles in place is only half the story – if leadership is not practiced in a new way, the potential these principles offer is diluted.
We have developed an on-line self-assessment tool to look at how well place a team or organisation is. Click here for more details. We can also arrange a wider 360 for an organisation to do – for more information contact Info@ComplexAdaptiveLeadership.com.