Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you.
Part 7. Leadership, free energy and entropy production.
We have observed in part 6 that leadership as catalysis does not imply
taking over the rights and responsibilities of followers. It rather
implies helping followers to actualise self all these rights and
responsibilities. A most extraordinary property of any catalyst is that
although it participates intimately in any transformation, it does not get
used up by the transformation. Likewise leaders helping followers to
transform their personalities should not get used up in the
transformation. Although the catalysing leadership aids during the
transformation, it steps back as soon as the free energy ridge during the
transformation has been passed.
Catalysts are also not a supply of energy and work for reactions. They can
only catalyse reactions which have the free energy to happen
spontaneously, but which are prevented by free energy ridges to do so.
Likewise leadership does not supply free energy for personality
developments, but only catalyses spontaneous developments. The complex
personality of the leader enables him/her to spot the too high free energy
ridges preventing followers to transform.
Leaders should make a careful study of free energy landscapes as well as
entropy landscapes. See for example
Fitness Landscape and other landscapes. LO27222
< http://www.learning-org.com/01.09/0018.html >
Fitness Landscape and other landscapes. LO27257
< http://www.learning-org.com/01.09/0053.html >
These landscapes apply to physical and spiritual systems. Nobody will
expect from a seedling of a flowering plant to bear flowers which will
ensure the next generation. That seedling first has to mature. Likewise we
cannot expect one innovative idea to give immediately rise to another
innovative idea. Wherever this practice of eternal innovation is followed,
it leads to persistent inconsistencies in products based on those ideas
and a gradual incapacity to invent new products.
It is sometimes said that leaders must sustain creative conflict or keep
their organisations at the edge of chaos. This is extremely dangerous
advice. It will cause a creative burnout because it denies the digestive
phase of creativity. It is true that large entropic forces (differences in
intensive properties) are needed to drive with massive entropy production
the system to the ridge of chaos where ordinate bifurcations happen. The
outcome of a bifurcation will either be a constructive emergence or a
destructive immergence.
However, that which emerged constructively, has to mature afterwards. This
happens by digestion in the equilibrium valleys of the entropy landscape
where order and peace abound. Furthermore, that mature emergent will then
have to supply the very free energy to work towards the next bifurcation.
But should the organisation avoid this maturing, it will burn itself out.
To prevent this happening, the organisation will do something worse by
becoming a free energy vampire.
We have noticed in Part 6 that it is often said that leadership involves
the persistent sense of the urgency to change. However, the need for
change is part of creativity. To speak of this need as an urgency is a
recipe to disturb the rhythm of creativity when it swings between the
asymptotes of digestion and bifurcation. Although changes at bifurcation
happen fast, changes happen slow at digestion. To stay in the fast lane on
the ridge of chaos so as to innovate frequently is to forsake the
relaxation in the valley of equilibrium where free energy becomes restored
though maturing. This eternal rush for innovation will cause a burnout
because spiritual free energy will become permanently depleted. This
burnout has reached epidemic proportions among western nations.
It is sometimes said that leaders have to work through the long sustained
grief, frustration, resistance and anger of followers as a result of
conflicts. It is impossible to do this because the followers have to do it
self. For this they need constructive creativity. The very reason why they
have this persisting grief, frustration, resistance and anger is because
of their lack of constructive creativity. Any person experiences from time
to time grief, frustration, resistance and anger as a result of a
conflict. But only those with constructive creativity will soon convert
these negative experiences as powerful entropic forces into a positive
outcome.
Leaders will have to show followers how to transform a negative experience
into a positive outcome rather than to say "make a NO a YES". To do this
the leader will have to live him/herself into the grief, frustration,
resistance and anger of the follower. This requires two things from the
leader -- a compassionate dialogue and sheer imagination. In the dialogue
the leader must avoid judging any claim made by the follower. The
imagination must be so authentic that the leader experiences the very
negative emotions of the follower. Only then will the leader know what
caused these emotions and give the follower the correct advice with which
to work through them.
It is often said that the leader's passion, respect and praise will
motivate followers. However, motivation is essentially something which
happens within the person. It is the result of constructive creativity
within the person. It is not so much the leader's passion, respect and
praise which activated motivation within the follower, but the very
example of constructive creativity set by the leader. Such examples which
activate the leader's own passion, respect and praise are the best
teacher. Words speak, but deeds awake.
Leaders should be extremely aware that not only is the world changing
dramatically because of technology, but also how it changes. All
technological devices have come about by spontaneous imagination and then
non-spontaneous manufacture. This non-spontaneous means that the devices
did not come into existence on their own by their own free energy. They
were forced into existence by work being done on them guided through a
complexer intelligence than their own artificial intelligence.
Leaders appreciative of the power of technology may easily do to their
followers what they do to create new technology. This will be in the long
run devastating. Humans cannot be forced to act creatively. Humans cannot
be forced to act intelligently. Humans cannot be forced to act
responsibly. Humans, friends and foes, cannot be forced by any external
means to act whatever is worthy to humane humankind. Humans are not
technology. Many may be forced to become robots, but some will revolt.
Those who revolt constructively do humankind a great favour. Those who
revolt destructively will pull humankind into great tribulations.
The personalities of leaders will determine what will become of their
organisations as well as our world. The more we try to displace the
qualities of personality into features of leadership, the less we will
have wise leaders to steer their organisations and our world into a better
future. Those followers who have any say in electing any leader, should
bear this wisdom in mind. Keep your personality intact. Those followers in
a position to advise a leader, should foremost advise in the power of
constructive creativity and a complex personality worthy to bear
leadership.
Many followers want reconciliation in a world becoming more broken by the
day. Many followers want to live a meaningful life. Many followers want
reconciliation with those who live in conflict with them. Many followers
want to support fellow humans living in poverty and misery. Many followers
want to contribute to positive changes. Many followers want trustworthy
relationships. Many followers want things having to do with the first e of
emergence, things like emancipation, empowerment, emulation, enchantment,
endurance, energy, enfranchise, enlightenment, enterprise, etc. When
leaders help these followers to unlock their constructive creativity,
followers will have all these e-like things.
The one thing which every leader should never do, is to let his/her
personality stand in the way of followers wanting to have all these
things. In authentic leadership the leader's complex personality flows
along the "one-o-many-mapping" of all followers to catalyse the
development of their own personalities. But in counterfeited leadership
the leader's personality will sooner or later stand in the way of many
followers. It will increase the free energy ridge rather than decreasing
it. Some signs of such counterfeit are imitation, insecurity, indolence,
ignorance, incapacitation and irresponsibility.
Leaders should be deeply aware of the intimidation effect of anything
complex. It includes a complex personality. This intimidation effect is
carefully explained in
The Digestor LO21272
< http://www.learning-org.com/99.04/0167.html >
In short, the more complex the environment of any system, the less the
free energy that system will have for digestive purposes. Consequently the
system will becomes less spontaneous with respect to that complex
environement.
In order to reduce this intimidation effect of complexity, the leader
should hide that part of his/her complex personality which is not required
in the particular transformation needed by followers. Thus leaders should
make sure in advance what of his/her personality will be needed. Give only
what is needed. Let me give an example.
Consider, for example, the leading of a religious organisation. Knowledge
is a faculty of personality. If the leader has a vast knowledge of say
nuclear physics, manifesting such knowledge while leading will make
followers less spontaneous for religious transformations.
A serious problem of leadership in modern times is the mass communication
media. Very little, if any, feedback is possible by means of these media.
Hence far more followers are put into contact with the messages and images
of a leader than what that leader self could steer through interpersonal
contact. Portraying a complex personality in such mass a mass
communication medium will have a disastrous intimidation effect on
followers. In such cases it will be best for the leader to let only so
much of his/her personality come through as the most common denominator of
personalties among followers.
Leadership involves the capacity to guide followers to become motivated by
self performing creatively self and thus growing in respect for all
people. This capacity of leadership will become actualised only when the
leader create an environment conducive to the constructive creativity of
the followers. The free energy landscapes of followers are determined as
much by their environment as by themselves.
To improve the organisation's environment, the leader will have to work
outside his/her organisation. Leaders ought to be as cautious here as they
are within their organisations. Outside their organisations leaders have
only themselves to lead. Trying to lead followers who are actually lead by
other leaders is to begin something which may end in something as terrible
as war. Leaders should rather collaborate with those leaders who lead
their own followers.
It is exactly here where much of the turmoil in humankind through the
centuries has been caused. The success of the leader in leading his/her
own organisation is no guarantee in leading other organisations, but
rather a recipe for conflict. Whereas the leader may have succeeded in
channeling the free energies of his/her own followers into creative
constructions, the same is not possible with people following other
leaders. The reason is that those leaders stand between these people and
the leader who wants to lead them too. One complex catalyst cannot
displace another one.
To remove those leaders by any means like defaming or bombing them will
not open up their followers to follow the intruding leader. They will
merely direct their free energies as soon as possible against the
intruding leader in a destructive manner. Often their own leaders will be
powerless to avoid such destructive reactions. Just as often the intruding
leaders will claim their innocence. But the very intrusion witness against
such innocence.
A leader who collaborates with other leaders cannot expect them to follow
him/her as his/her own followers. In such a collaboration a knowledge of
constructive creativity will be crucial to its success. Respect the manner
in which these other leaders employ the 7Es (seven essentilaities of
creativity) even when merely in a tacit manner. Should they show an
impairing in some of the 7Es, be patient when making them aware of it.
Avoid judgements and punitive measures because they seldom, if ever, help
to overcome such an impairment.
We have now reach the end of the series of essays on leadership in the
light of constructive creativity. My goal was not to give a comprehensive
account of the many treatises on leadership, but to make fellow learners
aware that in this new millennium we should stop separating leadership and
complexity. I had to select a particular feature of complexity as the main
theme connecting all these essays. I decided on the "one-to-many-mapping"
of entropy production driven by free energy changes.
I am fully aware of how little people in general think in terms of
"one-to-many-mappings" and how little their understanding employ such
mappings. Thus this theme causes a considerable risk in making these
series of essays understandable to most fellow learners. However, I also
have to bear in mind that we all need to think more in terms of the
paradigm of complexity for this new millennium. Thus I have to lead our
thinking into a largely unexplored mental world. The quality of our
awareness to complexity will determine our performance in the future.
The outer world is becoming increasingly complex. Likewise the mental
world of each of us become more complex through learning. So, when a
fellow learner does not understand much of these essays now, reading them
again some years from now may prove to have a different outcome.
Meanwhile, let us keep our LO-dialogue on leadership.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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