Replying to LO29785 --
Dear Organlearners,
Barry Brownstein <barry@brownsteingroup.org> writes:
>Mike McMaster in his brilliant book "The Intelligence
>Advantage", helps answers the question of what leadership
>aimed at organizational transformation looks like in a
>complex self-organizing system.
(snip)
>Mike points out that "leadership in transformation begins
>with the realization that we are part of a complex intelligent
>system and not separate from it."
(snip)
Greetings dear Barry,
Your quote of McMaster involves a description of wholeness!
It reminds me of the immense transformation of South Africa during 1992-94
from a non-black (whites, indians and coloureds) electorate to an all
inclusive democracy. Were it not for the awareness to wholeness of the ANC
leader Nelson Mandela and the white leader Willem de Klerk, the
transformation would have not be so peaceful. That is why they also later
on shared the Nobel prize for peace.
It also reminds me of why other transformations in African countries like
Nigeria, DRC and Zimbabwe keep on failing. For example, Zimbabwe has been
in transformation for more than twenty years, getting every year in a
worser state than the preceding year. Their leaders keep on causing and
flaming partisanships with the president as the spearhead.
>In all, in an organization that uses self-organizing principles,
>we can say that leadership is an emergent response to the
>needs of the system and will shift among the members of
>the organization.
Perhaps it has to be noted that leadership and leader is not the same
thing. A leader is a person whereas leadership is a capacity which
may/may-not emerge in a leader. It will definitely not emerge in a leader
who is ignorant to wholeness.
It is interesting to note that in most of those African countries in which
their transformation keeps on failing, their leaders cling to their power
afforded by being the leader. For example, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has
been ruling the country for 23 years now and wants to keep on as long as
he can. On the other hand, when Nelson Madela came close to the completion
of his second term as president, he allowed the most probable next
president (Thabo Mbeki) to pull increasingly more of the ropes. The result
was that when Mbeki entered the presidential office after elections, he
knew much of what awaited him and what to do.
With care and best wishes,
--At de Lange <amdelange@postino.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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