Leadership in Chaos – Leaders Digest

Leadership in Chaos: 3rd edition. Emergent discovery, positive dissent and output vs input. “Listen to others, you will be wise. The beginning of wisdom is silence”. Pythagoras Ellen Jantzen Change: emergent discovery. The secret of change, Socrates said, “is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but building on the new”. Innovation therefore, is critical. And achieving it, should be less about individuals, and more about a culture of Emergent Discovery. This means continually searching for ideas in novel spaces; developing speculative conjectures; and relentlessly questioning hypotheses. It requires a culture where people, particularly leaders, are comfortable with impossible ideas and challenging dogma. A culture that views “flawed” ideas not as dead ends, but as building blocks. And where the evolution of ideas is a collective, shared responsibility. This is how management need to change in an emergent discovery culture. A thought for leaders: A world of permanent VUCA, has different demands on an innovation culture. Emergent Discovery is a fresh approach, that builds a successful innovation culture. It requires that you, as a leader, make it acceptable to broach the unreasonable. That you leverage your critics’ insights, to improve ideas. And that you make it about ideas, not personal ownership (so it’s not personal if it fails). Ellen Jantzen Leadership: positive dissent. What do the following disasters have in common; the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Gary Lineker throwing the BBC into chaos and JP Morgan suffering reputation damage and lawsuits, for retaining Jeffrey Epstein as a client after he pleaded guilty? The answer is: why don’t managers see it coming? They don’t, as this article explains, because dissenters and doubters can’t speak up (along with some pluralist ignorance). So group think sets in. James Detert, a professor at Darden School of Business, says evolution has hard-wired us not to deviate from our group. “If you think about our time on earth as a species, for most of it we lived in very small clans, bands, tribes, and our daily struggle was for survival, both around food security and physical safety. In that environment, if you were ostracised, you were going to die. There was no solo living in those days.”  A thought for leaders: Leaders need to persistently praise people who speak up. The penalties are often more obvious than the rewards, so keeping your head down means safety. As Warren Buffett said: “As a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press”. How can you support a braver culture of positive dissent and encourage doubters to speak up? Ellen Jantzen Culture: output vs input. Remote work battles roll on. But as the tide rises on flexible work, it's becoming clear that bad leaders will eventually lose the remote-work war. Some issues are generational (older management are less in favour of remote). Others are related to control and the need to look over shoulders every minute. Despite robust research supporting remote work, bad leaders care more about the theatre of productivity, and remain “input management” focussed. Good leaders conversely, care about real productivity, motivation and “output management”. With widespread tech layoffs, some companies have increased input management styles…

Leadership in Chaos: 2nd edition. Fortitude vs resilience, beyond the hero and disengaged. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius— and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.” E.F. Schumacher. Patrick Scott Change: fortitude vs resilience. Resilience is a popular word these days. Understandable, given the perma-crisis. It was one of the key takeaways from Davos 2023 (replacing disruption) and on the back of continued geo-political risk, economic crisis and uncertainty, McKinsey and the World Economic Forum launched the Resilience Consortium. A framework for organisations to help navigate change. Bruce Daisley, author of Eat Sleep Work Repeat and most recently Fortitude, has a different view. He questions whether the myth of resilience is dangerous, as it puts the onus on individual resilience rather than addressing the excessive demands and stresses we often live through. The term Fortitude on the other hand, focusses on the strength we draw from each other and on collectiveness, which is most typified by the incredible people of the Ukraine ✊. A thought for leaders: As leaders, our capacity to manage through change has never been more important. But we mustn’t forget, particularly in a world of remote working, the importance of collective resilience, vs the individual. Struggling alone, keeping the stiff upper lip, is dangerous. Developing collective fortitude and togetherness is the key to successfully navigating change. Patrick Scott Leadership: beyond the hero. We often see leadership as the lone hero. The one that intervenes, to imagine and deliver a new reality. The Steve Jobs monolith myth. But, leadership manifests in multiple ways. It is as complex and dynamic as the people, communities, and situations that call it into being. Inspirations and actions that drive change are both individual, and collective. So, there’s a need for more inclusive leadership narratives. Ones where solidarity is prioritised over individualism. And where leaders foster inclusivity to drive success. A thought for leaders: This article advocates for a new beyond the hero narrative for inclusive leadership. A narrative that includes 3 key elements. 1. that leadership manifests in multiple ways (so avoid the monolith). 2. that leadership is community-driven (so listen to the frontline). 3. that leadership, when diversified, drives real systemic change (inclusive leadership works). This narrative shift should manifest in 3 ways, 1. Language and stories, 2. Policies and practice and 3. Culture and behaviour. Hero’s are great, but we all know, it takes a village. Patrick Scott Culture: dis-engaged. The world of work is changing and management consultant Gallup's latest report The State of Work 2022, is startling evidence of that. They found that, globally, only 21% of employees are engaged at work and only 33% claim to be thriving in their overall wellbeing. Most say that they don't find their work meaningful, don't think their lives are going well or don't feel hopeful about their future. While a separate study found that 40% feel burnt out. It feels like a tipping point and a crisis. A thought for leaders: The data is clear. People are unhappy. What leaders do next, is less clear. But, something must be done. The latest data from 4 day week trials…

Leadership in Chaos: 1st edition. Everyone's vulnerable, the age of outrage and the era of EX.