democracy – flowingmotion

The greatest leaders spark curiosity about the system

Published December 5, 2009 by Jo Jordan

Our goal had gone walkabout

On my travels, I found myself teaching systems thinking in a university which broke a large course into 25 student groups. A few people determined the curriculum and an army of people taught students who wrote a common examination.

I was shocked by the examination papers. Students rambled on tossing in whatever thoughts came to mind.

We sensibly had an interim examiners meeting and I voiced my concerns. Well, it seems that I was the one to have misunderstood the curriculum. The curriculum designers were trying to convey the idea that there are many perspectives on any issue. They didn’t see a common goal or direction as an essential part of any system.

I am cursed with an “open mind” so I hastened to the internet to double-check and the idea has hung around my mind ever since as unfinished business does.

3 misunderstandings about system goals

I’m afraid that systems do have common goals. That is entirely the point. But it seems that this is a point that is often misunderstood.

Some people think the system’s goal is their goal

No! There are still multiple perspectives. We can add the system as a virtual person and ask what is the system’s goal! We have the boss’ goal, we have the system, goal and we have each of our goals.

Some people think there is no common goal

It is true that the organization does not have a goal. An organization cannot think! When we say that the organization’s goal is X, we must ask who says that?

But we not only want to understand the multiplicity of goals but we also want to understand how the many goals come together and how the system goal morphs in response. We cannot ignore the system goal ~ or we do as a sailor might ignore the weather ~ at our peril.

Some people think goals are constant

They are ~ for a second. Goals morph as situations change. When we ignore the dynamic quality of goals, then we get mission creep. Conditions change and if we don’t stop to think about what we want, what we all want, we find ourselves doing too much of one thing and too little of another. A mess in other words. Goals are infinitely variable.

Articulating the morphing of goals in any group is what makes a leader

A leader understand the multiplicity of goals in a community and sees how are contradictions and conflicts, agreements and alliances come together to make us what we are – how the whole comes from the parts and affects them in turn.

A leader is a person who is able to articulate this dynamic mix so that we feel supported by the whole and essential to its well being. This is a tough call when a group is determined to quarrel or terrified by its destiny. The hall mark of a leader is that he or she looks for the common ground where we all belong and keeps looking.

Facilitating the agreement is the hallmark of the greatest leaders

Helping us find that common ground is the hallmark of the greatest leaders. We often doff our caps to leaders who were in the right place at the right time. They represent what is the best about ourselves and we throw them into the limelight to remind us of who we are and where we are going. In time, we choose a new leader because our direction has changed and we need new icon on our bows.

We remember these leaders because these were times that we felt great. The greatest leaders, though, help us identify the right questions. They know how to “bound” the group. They know how to focus our attention on the question that we must answer if we are to find the way forward and the place where we feel great.

That’s why it seems as if great leaders set goals. They set a boundary which focuses our attention on question-asking.

It is not the goal that is important, but our compulsion to find out how we should reach the goal.

Colin Powell once said “Leadership is about ‘Follow Me!. Even if it is only out of curiosity.”

Leadership is the art of engaging the imagination in the search for collective answers.

The system is important. With good leadership, we accept the system as a virtual person ~ a popular virtual person who we all want to look after and please.

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Flu, Ghurkhas, 100 days and we the people

Published April 30, 2009 by Jo Jordan

Day Two at Xoozya

Home! A cup of tea! Hmm, no milk. I took out a tea bag from the pot, made some black tea.

Interesting. Fair Trade English Breakfast tea tastes much better black. Ta da! Been in the UK for two years and I’ve struggled to find a tea I like. I’d been told it is the water that makes the tea taste funny. Maybe it is the milk. Black tea for me from now on.

News! The world has moved on while I had my head down preparing proposals.

The words of 29 April 2009

Swine flu up to level 5 – pandemic imminent. British troops departure from Iraq is also imminent. Odd use of words don’t you think? Why didn’t BBC say British troops are close to leaving Iraq? Or preparing to leave Iraq?
27 Government MP’s broke ranks and voted against a Government proposal to restrict Ghurka residency in UK. BBC is saying the vote challenged the PM’s ‘authority’. Did they mean ‘control’? Surely I elect my MP to represent me and Parliament has greater authority than the PM? Authority = legitimate power and all the power is delegated ultimately from Parliament? The PM answers to Parliament surely? Well, I grew up in a republic so maybe I have this wrong. Correct me if I am, please.
Obama’s 100 days. This time I liked the BBC’s choice of words. Something like – the sentiment in America is that “we have chosen the right person for the job”. Yes, much better.

We have chosen the right person for the job

Feel the tension fall away. We have chosen the right person for the job.

We the people have chosen and we are happy not just that we are right, but because in our rightness, we see, hear and feel our collective competence.

We notice the 2 long years we put into making our choice was a good investment. We notice the American people, man and woman, young and old have good judgment. We notice that the American people despite their differences are able to sit down and thrash out what needs to be done. We notice that even when times are hard and it would be oh, so, so easy to get it all wrong, the American people didn’t lose their nerve. We notice the American people invest in a collective agreement even though their own view, temporarily, may not dominate. And so our confidence rises that we can make another collective agreement, then another, and then another. (Yes, for the first time in my long life, I’m in danger of becoming an American groupie!)

I don’t like the current tendency in British politics to “play the man and not the ball”. I don’t like the rendition by BBC that MP’s triumphed “against” Parliament. No. The MP’s triumphed because they worked with Parliament.

Today should have been a celebration that we are able to discuss serious matters (very serious for the Ghurkhas and their families) without coming to blows. Today, we should be celebrating that Parliament works. Today, we should be should be celebrating that our chosen representatives can go to the capital and present our views. Our views. We the people.

A man from a neighboring village won his case last year to erect a small memorial on the bridge connecting our settlements. This memorial is to the soldiers of Richard II and Cromwell who lost their lives fighting for Parliament. Parliament was hard-won in similar battles all over the UK. Parliament is a hard-won right and should be cherished and celebrated with our cup of tea (without milk)!

Xooyzya!

A play on the Greek for authority. We the people. We the people are quite capable of sitting down to discuss our differences, even when our differences frighten us.

And we are going to need a little solidarity if this flu breaks out. I hope HR departments across the land are stepping up hygiene. Tissues and wipes everywhere. Rubbish bins cleared more often.

Time to check the share price for tissue-makers!

We the people have chosen the right person for the job.

Belonging: what was your take on the inauguration?

Published January 21, 2009 by Jo Jordan

Yesterday, January 20 2009, was an exciting day, an astounding day. I watched almost the entire inauguration, from about 11.30 EST, on Sky’s brilliant HD service, thanks to the tipoff from @stewbagz. At about 10 o’clock American time, I rang up BT to connect my local deli, the famed MuchADo, owned by Brooklyn-lite, Matt, and with a long phone call, they successfully connected us to WiFi. So if you are driving up (or down) the M1, plan to exit on J14 near Milton Keynes and drop in for brunch, lunch or tea! The best deli between London and Edinburgh!

Up-and-running, I apologized to other coffee drinkers and offered to turn down the sound, but they elected to watch too! I later reconnected at home to Sky’s brilliant HD service and watched through to the end of transmission at midnight British time.

For me, I watched the crowd, which was enormous, and seemingly ‘relieved’ and in a gentle mood. I watched the organization which leaves me gob-smacked in its size, intricacy and well-oiled machinery. I listed out for the poetry, and of course, for the speech.

When it was all over, I asked myself what did I really feel under this tidal wave of emotion. What was the key image?

For me, the key image was undoubtedly the dignitaries coming down to the podium, mostly two-by-two and interspersed nicely to give the commentators a chance to do their thing.

Like so many people, for the first time, I felt that the corridors of power were mine, that I was represented there, and that I could be there just as easily as people I was watching.

For the first time, I feel that if I have a complaint, I can do something about it. Just do something about it. Not wait and not beg permission. Simply raise it to the attention of people who need to know and organize a solution.

For the first time, I feel that if I have a plan, I should just lay it out, discuss it with people who care, and do something about it.

And of course, now the corridors of power are ours, the future is entirely what we make of it.

As a non-American, of course, the corridors of power that I saw are not mine in a literal sense. But what America achieved today was a sense that democracy belongs to us. Thank you.

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Tag: democracy