The recent thread about "Leadership and Technology" was in my mind as I
read an interview with Howard Gardner in the current (Q1 1999) issue of
"Strategy & Business" published by Booz, Allen & Hamilton. (The whole
article is excellent. The publication can be found in larger retail
newsstands.)
I found Gardner's discussion of leadership very stimulating and a good
match for my own experiences.
Gardner, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, became famous with
his book _Frames of Mind_ in 1983 which made a compelling argument that
intelligence is multi-faceted, that there are multiple dimensions of
intelligence, or in his words "multiple intelligences." This is in
contrast to the classic view that there is one inborn dimension of
intelligence, and that this is well-measured as "IQ".
More recently, Gardner has researched and written about leadership,
including the book _Leading Minds_. He says in the interview that his
research identifies a common characteristic of great leaders that they
create powerful narratives, and I like his way of talking about these.
I started thinking of this in connection to William Auvinen-Bray's
question about technology and leadership... If leadership is about the
creation of powerful narratives, then it seems to me:
- technology that helps connect people up and down the organizational
hierarchy can help the leaders be in touch with the front line so that
more of the local intelligence of the front line will be reflected in the
narrative.
- technology can enable the leaders to carry the narrative throughout the
organization more quickly (I'm thinking of organization-wide broadcasts
and the like). This is especially true of the narrative that's
demonstrated (embodied) by the leaders as opposed to the narrative that's
spoken by the leaders. Technology can make the leaders more visible
throughout the organization very quickly.
- technology that connects people across the organization can enable a
wider dialogue involving the narrative. I'm convinced that if this
narrative notion makes sense, it must be by lots of people talking about
it, in their own words, and demonstrating it, in their own embodiment, not
just the "official" broadcast from on-high.
- technology that connects people far beyond an organization's boundary
can make it much more possible for a group or company to demonstrate
leadership of an industry. Does technology today make it more possible for
the very best leaders (people, companies, institutions, NGO's) to
demonstrate leadership of the world?
- does our technology here (this Learning-org disucssion, which reaches a
couple of thousand people each day) enable *us* to demonstrate leadership
of some kind? From my first contact with Senge and this community in 1991,
I've found the Learning Organization idea to be a powerful narrative of
the kind I think Gardner is talking about. I originally launched this
project in the hope that the dialogue here would help us collectively
refine and extend the narrative. Reading Gardner has made this purpose
clearer to me.
So, to Bill Bray and others interested in this question, when I thought
about leaders as those creating the powerful narratives, this gave me some
insight into how today's technology plays a role.
-- Rick
I'm going to quote at some length from the Strategy & Business interview
with Howard Gardner:
"I've done a generic study of leadership focusing on individuals who are
outstanding leaders...
"And the basic point is that leadership involves the creation of powerful
narratives, narratives that are much more than mission statements or
messages. They are actually stories where there are goals and obstacles,
where good and bad things can happen along the way and where the people
involved feel part of an enterprise that's trying to end up in a better
place.
"In order for a story to be effective in the long run, though, it must be
'embodied.' The individual or institution that bears the narrative must
behave consistently with it. Because if you tell one story but you live
another -- if you don't walk the talk, to use the vernacular -- then the
story doesn't have appeal.
"If you're a very good embodier, though, you don't have to be such a good
storyteller because your symbolic behaviour really conveys the point.
That's interesting in the corporate sense because the more you're trying
to create a new business, or change a business radically, the more
important is the story you tell. But for an organisation that's very well
launched, where the story is quite set and you don't need to change it --
as in the Army or the Catholic Church -- it is only importnat that you
embody the story...
"The best storytellers are those who can tell a story that's strange
enough to get people's attention but not so strange that the people can't
eventually make it part of their own consciousness...
"I have become convinced that what I call existential stories are very
important. These stories tell us who we are and what we're trying to
achieve. Again, it doesn't matter if it's a family, a business or a
country you're trying to lead: people have a real thirst for stories that
give them a better sense of how they belong.
"I make a big distinction, though, between inclusionary and exclusionary
stories. And this is an interesting notion from the point of view of
business. Inclusionary stories try to incorporate more and more people;
exclusionary ones pit people against one another. I thought, when I began
the inquiry, that inclusionary stories were necessarily better, but in
fact they can be very risky because you risk losing your core constituency
if the story is too inclusive. And exclusionary stories are often very
powerful for motivating people.
"So these are tools in the hands of a leader. Now, to connect this to
business decisions and devising strategy? Very often, when you're involved
in that sphere, you're actually trying to change people's beliefs, their
actions and their feelings. By definition, a leader is an individual or
institution that significantly affects the thoughts, feelings and
behaviours of large numbers of other people or institutions.
"And the capacity to bring about these changes is really a leadership
challenge. It's not a management challenge, which is basically
maintenance."
--- end of quotes from Howard Gardner interview ---
In association with Amazon.com, these links...
Frames of Mind : The Theory of Multiple Intelligences/Tenth
Anniversary Edition
by Howard Gardner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465025102/learningorg
The Disciplined Mind : What All Students Should Understand
by Howard Gardner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684843242/learningorg
The Unschooled Mind : How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach
by Howard Gardner
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465088961/learningorg
--Richard Karash ("Rick") | <http://world.std.com/~rkarash> Speaker, Facilitator, Trainer | mailto:Richard@Karash.com "Towards learning organizations" | Host for Learning-Org Discussion (617)227-0106, fax (617)523-3839 | <http://www.learning-org.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>