Mike Chitty

Helping realise development since 1986

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An Excerpt from Leadership Dialogue Number 7

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Since Lockdown I have been convening regular dialogues on the need to develop our practice as leadership developers, and it has been a spiritually, emotionally and intellectual rewarding endeavour.

Here is a little flavour…

Dialoguer 1: In the work I did for thirty years or something I did a lot of work with leaderless groups where there was no appointed leader or designated leader. And then the leadership just begins to flow. It wells up out of the ground, right? Like looking at spring water. It’s there, its rich in our relationships as human beings, it’s hard to even suppress it. Because we are potentially able to exhibit leadership in any situation.
It’s hard to suppress it. You allow leadership to flow between people and the one who has it, at any instant, right, so one moment it’s the elder the next moment, it’s the problem solver or something, you know that it bubbles. It, effervesces in relationships, as people begin to engage with each other, allowing each other to, to respond.
Dialoguer 2: The language there reminds me of a poem that Rumi wrote in about 1500 and something called Two kinds of Intelligence. And I was wondering if we could reimagine it around two kinds of leadership. He talks about the first kind of intelligence as what you learn at school, it’s manufactured, it’s created. You learn it from books and from teachers and you collect it, you amass it, and he talks about how that’s a hard intelligence to maintain. But it does give you a certain power in the world. And he talks about strolling with your intelligence around the world. And then he talks about the second kind of intelligence as being already complete and in you. Like a spring that overflows, that bubbles up. And he and he, he talks about cultivating that second form of intelligence as being the key to transcendence really. But most of us get judged by our first form of intelligence. You know, how much knowledge we’ve got in our heads? And it just just strikes me there. You know, this thing of leadership as learned technique, versus leadership as an innate expression of love.

Leadership Dialogue 7

If you would like to join us in a future exploration into Leadership and Its Development you can do so here….https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/102888121140

Pandemic as Portal?

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Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

Arundhati Roy

There were three influenza pandemics in the 20th Century, 1918, 1957 and 1968. If pandemics are portals then they played their part in getting us here. Now. And, perhaps this is a better world.

To some it feels more fragile, closer to collapse. To others it feel ‘better than ever’. For many it is hell on earth.

We know from history that civilisations rise and fall. Some think we are still ‘on the rise’ and that existing ways of living and organising have much more to offer. Others, like Arundhati Roy, think that what is happening is ‘like the wreckage of a train that has been careening down the track for years’. That we are well into ‘the fall’.

How might this pandemic be different? How might we imagine a better world and understand what it means, personally, to contribute to realising it?

What roles can we play in achieving a better world?

Imagining a better world is done by looking for clues about what ‘better’ looks like in our present world. The ‘present world’ that permits prejudice, hatred, avarice, data banks, dead ideas, dead rivers and smoky skies; but it also permits love, generosity, happiness and more sustainable ways of being. Indeed for some the rivers and skies are already clearing.

  • We must see what a better world looks in what is already around us. We must encourage and nurture these glimpses. Spread them. They must become our practice – rather than things we turn to during the crisis.

Recognising what we believe is ‘better’ is not straightforward. For those that believe we are still on the rise, then getting back to normal, the recovery of the economy and the stock markets and the re-establishing of the old patterns of social order can’t come quickly enough. Those that believe the train has been careening out of control for too long are determined not to get back on it. That it should not run again. They want to see new patterns of social order emerge.

How can we find a way for both of these beliefs to play a full role in realising a better future without division. Perhaps tolerance and learning will take centre stage rather than judgement and condemnation?

Developing and improving what is ‘necessary’ and ‘becoming’

What aspects of the current world are both necessary and becoming? Health and care systems, schools, farms, communities, shops, creativity, play and green spaces? Clear air and clear skies?

At this time more than ever we can see what it is that we value and need most if we are to live well together. We must support the development of what we believe to be both necessary and becoming. But perhaps we must hold our beliefs lightly. While we work for them and we must also be prepared to change them as we learn more about how things are developing. Dogmatism will serve us poorly.

For too long improvement has been primarily about efficiency and productivity. Of course this matters. But so do does capability and capacity to handle change in a volatile, uncertain complex and ambiguous world, where a single mutation in a a single virus can bring us close to collapse. Agility, adaptability, making the most of all of our human potential and ingenuity for self organisation has never felt more important. This brings with it implications for education, training and development. Perhaps less emphasis on compliance and more emphasis on values led experimentation. An awareness of ethics and a global perspective on environmental and social justice

Having more than we need may be inefficient in the short term, but prudent. Our improvement perspectives need to go beyond the quarterly statement and annual report to look at longer timeframes and greater challenges. We must stop externalising our costs and pushing them further into the future to be tackled by our children and their children. If w remembered our history, pandemics might not catch us unprepared.

Reducing our reliance on what is ‘unnecessary’ and ‘unbecoming’

We must learn to live without goods and services that are neither necessary nor becoming. We must find ways to discourage profit taking that depends on destroying health and happiness. We must resist those that manufacture desire for products and services that we too easily want but don’t need.

We must change lifestyles that produce unnecessary waste instead of reusing, repairing and recycling.

Organisations and systems that concentrate capital in the hands of the few must be encouraged to distribute that value much more widely, so that no-one is left behind. Fairer taxation and wage structures, and true recognition of externalised costs might be places to start.

We might want to rely on our governments to make the changes. To wait for them to create this downward pressure on the unnecessary and the unbecoming But we make political decisions every time we open our wallets, share our thoughts, listen and learn.

Recognising and valuing a variety of contributions

Those that lead, manage and work in our most valuable, if far from perfect institutions, cant stop polluting overnight. They can’t overcome a civilisations history of discrimination and oppression overnight. The pragmatists who keep things running and do their best to change need support.

Those that demand that we stop polluting, stop destroying, stop hating, stop discriminating, stop killing. The idealists who hold us to account for how far short we fall of how our best selves could be. Even when they disrupt our lives, and our consciences, with their protestations and pleas, we must learn to recognise the possibilities inherent in the truth they stand for. They to need our support.

Those that try. Those that experiment with new ways of doing things, new ways of organising, living, making and being in the hope that they can make something a little better than what has gone before. The innovators, risk-takers, the ones that try, fail and try again. The innovators too need our support.

So perhaps now is not the time to look to ‘authority’ to make us a better world. Perhaps now is the time for us to turn in, to reflect and to see what part we can play in supporting the growth of what is necessary and becoming?

Chance to explore this on Wednesday April 15th…https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shifting-paradigms-tickets-99994618596

Parent and Child…or Power and Love

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I saw two very different broad type of responses to c19.  

The first is was that of widespread paralysis. Like rabbits caught in headlights. Sat waiting for the ‘top’ or the ‘centre’, or ‘HQ’ to figure things out and give us clear guidance and instructions.  If in doubt – do nothing and await further instructions. Or, keep doing what we have always done – but do it with greater commitment, greater risk, and greater efforts to mitigate the risk too.   It is a reflection of a particular culture where organisations and individuals have formed a dependency on an ‘authority’, that will eventually ‘know the way’ and ‘show the way’.  And a reliance on habits and routines that have been proven to work in the past and will surely, hopefully, prevail again. It was a culture of ‘closed innovation’ where some were paid to think and lead while others followed.

The second broad response was that of open innovation and creativity.  Self organising and mutually supporting groups and networks have springing up within days and all sort of innovations being tested.  Restaurants becoming take-aways. Makers clubs running online.  Choirs and bands performing from the sofas using collaboration platforms and music being released at an amazing rate.  GPs suddenly doing nearly all of their consultations online.  New hospitals are spring up within weeks. This world is moving quickly, collaboratively and positively.

What influences which of these two reactions we get in a crisis?  Well, certainly personality, history and culture play a huge part.  

Some people are more prone to ‘flight’ or ‘fight’ when they face a threat – they act.  They experiment. They test their assumptions by trying things out. While others are more prone to freeze.  Let others take the risks. As the way forward becomes clear, guidelines will appear and we can the move with safety. 

In our evolutionary history both can work. 

I also think organisational culture and structure play a part.  

Families with strong leaders look to the leader for assurance and guidance.  Organisations with strong hierarchies look to the senior management and the board for guidance and instructions, while families with more distributed leadership start talking to each other about what next.  Organisations with more empowered structures start to blossom with experiments as individuals and groups start to test the new waters in terms of what works, and share what they know.

But which is best?  How should we develop our systems to better respond in the future.  Well, I don’t think it is either/or.  

It is both/and.

The best responses have both a strong top down influence and this blossoming of innovation.  They work together – exchanging information. Listening, challenging, supporting, testing. A clear sense of direction and purpose re-stated from the top. A strong culture of connection and innovation learning and sharing how to work for this purpose in the new world.

Dependency is replaced by a healthier, more human relationship.  A genuine association around a shared purpose that knows how to work with both power and love.

Take a good look at your systems.  What reactions are you seeing to the crisis? 

What does it teach you about the need for things to be different in the future?

C19 – better than leadership?

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C19 is horrific. Perhaps the most frightening thing I have ever lived through. But then I am too young for WW2 and was a new born at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis when we stood at the brink of a nuclear holocaust. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Tsunamis, famines. C19 is right up there. But like most crises, it gets things done that our leaders couldn’t.

C19 has enabled thing to happen in a few months that leadership have been trying to make happen for years. We are reducing our use of cars and planes. We are increasing the use of technology. And innovation and creativity is springing up everywhere. Some previously moribund organisations are actually making stuff happen. That understaffed NHS? 750 00 volunteers and 20 000 returning clinicians. I wonder why they ever left? Leadership?

C19 is doing what our leaders couldn’t. And I am seeing it work in two very different ways.

The first is that of paralysis. Like rabbits caught in headlights. Sat waiting for the ‘top’ the ‘centre’, or ‘HQ’ to figure things out and give clear guidance and instructions.  If in doubt – do nothing and await further instructions.

Or, keep doing what we have always done – but do it with greater commitment, greater risk, and greater efforts to mitigate the risk too. Find the inner hero. Or have it thrust upon us. Strike the medals.

This perhaps is a reflection of a particular culture where organisations and individuals have formed a dependency on ‘authority’, that will eventually ‘know the way and show the way’.  And a reliance on habits and routines that have been proven to work in the past and will surely, hopefully, prevail again.

The second is that of open innovation and creativity.  Self organising and mutually supporting groups and networks have sprung up within days and all sort of innovations are being tested.  Restaurants are becoming take-aways. Makers clubs are running online.  Choirs and bands are performing from the sofas using collaboration platforms and new music is being released at an amazing rate.  GPs are doing nearly all of their consultations online with kit that had been gathering dust in their surgeries for years.  New hospitals spring up within weeks. This world is moving quickly, collaboratively and positively.

What influences which of these two reactions we get to the crisis?  Well, certainly personality, history and culture play a huge part.  

Some people are more prone to ‘flight’ or ‘fight’. When they face a threat – they act.  They experiment. They test their assumptions by acting. While others are more prone to freeze.  Let others take the risks. As the way forward becomes clear, guidelines will appear and we can then move with more safety. 

Both can work.  But what is best now, in this context?

I also think culture and structure play a part.  

Families with strong leaders look to them for assurance and guidance.  Organisations with strong hierarchies look to the senior management and the board for guidance and instructions.  Subjects look to Ministers and state sanctioned experts for assurances, advice and the wielding of new powers to keep us safe.

While families with more distributed leadership start talking to each other about what next.  Organisations with more empowered structures start to blossom with experiments as individuals and groups start to test the new waters in terms of what works, and share what they know. Civilians start to care for themselves, their neighbours and what they hold most dear.

But which response is best?  How should we develop our systems to better respond in the future? 

Well, I don’t think it is either/or.  It is both/and.

The best responses have both a strong top down influence and this blossoming of innovation.  They work together – exchanging information. Listening, challenging, supporting, testing. Top down and bottom up – learning from each other in rapid cycles of experimentation and learning.

Dependency is replaced by a healthier more human relationship.  A genuine association around a shared purpose where hierarchy and rank are less important than experience, wisdom, intuition, and when they are available, facts.

Take a good look at the systems you are part of professionally and personally.  What reactions are you seeing to the crisis? In yourself? In those around you? 

What does it teach you about the need for things to be different in the future?

What does it mean for you and your development?

Leadership and its Development…part of the problem?

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Cast your mind back to a time before this tiny virus had us in its grip.

How were we doing?

If there was an end of term report card what might it say?

Well, of course, we have worked hard. We have been industrious. Much has been achieved.

  • The world has been shrunk. Men on the moon. Women in to space
  • Massive improvements for many in medicine, health and wealth
  • A greater choice of consumer goods than ever and more sophisticated financial products and services to help us own them

But it is not all puppy dog tails and sweet, sweet roses.

  • Globally we have millions of people without enough food and shelter fleeing wars and discrimination – running from their fellow humans
  • Habitat being destroyed and species extinction running at alarming rates
  • Climate collapsing, with real fears that sea level rises will make the floods caused by increasingly warm winds carrying higher than level moisture levels look like April showers
  • Plastics, visible and invisible inside our bodies and in every place on earth
  • Widespread deplorable practices of animal husbandry required to provide us with affordable volumes of flesh, milk and eggs
  • An accumulation of capital, wealth, by a few massive corporates, celebrities and billionaires. While millions live and die in poverty with little or no chance of escape
  • Societies patterned by unfair discrimination
  • Air that is not safe to breathe. Water that is not safe to drink. And a civilisation that can be bought to its knees by such a simple thing
  • Our children suffering levels of anxiety and poor mental health that we have not been able to respond to with timely care and compassion
  • Hundreds of millionaires, billionaires, politicians and celebrities taking private jets to Davos to wring their hands over the state of the world

For some the message is loud and clear. Leadership is failing us. As leadership developers we have to accept, explore and develop our role in this.

Perhaps.

There is another story…

I’m sure some will not buy this narrative. It certainly isn’t the ‘whole truth’. Some may say that our scientific and technological prowess, capitalism and our ingenuity has raised the standard of living world wide. The greater the challenge thrown at humankind the greater our creative response. We will prevail. Humankind really will overcome all of its troubles.

Personally, I am not buying it. History suggests we shouldn’t buy it.

Every civilisation so far has had a rise, and a fall, often through over-confidence and hubris. Humility and uncertainty have been crushed by power, arrogance and self-belief. Until the whole pack of cards comes down.

For those that say now is not a time for reflection but a time to roll up our sleeves and help, I say thank you. Godspeed.

But perhaps some of us can help best by exploring whether leadership and leadership development is failing us and the planet? And if it is, then as leadership developers, educators, citizens, what is our role in this?

And how might we learn and develop ourselves and our practice?

Do you hear this call? Are you curious?

A Fresh Dialogue?

Over the coming weeks and months we will hold a series of online meetings with an aim to develop a generative dialogue to explore this issues surrounding Leadership and Leadership Development with a view to learning together and looking for possibilities of a new way forward. To generate a community of people who carefully and gently construct and develop a ‘pool of shared meaning’ from which new possibilities might form.

Pool of shared meaning
The Pool of Shared Meaning

Are you interested? Curious? Would you like to join us?

John Varney of the Centre for Creativity in Management and I will be hosting some online meetings in the coming weeks, provisionally titled ‘Learning to do together what we can’t do alone’ and we would invite you to join us.

  • Tuesday 26th May
  • Tuesday 23rd June

Book all dates here…

All sessions are free to join. Come to one or more. We would love for you to join us for the whole journey wherever that may take us – but dipping in and out is fine.

There is also an option to pay to cover costs and make donations that will support us to develop the work further.

Questions and comments welcome! Please do invite others who you think might heed the call to join us. Share this post. But also issue personal invitations.

We need to learn to do together…what we can’t do alone.