THREE LEADERSHIP STANCES TOM BOYDELL

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THREE LEADERSHIP STANCES
TOM BOYDELL
tboydell_at_inter-logics.net
www.inter-logics.net
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the world we live in , operate in (our context)
leadership
distribution of purpose
distribution of knowledge
distribution of power
distribution of risk
STANCE A MODE OF STANDING
with respect to
organisational form, structure
organisation development
training
self-development
the nature of people
the nature or meaning of truth, reality,
meaning
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the world we live in , operate in (our context)
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
leadership
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
STANCE A MODE OF STANDING
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
with respect to
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
truth, reality, meaning
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STANCE 1
Located at the top of the hierarchy
Distribution of PURPOSE
Distribution of POWER
Is and should be held according to position in
hierarchy the higher you are the more power you
have
But in fact many people have an illegitimate
or subversive/terrorist power to make things
not happen (or make different things happen)
Hence MISSION, VISION and STRATEGY
Formulated by top management made available to
others to the extent that top management think
this is helpful
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STANCE 1
Assumed that the more senior you are in the
hierarchy, the greater the risk you carry
Distribution of RISK
In practice many people lower down are heavily at
risk in that their jobs and careers (and these
days pensions) are all vulnerable to decisions
over which they have no control
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STANCE 1
Assumed that the more senior you are the more
you know
Distribution of KNOWLEDGE
In practice many employees lower down have
considerable knowledge but this tends to be
ignored
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STANCE 1
Leaders as managers top management setting
mission, vision, objectives
LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP STYLE
Command and Control
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STANCE 1
UNCONSCIOUS
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT CONTEXT
Simple, stable
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Restructuring, reorganisation Quality Assurance
programmes
PRIME FOCUS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Individual skill, knowledge and attitude
Others know whats good for me, what I need
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STANCE 1
Machine, clockwork, to be run smoothly
ORGANISATIONAL METAPHOR
Designed for central and hierarchical
control Clear lines of authority and
accountability
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
PICTURE OF PEOPLE
Economic resources hands
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STANCE 1
PREDOMINANT CONVERSATION PATTERN
Monologue
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STANCE 1
PREDOMINANT CONVERSATION PATTERN
Monologue
s
Two monologues dont make a dialogue
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STANCE 1
Restructuring, reorganisation Quality Assurance
programmes
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
PRIME FOCUS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Individual skill, knowledge and attitude
Others know whats good for me, what I need
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STANCE 1
CLASSICAL Doing Things Well
Engineering
UNDERPINNING DISCIPLINES
EXAMPLES OF UNDERPINNING THEORISTS
Taylor (1911) Fayol (1949)
APPROXIMATE DATE FIRST RECOGNISED
Since the industrial revolution late 18th
C More thoughtfully since around 1918
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STANCE 1
Command Control
DOING THINGS WELL
DOING THINGS BETTER
achieving best current practice
continuously
improving quality and efficiency creating
new best practice
but
Likely to get left behind difficulty in
adapting, improving, innovating people want
more voice
STANCE 2
Hearts Minds
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so
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STANCE 2
Strategic purpose located at the top of the
hierarchy
Distribution of PURPOSE
Others are required to buy in to that purpose
and to commit to their own local purposes aligned
to the overall one
Distribution of POWER
Strategic power held by those at top of the
hierarchy
Employees delegated power to make operational
improvements thus empowered to meet objectives
etc set by higher management
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STANCE 2
Formulated by top management after consultation
at all levels
Hence MISSION, VISION and STRATEGY
Shared with all employees in that they are
informed and strong efforts made to gain their
enthusiasm, buy in, on board
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STANCE 2
Distribution of RISK
People now have more control over how they do
things, how they can improve performance,
therefore they often feel more in control and
less helpless than in Stance 1
Conversely employees often feel that by becoming
more productive they are in fact at risk of
working themselves into redundancy something
that senior managers often ignore or deny
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STANCE 2
Assumed that the more senior you are the more
you know
Distribution of KNOWLEDGE
In practice many employees lower down have
considerable knowledge but this tends to be
ignored
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STANCE 2
Managers as leaders all managers create
enthusiasm and commitment from their teams
LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP STYLE
Winning hearts and minds
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT CONTEXT
Changing but in a relatively predictable, stable
and linear way
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STANCE 2
A problem to be solved Also sometimes seen as a
living organism, to be made healthy (fit for
purpose)
ORGANISATIONAL METAPHOR
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Designed for central control of direction and
local empowerment of operations Overarching
hierarchy, with attempts to retain clear lines
of authority and accountability whilst
recognizing their practical limitations - eg
dotted line relationships, matrix management,
teamwork
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STANCE 2
PICTURE OF PEOPLE
Human resources
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

• Briefing groups
• Teamwork development
• Business Process Re-engineering
• Deming approach to continuous
• improvement and statistical process
• control (SPC)
• Lean thinking
• Quality circles
• Balanced scorecard
• Action Learning
• Learning organisation

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STANCE 2
MODERN Doing Things Better
PRIME FOCUS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Individual and team competence
UNDERPINNING DISCIPLINES
Engineering Deming approach to SPC Humanistic
psychology
EXAMPLES OF UNDERPINNING THEORISTS
McGregor (1960) Argyris (1964) Deming (1982)
Revans (1971 1980)
APPROXIMATE DATE FIRST RECOGNISED
1965 to 1970
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things fall apart
Hi! Im WB Yeats
Hi! Im WB Yeats
STANCE 1
Command Control
but
DOING THINGS WELL
DOING THINGS BETTER
achieving best current practice
continuously
improving quality and efficiency creating
new best practice
THINGS FALL APART
but
Likely to get left behind difficulty in
adapting, improving, innovating people want
more voice
STANCE 2
Hearts Minds
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A frustrating gulf between finalising policies
and plans and people carrying them out
Partnerships and alliances not working as was
hoped
Large-scale projects significantly behind time
and/or over budget
Departments, units, regional groups unable to
work properly together
THINGS FALL APART
People with the wrong attitude
resistant, rebellious, apathetic uncoopera
tive
Conflict between different professional groups
Multi-agency or multi-functional projects going
wrong
Customers, suppliers, voters and other
stakeholders dont trust us
MERE ANARCHY IS LOOSED UPON THE WORLD
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things fall apart
Hi! Im WB Yeats
STANCE 1
Command Control
but
DOING THINGS WELL
DOING THINGS BETTER
achieving best current practice
continuously
improving quality and efficiency creating
new best practice
but
Yeats thought that things fall fall apart
because the centre cannot hold. But we are
suggesting that in complex situations it is just
not possible for the centre to hold on to power,
purpose, risk, and knowledge. Trying to do so Is
what causes falling apart. The centre has to let
go
Likely to get left behind difficulty in
adapting, improving, innovating people want
more voice
STANCE 2
Hearts Minds
so
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things fall apart
ACCEPTING THAT
ONLY BY
STANCE 1
the centre cannot hold
Command Control
but
DOING THINGS WELL
DOING THINGS BETTER
achieving best current practice
continuously
improving quality and efficiency creating
new best practice
STANCE 3
Involvement CoOperation
but
Likely to get left behind difficulty in
adapting, improving, innovating people want
more voice
STANCE 2
DOING BETTER THINGS
Hearts Minds
achieving diverse
purposes together
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so
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STANCE 3
Appreciation that people want to achieve things
together, to participate in the creation of an
unknown future, whilst at same time it is
recognised that multiple stakeholders have
their own legitimate diverse purposes and
aspirations
Distribution of PURPOSE
Distribution of POWER
Appreciation that diverse stakeholders have
legitimate power within the overall community and
can use this to make things happen as well as
not happen
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STANCE 3
Continuously evolving through active engagement
of many stakeholders
Hence MISSION, VISION and STRATEGY
Mission, vision and strategy of overall
community defined so as to support the diverse
legitimate missions and visions of all those
stakeholders
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STANCE 3
Appreciation that we are all in this together
we are all taking significant risks, we all
need to support each other, in our endeavours to
move on, to do better things
Distribution of RISK
Distribution of KNOWLEDGE
Much knowledge in and between stakeholder groups
Appreciation that different views, opinions and
beliefs are valid to those who hold them
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STANCE 3
Leaders as social architects creating
conditions for all to practice leadership in the
sense of relational dialogue, having
conversations across boundaries, between
different world-views
LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP STYLE
Making meaning together
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STANCE 3
ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT CONTEXT
Complexity, ambiguity needs and problems are
interconnected so that addressing one requires
addressing the others apparent solutions to one
problem worsen/create problems elsewhere or
later in time social fragmentation - between
individuals, groups, organisations, professions
gets in the way of collective action
Turbulence, many more voices wanting to be heard
- no longer willing to accept the position they
are put in many alternative purposes and
courses of action becoming visible
Joined-up-working, multi-agency, alliances,
partnerships use of networks
Situations that cannot be handled simply by doing
better that which we already do well
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STANCE 3
Network of conversations, through which we can
explore a mystery and create a story together
ORGANISATIONAL METAPHOR
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STANCE 3
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
Made up of a number of different structures,
each appropriate for specific purposes (eg
presenting an acceptable shape to the outside
world meeting legal regulations doing some
things well, other things better, within overall
context of doing better things
through supporting the cooperation of a number
of communities of practice
This may take a number of forms a hierarchy, a
matrix, a flexible network of local organisations
, groups, and teams, rapidly forming and
dissolving around fast-changing business needs
and ebbing/flowing corporate relationships
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STANCE 3
PICTURE OF PEOPLE
Resourcefull, purposefull, knowledgeable humans
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

• Multi-stakeholder meetings
• Large group events
• Relational action learning
• Future search
• Relational practice
• Whole Systems Development

PRIME FOCUS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
Individual and team competence plus
cross-boundary multiple-stakeholder working
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STANCE 3
RELATIONAL Doing Better Things
- TOGETHER
UNDERPINNING DISCIPLINES
Social Constructionism Linguistics Adult
Development
EXAMPLES OF UNDERPINNING THEORISTS
Follett (1918 sic) Bakhtin (1981) Kegan
(1982) Drath and Palus (1994) Gergen (1999)
Drath (2001) Blantern and Anderson-Wallace
(2006) Boydell and Blantern (2007)
APPROXIMATE DATE FIRST RECOGNISED
Emerging around 2000
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