With increasing frequency, the important work of organizations is their ability to respond to complex challenges creatively. Complex challenges are those that defy existing approaches or solutions. ...They are central in importance and demand decisive action. And yet because the organization, team, or individual does not know how to act -- or is prone to act as if the problem is a familiar one -- there is also a need to slow down and reflect. In the case of complex challenges, a sense of direction, the alignment of energies and resources, and a shared commitment to the work come in part from what you call creative leadership. In facing and resolving complex challenges, it is found that two sets of competencies are necessary. The better-known set consists of rational skills such as planning, analyzing, and decision making. The second set, creative leadership competencies, is less well known in organizational settings but no less important. Everyone possesses at least the rudiments of the following interrelated but distinct competencies: paying attention, personalizing, imaging, serious play, collaborative inquiry, and crafting.
Using visuals to build teams David Magellan Horth; Palus, Charles J
T + D,
10/2003, Letnik:
57, Številka:
10
Trade Publication Article
If there is one given, it's that when there's a complex problem or an opportunity to be exploited there are often as many perspectives on the subject as there are individuals involved. It's important ...to hear those points of view in order to get a full reading of the size and shape of the issue you face. But when the time comes to take urgently needed action, those same people need to be clear in their understanding of the issues and aligned in their purpose. If the traditional tools don't help do that, how does one go about gathering the information, knowledge, and experience needed and aligning groups? The answer, is found in dialogue. Dialogue provides a way to uncover new information and new perspectives. It provides a way to share and explore, and to develop unexpected solutions and a shared point of view about how to proceed. To solve complex problems, one needs new approaches for moving below the kinds of surface discussions that take place. One seemingly unlikely approach for doing that is through photographs and other images.
The non-traditional leadership competencies we describe in this article are blends of six interrelated facets of a single sense-making competency. They are paying attention, personalizing, imaging, ...serious play, collaborative inquiry, and crafting. Executives and managers are naturally gifted with these competencies to some degree. However, their use is not considered relevant in dealing with challenges often perceived as highly complicated, rather, than complex - as we define it. Furthermore, we have found that the competencies are aesthetic, rather than analytic in nature. In the face of complex challenges, the craft of effective leadership demands competent synthesizing to complement traditional analytical skills.
Executive performance is examined in terms of Bakan's theory of the dualism of human motivation with respect to agency (the motivation toward self-differentiation and personal mastery) and communion ...(the subsuming of the self within a shared entity). It is demonstrated that agency is prototypical of executive performance and that communion is a goal for the potential development of executives. Agency provides benefits leading to success but has concomitant drawbacks that can cause executives to risk career derailment and the loss of supportive relationships. Using McAdam's model of personal identity and the life story, it is proposed that identity provides a means of channeling agency so that one may use its power yet minimize its hazards. The ideas are illustrated in the extensively documented life story of Dodge D. Morgan - an executive who sailed nonstop and alone around the world in 1986.
