After Doha, more of the same ‘empty shell’ - Why do we never hear of ‘Responsibility struggles’? by Robert Burke

How can we redefine, or get rid of, the pursuit of power (a focus on ‘making things happen’), and replace it with responsibility (‘in whose interest are we making things happen’). What would the ‘Corridors of Responsibility’ look like?

In terms of leadership and management are we researching the right issues?

Are we auditing the right issues? And are we evaluating the right issues in our performance management systems?

These were some questions raised at a recent Foresight Action Network meeting in London focussing on New Purposes for Organisations in the 21st Century.

In thinking about these questions I revisited an article I wrote over a decade ago called (2001) Pulse of the planet: leadership models in the global village, Robert Burke, Foresight/ vol.03, no.03, Camford, UK.

In that article I suggested a new Leadership Hierarchy as follows that could hold some answers to these questions. 1 being the highest and most important.

1              Parenting / Primary Carer

Idealised role model: The first and arguably the most important form of leadership experienced by children is that displayed by their parents or primary carers. Parents model the behaviour they wish or expect their children to copy. This role model is likely to be adopted in turn by their children. Since it is a dominant form of leadership experienced by children in their formative years, the role of parental influence in shaping future leadership styles (effectively or otherwise) cannot be underestimated.

2              Teaching

Intellectual & Citizenship: Like parents, teachers act as strong role models. As with parenting there is an opportunity and need for teachers to model the behaviour they expect, as well as to teach the fundamentals of global citizenship, intellectual stimulation and other aspects of leadership.

3              Personal

Idealised Behaviour: There is a tendency for discussions of leadership to emphasize the individual. Without diminishing the importance of personal attributes, a better understanding can be gained if these attributes are seen in the context of the many (systemic) forces that influence leadership.

4              Ecological

Humans as part of Nature: It is only through ecological awareness that tools can be designed and applied to bring about a harmonic balance between humankind and nature. Although personal leadership is placed higher than ecological leadership in the hierarchy, personal transformation is a precondition to ecological leadership.

5              Community

Inspirational – Motivational – Tribalism: In a globalized world community, leadership takes on renewed importance supporting the notion that national sovereignty will become less important over the next 15-20 years as global government takes on a more significant role. Just as the globalized world becomes more of a reality each day, so local communities will re-emerge. This is the rebirth of tribalism, where communities become much more involved with their local citizens.

6              Global

Systemic Leadership\Biophilliac: The current western worldview derives ultimately from the industrial era. Global leadership accepts that if the whole of humanity is to thrive in the 21st century, countries and communities must become interdependent. It sees that the economic and social inequities have to be solved and that the ‘ways of knowing’ of different cultures need to be better understood and accepted. Global leadership treats all in the planet equally and takes on the mantle of ecological leadership in its true sense. The greatest threat to global leadership now comes from organizational leadership, in which cultural diversity is becoming subordinate to brand leadership.

7              Organisational

Equity and Fairness, Transformational:   Many organizations are only just realizing that learning is a strategic imperative if they are to be part of the future. However, the form of learning is important, and there is clearly a distinction between learning and training. Training is analogous to information: it is possible to have too much. Learning, on the other hand, is something you can never get enough of.

8              National

Needed to achieve Global Unity: Globalization is not the problem. The problem is who ‘owns’ globalization, and whether it can have a fair and equitable outcome for all. This has obvious implications for questions of national sovereignty