Exploiting Chaos

The longer I'm in this job, the more replaceable I long to be. You read that correctly. As the Chief Vision Keeper of Triangle Leadership Academy, the organization's executive director ideally is walking the "building leadership capacity" talk such that his replacement is already in the wings.

I wish that were true. Maybe it's a good thing that I have no intention of leaving the job anytime soon. Besides having no protege to replace me, I'm still having too much fun doing what I do.

I owe part of the fun I'm having to my self-appointed mandate to remain as current as possible about all things leadership, including new books. My mentor, Joe Peel, was a good influence on me that way. I never saw the man without a book in his hand. So what am I thinking about tonight? A book.

The title of this blog, "Exploiting Chaos," was ripped from a little tome I found in Border's sale bin last weekend. I paid $3.99 and as it turns out, I would have gladly paid ten times as much for it.  Written by Jeremy Gutsche, the rest of my Border's bargain book title is 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change. 

I was interested but not sold. Then the blurb on the jacket jumped out at me.  From another author about whose books I have previously written came these words: "A rousing battle cry for the kind of creative, risky thinking that is most needed in times of change and disorder."

Alright! Is that is not what we've been hearing from our educator friends, Tony Wagner and Will Daggett?  If Daniel Pink of A Whole New Mind and Drive fame was going on record in favor of Gutche's unusual little book (and it truly is) then I needed to spend a little time with it.

Without reviewing the entire thing, let me circle back to why I long to be able to replace myself by referring to but one chapter in this amazing book. And believe me, choosing one lesson from among chapter titles including "Chase the right dream," "Fire people for not failing," and "Hire freaks," was tough.

The chapter I want to focus on is called, "Become leaderless." Gutsche reminds us here of the starfish whose decentralized nervous system compels a new arm to grow back when predators, for example, have gobbled up the previous one.  In fact, if something ripped off all five arms, you don't kill the starfish; you just wind up with another starfish.

The author continues by citing two negative examples, including terrorist networks and Napster, as well as positive examples, Alcoholics Anonymous and Global Peace Networks. Gutsche points out that none of the above entities are organized in the formal or political sense. What they do have in common, he says, is that they are driven by ideology. Gutsche concludes: "Chaos should not be tempered with structure; it should be harnessed with ideology."

Ideology, in my mind, need not be a scary thing despite both national and local examples of its being a substitute for deliberate and fact-based thinking and action. Parents, are you not driven by the ideology of love for your children? Citizens, are we not compelled by a vision of a more perfect union? Business and education leaders, are we not invested in leadership at every level? Gutsche's notion of leaderless organizations is certainly food for thought in the coming weekend.