Developing Collective Wisdom

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants in Building our Future

Collective leadership involves having the essential qualities as paraphrased from Aristotle's wise words of wisdom.

"The right people, in the right place and at the right time" .... "doing the right things, for the right people, and for the right reasons."

This week's political news in the UK is being dominated by the role of Boris Johnson's government during the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020. Yesterday's Economist summarized the situation succinctly:

Wrong people, wrong place, wrong time

It starts with ‘I’ but then encompasses ‘us’ and ‘we’

There are so many other humanitarian crises happening concurrently in the broader social and economic environments that we should be more concerned about resilience in responding to wicked global challenges. ?This may be true but the reality is that behind all of these crises lies the question: "Have we got the wrong people, in the wrong places at the wrong time?"

The lessons learnt during the pandemic can serve as a great starting point to examine global public leadership more broadly. According to the Economist, many countries have conducted quick and effective assessments to derive key takeaways from the pandemic. The article further states that the inquest in Britain will examine almost every aspect of the state's functioning.

Dissecting our more recent experiences of the highest levels of leadership in the country is critical, mainly as we are on the cusp of one of the most polarised elections since 1997. In our edited Research Handbook on Public Leadership: Re-imagining Public Leadership in a Post-pandemic Paradigm, we have argued for such a wholesale review of political and public leadership, putting the interests of the public at the heart of what leaders do.

Having the right people, in the right places at the right time, doing the right things for the right people, in the right way and for the right reasons is not a bad mantra to work towards.

Over the past 15 years, I have collaborated with multiple leaders to promote the importance of reflecting on their personal values and how these values are consistent with those of their organization and society. During this period, I have utilized Richard Barrett's Personal Values Assessment (PVA) tool, which is founded on seven levels of consciousness, and have integrated it with Mark Moore's Public Value Framework.

Each level of human need is dependent on a range of values, which can change over time. There are seven levels of personal consciousness and accompanying development tasks to progress within these levels:

Richard Barrett's research suggests that many people do not progress beyond stage 3, where they seek validation and recognition. Often, people remain entrenched in the cultural conditioning experienced from their early years. Continuous learning and development can help us to understand ourselves better and determine how we can then work with others within higher levels of consciousness. We can then look through other peoples lenses.

It's important to understand ourselves first before attempting to understand and appreciate other people's needs. Only then can we move towards higher levels of consciousness. Our ultimate goal should be to reach level seven, where serving others selflessly becomes our collective purpose as leaders.

We can then be in the right place, at the right time and do the right things for the right people, for the right reason.

Out of Every Crisis comes an Opportunity

Leadership teams across the globe are facing significant challenges due to geopolitical conflicts, monetary restrictions, and supply chain disruptions. It is important to recognize that these challenges have a profound impact on society, particularly on vulnerable groups and individuals. To overcome these obstacles, a collective response is necessary. Only through a collaborative leadership style can we successfully address the issues we are currently facing.

In my conclusion to our edited research handbook, I said:

When we get through the Covid-19 crisis (and it is ‘when’ rather than ‘if’), we should not return to the selfish, command-and-control, so-called individualistic heroic leadership that has dominated for so long in our history.

Let us hope that we learn from the past and question our personal values to align with those we lead.

Would this be considered a utopian or naive proposal?

In tomorrow's edition of Saturday Spotlight, I will explore how we can develop institutional frameworks that align personal values with the higher level of values upheld by institutions and the general public.