Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
at 9:40am
on Friday, 19th May 2006
For me, the answer (as always) seems to lie in Ronald Heifetz's analysis of leadership and change. He argues that our instinctive reaction is to expect our leaders to solve problems on our behalf - like a doctor giving us the magic treatment to make it all better again.
What leaders need to do though, according to the Heifetz is to:
- hand the work back to people themselves by bringing issues out into the open
- create holding environments for people to adress the problems themselves and recognise neccessary changes to their own behaviour and attitudes
- regulate the inevitable stress that this causes by sequencing and pacing change appropriately
What's this all got to do with Cameron? Suddenly the policy commissions, the refusal to back his 'A list' of candidates with coercion, and the long-term game that he is playing seem to make strategic as well as political sense.
For me, the answer (as always) seems to lie in Ronald Heifetz's analysis of leadership and change. He argues that our instinctive reaction is to expect our leaders to solve problems on our behalf - like a doctor giving us the magic treatment to make it all better again.
What leaders need to do though, according to the Heifetz is to:
- hand the work back to people themselves by bringing issues out into the open
- create holding environments for people to adress the problems themselves and recognise neccessary changes to their own behaviour and attitudes
- regulate the inevitable stress that this causes by sequencing and pacing change appropriately
What's this all got to do with Cameron? Suddenly the policy commissions, the refusal to back his 'A list' of candidates with coercion, and the long-term game that he is playing seem to make strategic as well as political sense.
LOGIN to add comments
Comments