informal coalitions

Mastery, mystery, and muddling through - 1

In a recent article, the Financial Times' political columnist, Janan Ganesh, argues that Theresa May's government is "stronger for its weakness".  In agreeing with this, Deborah Rowland comments briefly (here) that the accompanying uncertainty and 'not knowing', arising from the lack of a Commons majority, is likely to demand more collective decision-making and result in more creative solutions. She uses Keats's notion of "negative capability" to illustrate her point.

I very much support her view that strength can come from the capacity to survive and thrive in conditions of 'unknowability'. Indeed, the need and ability to do so flows directly from the complex social dynamics of human interaction, in which 'not knowing' is the norm, not the exception.

Sadly, Deborah then ends her post with a disappointingly dismissive reference to "muddling through", when talking about the required leadership response to these conditions. On this point, I disagree fundamentally. And it is this aspect of organizational dynamics and leadership practice that I want to say more about here.

The challenge of taking complexity seriously - Second helping

In response to my previous article, The challenge of taking complexity seriously, I received a comment via LinkedIn which implied that there are circumstances in the social world which are not complex. Also that, in those situations in which complexity “persists”, this does not occur randomly but rather is “shaped” and “driven” by a “structure and simple rules”.

My efforts to address these points in a comment were thwarted by a ‘computer-says-no’ message, to the effect that I had exceeded LinkedIn’s word-limit for replies. This brief, ‘follow-up’ article is the result. It was initially published on LinkedIn in May 2017…