View publication - Chartered Institute of Housing

PART ONE: LEARNING TODAY
and quantitative problem solving for managerial leaders. This trend was reinforced by a
similar concentration on the importance of planning, organisation and sequential
problem solving.
No one would argue that problem solving in the world of work needs this ‘left brain’
approach but it is insufficient if it is not linked with ‘right brain’ thinking which will
provide a more holistic approach to complex 21st Century problem solving. It is ‘right
brain’ thinking which provides synthesising, integrating, intuitive and visionary
approaches critical to joining up the dots in an increasingly complex world. It is this
thinking which promotes new possibilities. It is the right of brain which also connects to
empathy, the emotional, the interpersonal and the spiritual. ‘Right brain’ thinking is vital
to any social business. It is critical to housing especially when life’s playing field is less
even and issues of social justice present themselves in a challenging and seemingly
intractable operating environment.
The complex and challenging world of the social enterprise needs both left and right
brain thinking to develop new business models and services which connect to the
diverse client groups which 21st Century housing organisations serve. Sticking to the
knitting of asset and housing management based on ‘left brain’ thinking is unlikely to
provide for the long term sustainability of people and place.
INSIGHT number four – Leaders are born…and made? Let’s not be
random
Much has been said and written about leadership; and whilst there have been many
attempts to synthesise leadership literature, it is my direct experience of the leadership
culture in housing which supports this particular insight. Firstly, there appear to be fewer
‘career leaders’ (that is people who first and foremost define their role and their being
as that of a leader) and more who describe their role in technical or functional terms.
Secondly, expectation of being a leader appears to emerge as a consequence of
advancement in the workplace rather than being the goal itself. Becoming a leader,
therefore, does not often appear to be at the forefront of the majority of people’s
thinking about their role in the business. Nor is it always the organisation’s strongly
expressed expectation of them.
Having made the above observations there appears to be no shortage of positive role
models when people are asked to identify individuals who provide positive leadership in
housing. A problem arises when the same people also say they can identify greater
numbers of people who act as negative role models. If we then make the assumption
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