1.5 - About University

1.8 R ECURSIVE L EADERSHIP:T HE L OGIC OF L EADERSHIPInspired by Douglas Hofstader, Peter Block, and Geoff Bellman.Children often delight in the game, “What’s wrong with this picture?” whereby they finddrawings of the moon and stars in the same sky as the sun. Please play along with this leadershipversion. Spurred on by a new emphasis on organizational creativity and innovation, Kelly,the leader of a professional group, announces at the next staff meeting: “Management says weneed to be more creative and innovative. This new direction will help us prosper. So come backnext week with your most creative ideas.” The group members are excited to hear that percolatingideas will now be able to bubble up and improve their rather staid organization. At thenext meeting, the first idea is met with, “This would cost a lot”; the second with, “I wonderwhether they would go for this.” The third never even made it to the table. What’s wrong withthis leadership picture?This tool, in a novel way, extends a mathematical and computing science term, recursion,to explore some aspects of effective leadership. Recursion means to use a problem as part of itsown solution. Recursion is perhaps easier to define by using an example of nonrecursion, likesending out a four-page memo on how to reduce paper communication! The meaning of recursionwill become clearer through the examples in this tool.T HE M OST E FFECTIVE L EADERSHIP B EHAVIOR—RECURSIONThis tool deals with just two aspects of recursive leadership:1. Model the behavior you want from others.As a leader, the best way to encourage exemplary behavior in others is to model thebehavior you want them to emulate. If you want openness, be open. If what you say isdifferent from what you do, people quickly sense this, even if they can’t put their fingeron it. In his book, The Ultimate Book of Business Gurus, Stuart Crainer suggests thatreengineering efforts often failed because “ … reengineering usually failed to impingeon management. Not surprisingly, managers were all too willing to impose the rigorsof a process-based view of the business on others, but often unwilling to inflict it uponthemselves.”2. Ensure the process is recursive, or congruent, with the content.If leaders want more creativity and innovation, they must design innovative and creativesystems to deal with the ideas, including rejection! If “People are our most valuableresource” is touted, all processes and changes must have the valuable input of peoplebuilt-in.SECTION 1 FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS 25