JACD 71-4 - American College of Dentists

cause of SARS problem in one month. In
the absence of top-down direction, these
international laboratories did a remarkable
job in organizing themselves,
allocating resources, and designing a
strategy that resulted in a remarkable
accomplishment.
The SARS project is unique and
remarkable, and it clearly demonstrates
that groups of highly talented scientific
experts can organize, plan, assess,
evaluate, and reach complex goals at a
rapid pace without a designated “leader.”
In part, this was achieved because of
necessity—the urgency and potential
magnitude of the global disease problem.
In part, the pre-existing technology
provided the platform on which to rapidly
define and complete the project—namely,
the Internet and scanning devices for
communications; English in the scientific
community as a common language; and
the availability of sophisticated tools
such as high throughput genomic
instrumentation, bioinformatics, and
the existing microbial genetic database.
In one sense, the SARS example
describes how modern science gets
done. In another sense it shows how
scientists can be highly competitive and
highly collaborative at the same time.
This example also demonstrates that
contemporary scientific problems are
complex and require the integration of
multiple perspectives. The perception
of the isolated individual scientist is no
longer the mainstream of international
mathematics, physics, chemistry, or
biology. Doing science has become a
“group sport.”
Summary and Prospectus
I assert that the future of leadership in
scientific research, whether within
public or private organizations, will
increasingly require creative, interdisciplinary,
and often international
collaborations. The structure of traditional
Journal of the American College of Dentists
Key principles of collaborative leadership for organizing genius.
federal agencies, universities (including
professional schools), nonprofit research
foundations, and industry-based research
is rapidly changing. Command and
control, anchored to ownership or
formal authority, is being replaced by or
intermixed with all kinds of often
tentative and changing relationships as
identified in the three scientific project
examples cited in this essay. The
descriptions of such approaches reflect
alliances, coalitions, consortium, collaborations,
partnerships, and marketing
agreements—relationships that are often
associated with creative collaboration
(Bennis & Biederman, 1997).
In this context, professional schools
such as dentistry, medicine, pharmacy,
law, and business are required to align
with the mission and goals of their
parent university. This alignment all too
often means shared faculty with shared
National Leadership Symposium
Greatness starts with superb people.
Great groups and great leaders create each other.
Every great group has a strong leader.
The leaders of great groups love talent and know where to find it.
Great groups are full of talented people who can work together.
Great groups think they are “on a mission from God.”
Every great group is an island–but an island with a bridge to the mainland.
Great groups see themselves as “winning underdogs.”
Great groups always have an external threat or “enemy.”
People in great groups are enormously focused and “have blinders on.”
Great groups are optimistic, not realistic, and sense that “anything is possible.”
In great groups the right person has the right job.
The leaders of great groups give them what they need, remove obstacles, and
promote creativity.
Great groups produce dreams with deadlines (they are action groups).
Great work is its own reward.
Adopted from Bennis and Thomas, 2002
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