Virtuous Growth Cycle LO10676

Julian Macnamara (100317.2417@CompuServe.COM)
22 Oct 96 04:55:32 EDT

Replying to LO10609.

Shankar, many thanks for your kind words- they were much appreciated.

I think you're absolutely right when you say:

..big snip..
>So I feel a leader needs to be like a multivariable controller who
>introduces changes that takes care of several distrubances in the
>environment and the organisation at the same time - someimes by analysis
>and sometimes by gut feeling.

Much of my thinking on the role of leadership has been influenced by
Montgomery (a British military leader who played a prominent role in WW I
I). In this book, The Path To Leadership, he suggested that leaders:

- Are motivated by an inward conviction which appeals to their followers.
(In other words, leaders have visions).

- Have a deep, great and genuine sincerity.

- Are selfless and have an absolute devotion to the cause they serve.

- Have an ability to dominate, and finally to master, the events which
encompass them; and that a failure in this area leads to a loss of
confidence.

- Are decisive.

- Are good at picking people.

- Must have a genuine interest in, and a real knowledge of, humanity.

- Will "throw their bonnet over the moon" in situations which favour
boldness having done everything possible in the way of preparation.

His views seem to be very close to your own.

To me a good leader bathes an organisation in positive feedback. One of
the reasons why I always enjoy my visits to your part of the world, and
which I think accounts for a lot of its success, is that there is so much
positive feedback over there - you can feel it.

Your comment:

>But process models can change as well so we turn to new techniques like
>fuzzy logic and neural networks.

is very appropriate.

I have always been struck by Lotfi Zadeh's Principle of Incompatibility
which led him to develop fuzzy set logic.

"As the complexity of a system increases, our ability to make precise and
significant statements diminishes until a threshold is reached beyond which
precision and significance (or relevance) become almost mutually exclusive
characteristics".

Thanks for your insights.

Best wishes

Julian Macnamara
Glandore Associates
100317,2417@compuserve.com
<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/glandore

-- 

Julian Macnamara <100317.2417@CompuServe.COM>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>