Leading Change: Handbook Entry, Week 3

“Then, I said; the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all-they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.

What do you mean?

I mean they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners of the den, and partake of their labours and honours, whether they are worth having or not” Plato, The Republic (360 B.C.E.)

I’m very interested in the idea that ascent to enlightenment is not the end game in itself, but as Plato says, its purpose is to allow us to descend back into the darkness and understand the truth about the assumptions or shadows we find there. He argues that the leaders of the state should be taught the knowledge of truth and good, so that they know the realities of these things. This allows the leaders to descend back into the darkness knowing that these ideas are not shadows but real, and that their rule will be the better for it. The leaders also understand that it is less desirable to descend back into the darkness than to remain enlightened, endowing them with reluctance to rule which leads to them being, in Plato’s view, the perfect statesmen. This could be extended to say that knowledge of the truth makes them incorruptible. My personal take on this idea is that learning or the acquisition of knowledge is a wholesome task and that once one has gained knowledge it is better to share it and lead others towards the same understanding of reality, not to sit on a pedestal and hide in a life of luxury. When I lead in the future, it will be as a leader that seeks knowledge and takes it back to my followers.

Dr M. Ahn’s discussion of this passage took a different perspective. When we talked about Plato’s Republic he discussed the idea of how you would manage the change from darkness to light. His question was “how could you lead people through that change?” I guess the answer is that you have to go ands seek the true knowledge first, and then bring it back to those who are in the dark. In the realms of change management and its twin leadership this would be akin to developing that teachable point of view (T.V.P.). I could say that the guts of getting people to see the light in order for them to follow or backup your idea is down to the T.P.V. and how convincing it is. This relates back to the point from the first lecture about having empathy with the listener. If you can’t see the issue from their perspective and then you are probably not going to be able to shine the light on it and take them for a ride towards a truthful way of looking at the issue. It’s only now, after letting the little grey cells ponder this and then express themselves as a stream of consciousness as I bash out this journal entry on the keyboard that I finally get what Dr. Ahn was talking about.

How is all this applied? Look at a case study (the darkness). Look into the future and see what can be done (the light). Develop the Teachable Point of View (knowledge) and take it back to those still in the darkness and show them the light. Once you have them seeing the darkness from this perspective, provided they like what they see, then you should be able to sell the idea that change is needed and you can begin the process of moving towards the light. It all boils down to doing the hard work to get the knowledge and then selling it to those who haven’t seen it yet. My mission as a leader in the future is to work on the empathy and story telling so that I can be the one who sheds light on what has been and where to go next.

Plato thought that the ultimate knowledge was arithmetic and that would be the best knowledge to teach for the purposes of enlightenment. Based on that logic I had this amusing mental picture of animal intelligence researchers teaching gorilla’s mental arithmetic. Planet of the Apes for real!

After reading the Shackleton article, I now understand what Sir Edmund Hillary was saying when he made this quote:

“For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton”

It’s a stunning example of good leadership. In the face of all the elements could throw at him, in the face of open mutiny of his followers and without any backup to help them out he held it together and saved his crew down to the last man. As Dr. Ahn pointed out, he never made it to the South Pole so the success of his expeditions could be openly questioned. Could he have made it to the South Pole if he had sacrificed his crew? We will never know. Scott made it and he did sacrifice his crew. Amundsen made it first and made it back to continue on with other adventures. Maybe all this proves is Englishmen have no place in Polar Regions and would have been better off leaving the Norwegians to it. I guess the lesson to be learned is about the leadership styles. Amundsen knew what the goal was and made a good plan to achieve it. Scott knew what the goal was but didn’t get the plan right and died as a consequence. Shackleton had the goal but when the plan fell apart he dealt with it. Amundsen had a fair share of his own stuff ups with some of his later ideas, like flying to the North Pole when aviation was in its infancy. Very few of those plans took off and he tried the same thing time and time again with little or no success, eventually destroying his status as a national hero.

The lesson in change management is that Shackleton could deal with the problem of plans going pear shaped. Sure the goal was not achieved, but hero status was assured by what he did achieve. He got there and back through impossible odds, showing a dogged determination to see his vision through. He lead by example, walked the talk and got his crew to believe they could do it to. That’s a quality leader. Sure he didn’t actually succeed, but the lessons in change management are still valid and I would like to become the kind of leader that can take disaster in their stride. Sometimes minimising damage is the greatest victory that you can walk away with when things outside of your control conspire against you.