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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
Leadership and the status quo
By Pattie LaCroix
March 18, 2010
As we move through remarkably challenging economic times, the social sector is faced with the opportunity to stretch its leadership muscles, to call upon decades of experience to create new ways of looking at complex issues. It is at this very time when investments in leadership, and by extension innovation, are hard to come by.
In a recent conversation I was chatting with a client who was integrating a new approach into his programming. I advised him to consider shaping this new work into a pilot project paradigm. "Give yourself permission not to be perfect; look for learning as the primary outcome," I noted. Immediately his energy changed and the possibility of moving into new terrain suddenly became likely.
This exchange prompted me to recall two observations made by the authors of Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed. First, they viewed resiliency as "the capacity to experience massive change and yet still maintain the integrity of the original…it is about massive change and stability paradoxically work together." Second, they concluded that we should not be seeking perfection as this pursuit only upholds the status quo.
Most of the organizations I have worked with over the past few decades are passionate about changing the status quo and committed to creating a more just and equitable world. So the question I am posing in this month’s column is this:
"If we believe that perfection upholds the status quo and we are working at changing society for the better for all, how can we do this if we don’t try new approaches, test out new ideas and invest in innovation?"What happens when the leadership in the social sector focuses the majority of its energy on making problems go away? What would happen if this leadership turned its vast expertise, experience, and well-honed instincts towards creating something new, something beyond the bounds of the problems at hand? What if we gave ourselves permission to frame our initiatives around inquiry rather than certitudes?What we need now is to liberate that leadership within the social sector, within our own organizations and most importantly within ourselves. The status quo has largely been derived from the exposure to an idea rather the merits of the idea itself. One idea that is successfully quieting leadership during this economic recession is the notion that challenging the status quo will end in disaster, primarily in the form of funding cuts. If this takes root as a truth within the social sector then it recasts the possibility of real change and places it firmly in the realm of impossibility, because innovation to change the status quo will not thrive on such a landscape.
If you are a leader in the social sector, can you give yourself permission to innovate? Can your leadership itself be your "pilot project" with less of an emphasis on getting it right and more energy placed on learning? On this landscape innovation will thrive between the tensions of both what it reveals and it creates. It is here where real change will begin to move back into the realm of possibility, and perhaps even probability, once again.
Pattie LaCroix has provided strategic engagement services to support leadership that ignites innovation in the social sector. As CEO of Catapult Media she provides strategic planning and professional coaching services to a wide range of organizations. You can reach Pattie at www.catapultmedia.ca.
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