"Most claims of originality are testimony to ignorance and most claims of magic are testimony to hubris.”

The above quote is from James March, an emeritus professor at Stanford.  I would argue that Jim is the most prestigious living organizational theorist. If I believe the rumors I hear from "well-placed sources," he came pretty close to winning the Nobel Prize in Economics last time and has a decent chance do so in the future.  I thought of Jim's quote (which is from an email he sent me about five years ago and is quoted in our book Hard Facts) when I received an invitation to a leadership conference at a prestigious university proclaiming that -- given defective but widely accepted leadership models that fueled the financial crisis -- it is time for some really smart academics and business leaders to get together and "imagine" a radically different  and better kind of leadership. 

Frankly, I felt physically ill as I read the hype around this conference because, once again, I see people arguing that reinvention and radically new ideas are needed to save the day.  Yet, in fact, there is plenty of old evidence (not to mention common sense) kicking around that shows the best leaders are competent and benevolent and that they put the interests of their followers and customers ahead of their own greedy desires. Is that a shocking new idea to you?

Yes, there are nuances and tweaks that emerge from new research and innovative leaders all the time, but just as in the rest of life, progress occurs one tiny and often painful lesson at a time -- not through some magical process where ultra-smart people (many of whom brought us the defective models that got us in this mess) imagine a brand new kind of leadership.

I bet that Kurt Vonnegut never read any management theory.  But he got it right in his  "Joe Heller"  poem that I love so much -- where he suggested that emotionality  healthy human-beings are content with having enough to live well, with the knowledge that they have enough, and they don't constantly yearn for, demand, and take more more more status, money, and power for me me me.  I don't think this mindset requires any radical new inventions or leadership models -- I bet you knew that before you ever read this post.  And I contend that anyone who claims that it does -- or worse yet, claims they have invented such a radical new model -- suffers from arrogance, ignorance, or both (to paraphrase Jim March's wise words.) 
 

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best independent business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2010/01/27/12710-a-midweek-look-at-the-independent-business-blogs.aspx

Wally Bock

[Rich Crocco]

While I agree we have to be sceptical when someone claims to have all the answers, I also believe the ability to create a new rule or idea is important to human progress and is at the heart of Kant's definition of genius.

[Ellie]

"Most claims of originality are testimony to ignorance"

I've often thought something similar myself - it is somehow poetic to find out it wasn't an original thought :)

The theoretically most psychologically healthy humans may well be the ones content with what they have, but I wonder if anyone has ever met such a person?

Our brains are set up in such a way that we get more dopamine from striving for a goal than we get from attaining it, and once we have attained it the pleasure is very short lived. This makes sense in the context of evolution where constantly searching for more resources or a better environment is going to be good for your offspring.

From my own experiences, I tend to think the people who have attained the appearance of contentment have actually channeled their striving from material goals onto something more valuable to society; for example, education or charity work.

I think my point here is that "you should be content with what you have" may not take account of human nature and therefor may be unhelpful. Better advice would be "accept you will always want more and learn to harness this really very useful and powerful drive into more positive directions".

[davidburkus]

There is nothing new under the sun.

Our challenge is not to get leaders to learn a new theory or model, but to drive them toward a deeper understanding of the solid, researched principles of leadership theory.

[Kevin J Porter]

Leadership is DOING the right thing. As cloudy as that statement sounds, I believe most decisions can viewed as either the "right" or "wrong" thing to do. Reasonable people will disagree, yet many leadership blunders would not have occurred if the "leaders" fully embraced the phrase, "Do the right thing."

Thanks,
Kevin

[jik]

As any therapist will tell you, the way you make an idea stick with a patient is to lead the patient to the idea, so that he discovers it himself, rather than just telling it to him. People are irrationally wedded to ideas they come up with themselves.

I think these conferences can serve the same purpose. The ideas they come up with may be old, but if the people at these conferences think they're coming up with them themselves, they are more likely to internalize and act on them.

Like it or not, most people find it very difficult to listen to advice and ideas from other people. If you want to solve problems, you need to accept that limitation and work with it.

[working girl]

I tend to agree there's no need to reinvent the wheel, it's mostly common sense. But I also just leafed through the Bootcamp Bootleg - maybe practicing beginner's mind and putting some sticky notes on the wall could lead to some original thinking. . .