Managing Leadership^®

We can pretty much rely on that – for the time being, at least. The sun will come up tomorrow.

But the thing is, we can’t be so sure what it will reveal when it does. And whatever that turns out to be won’t be the inevitable result of the laws of physics. It will be the consequence of our own actions, our individual decisions.

We forget that, often enough. We go through each day thinking we see the same things. The same commute, the same traffic, the same interactions on all scales, day in and day out. Things seem to proceed much as they always have. We believe they always will. But the fabric of our societies and our economies is a good bit more fragile than the forces that cause us to spin and orbit reliably around our star.

After all, we are less certain than we might be about what is the true nature of that fabric. So we ignore the matter altogether, or submit to the bold pronouncements and prescriptions of the experts or of those we have put in power, or whom we tolerate there. Then, having disposed, so we imagine, of the matter, we set it aside and move on.

But in our lives that inattention can come back to haunt us. Societies can disintegrate. They can do so slowly, or rapidly. Sometimes they do it repeatedly and convulsively. They can do so inexplicably, upending our sense of order and trust, as in the recent financial scandals and credit crisis.

There are no laws of motion or of space-time, no pull of any center of gravity – or of gravitas – causing those things to happen. But our magical belief that such forces exist among ourselves in our daily lives, and our submission to them, can create a vacuum, a black hole into which we may most realistically descend.

Think not? Ask the people in the Middle East. Or do you suppose that to be too far away to affect you? Fine: ask the people of Detroit. But that’s just a peculiarly unique situation, an anomaly, do you say? Okay: ask the employees of any number of major – legendary, even – industrial and financial institutions that, in recent years and months, have simply disappeared. Think about what else has disappeared along with them.

It is such sights that the sun looks upon as it rises on this new year. And they are not wrought by the inevitable laws of physics, but by our own hands. Those who we imagine to be our leaders did not do this, and they will not undo it. They are our intended, or our unwitting, agents. We may prefer to think we are not in charge. But we are responsible.

There is no force that can do any of these things to us if we refuse to let them be done, if we are vigilant, and if we are willing to take charge of our own lives and work, and the benefits and responsibilities of living and enjoying them. If we submit to myth and alchemy, we will lose them, as so many already have. If we stand on our own feet, and think and act for ourselves, we maintain a chance of deepening and strengthening the bonds that hold everything together.

We will spend some time here, over the next weeks and months, trying to come to an understanding of this issue, and what it means for us as individuals and as managers. Please do join in.

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Today’s tip: Speaking of disintegration and how to arrest it, please see Paul Herbert’s excellent essay on broken windows at work, at Fistful of Talent.

And if the unravelling of society does turn out to be inevitable, you might want to be sure to stock up on some music to console you while waiting events out on your desert island. See Cultural Offering for a great list – it will cheer you up.

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