Act Out

At two recent ACT OUT workshops with government organisations, leadership was one of the main issues explored using theatre for transformation.

Transforming existing cultures within organisations, especially large, bureaucratic organisations that act as functions of the government, is a real challenge requiring strong leadership and resilient self-leadership. There are scores of books written on the subject, and most of them refer to MIT business scholar Edgar Schein.

Schein, like Peter Senge, sees organisations today as having to be constantly learning and innovating. He identifies certain qualities he considers essential in leaders of organisations today and in the future:

1. Perception and insight – not only into what is not working well in an organisation and what is happening in the world; but also into her own weaknesses and strengths.

They require a high level of objectivity and distance so that she can recognise when their own ways of managing challenges may be hindering change and preventing others from being effective. Likewise, objectivity about her organisation is needed to enable them to call a spade a spade and see the cultural limitations within the organisation.

Another important quality is to be able to admit she does not know the answer or that she has made a mistake.

2. Motivation – to sustain the energy and effort it takes to intervene; to get the message across and ‘unfreeze’ aspects of the organisational culture that are hindering movement forward. He must be motivated enough to endure the pain of learning and growing.

3. Emotional Strength – change and transformation may bring high levels of anxiety. A leader must be strong emotionally to be able to tackle the criticism that may come they challenge the cultural status quo that is hindering progress.

Similarly, some actions may involve risk and she must have the strength to take risks and support others in doing the same.

4. Ability to change cultural assumptions – to open up the organisation to the future and the reality of the world. There may be aspects of the culture that are going to hinder the organisation’s survival or wellbeing, a leader needs the skills, perhaps new skills to analyse and ‘sell’ new visions and concepts to the rest of the organisation.

5. Ability to create involvement and participation – Schein talks about ‘cognitive redefinition’ about the culture in the organisation, this redefinition has to take place not only in the mind of the leader, but also in that of others. This requires a leader to be able to listen and involve others.

Organisational Culture and Leadership by Edgar Schein, 2004, Jossey-Bass Publishers

Filed under: Methodology, Programs & Workshops by Erika