Dr. Philip A. Foster is a leadership/business consultant and Business Professor. He is a noted Thought Leader in Business Operations, Organizational Development, Foresight, Strategic Leadership and the Future of Business.
He holds a Masters in Organizational Leadership and a Doctorate of Strategic Leadership.
He is the bestselling author of The Open Organization. A New Era of Leadership and Organizational Development. Maximum Change Press and Organization 3.0 – The Evolution of Leadership and Organizational Theories Toward an Open System for the 21st Century. Maximum Change Press.
His latest work is Cloudforce. The Virtual Workforce of the Post-Pandemic 21st Century. Maximum Change Press
His experience includes over twenty-five years in both public and the private sector including Tier 1 consulting, media, high-tech and public relations.
Authored Comments
Michael, you raise a really important question within the confines of an open system. Perhaps I will need to write about this in my next column?
I have two ways of looking at the matter of who fixes the brokenness. I would argue that in self-led organizations it is up to the members of the system to fix the problems within. However, it is the leadership (however loosely we have it) who is responsible for being the protectors of culture and the catalyst for change. So, if one or both of these are in dysfunction - it ends up being the stakeholders (i.e. leadership and shareholders) who force the change that is beneficial to their cause and not necessarily the overall function of the desired culture. In my mind, there is an erosion of first principles and culture governance that takes pace over time. Perhaps part of the erosion comes from scale issues. Perhaps some of it comes from broken on-boarding systems. And other problems come from culture shift tied to leadership change. What-ever the reason, I am not confident in saying that it is solely the responsibility of the employees (the members of the system) to fix all of its problems. Some of the things that are broken may be out of their control to fix.
I will have to check this out. Thank you