Archive Article: Leaders and Information. 16th Oct 98
December 23, 2008
There is always a great interest in leadership. But what is required of leaders in the current world of great change?
Professor Harlan Cleveland, who has had a very distinguished career in US politics and universities, has given a set of lectures at the International Leadership Academy on “Leadership and the Information Revolution”. There are six points worth noting. First, the information revolution is very different from the previous agricultural and industrial revolutions. Unlike tangible resources, information expands as it is used; information tends toward glut rather than scarcity; a common complaint about information is not skimpy rations but overload. Information can substitute for other resources. A modern car is better than an old one not because of the added metal but because of the added information. Information is also difficult to control because it can be so easily spread.
Second, Cleveland believes that in this new era the people – not their “leaders” – are doing the leading. Leaders no longer have a monopoly over information; anyone can be smart. Americans are pioneering a society in which no one is in control – which helps explains the confusion in Washington. Third, the growing importance of information in creating wealth is good news for countries with few natural resources. Those countries did well in the agricultural and industrial revolutions. But looking at some of the major countries in the information revolution, they are not as blessed with those resources – Singapore has even to import its own water. There is an obvious warning here for Australia: we may have done well in the past but there is no automatic guarantee of wealth in the future.
Fourth, there is leadership without authority. It has always been possible for individuals to influence the course of events even if they occupy no formal position of authority or possess no mandate to act from an established authority. The Rev Martin Luther King mobilized the US civil rights movement through his spirit and rhetoric, rather than having a formal leadership position. This process will gather momentum in the future.
Fifth, in this new Age of Participation, women have a cultural edge over men. Women are much better at arriving at consensus and usually lack the bullying tactics seen so often in men. In this new Age of Participation, if people are not impressed by the quality of a leader, they can go just elsewhere. No one can be forced to be a follower.
Finally, there is the challenge of working with chaos. Chaos theory is a growth area in science. For example, how long is the NSW coast? The answer depends partly on what is used to measure the coast. A person with a tape measure, minutely tracing each indentation along the shore will eventually come up with a “longer” coastline than a person who just works off, say a map. They are both right, in a way. Welcome to the world of chaos theory. There will be greater chaos in the future.
This new information era will require new types of leaders. As the people lead, so the leaders will follow.
BROADCAST ON FRIDAY OCTOBER 16 1998 ON RADIO 2GB’S “BRIAN WILSHIRE PROGRAMME” AT 9 PM, AND ON OCTOBER 18 1998 ON “SUNDAY NIGHT LIVE” AT 10.30 PM.