Marc BurgauerApr 12, 2023
Ruth — of systems & design

“almost a century ago Follett was denying the designation ‘leader’ all the celebrity status that has since accrued around it. Follett asked us to think less about leaders and more about the meaning of ‘leadership’. If we are ready, now, to listen to her voice then we may already be enacting a logological leap back towards recognition that leadership is a communal, not individual, achievement”

— Nanette Monin and Ralph Bathurst, Mary Follett on the Leadership of Everyman,
https://ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/8-4monin-bathurst.pdf

Apr 12, 2023 at 11:32amWeb
Show threadRuth — of systems & designApr 12, 2023
“Noting this historical development, in our paper we hypothesize that if ‘leader’ is now a Burkean god-term, and is therefore about to turn turtle and take all its connotative trappings of celebrity wealth, power and social status with it, we may at last be ready to return to Follett. She writes not of a class of leaders but of the leadership that is enacted in different situations and at different times by diverse people.”
Show threadRuth — of systems & designApr 12, 2023

I’m like “yes, this, this is why I am so drawn to Follett”

And Nanette Monin and Ralph Bathurst are like “yes, Ruth. You and this field, are a predictable product”

;)

(Image: Page from Systems and Technical Leadership (pdf): https://ruthmalan.com/leadership/20221031TechnicalLeadership.pdf)

Show threadRuth — of systems & designApr 12, 2023

More quotes to tease the appetite?

"Yet through it all she argues that the leader has one over-riding task. The leader’s job is to pull on the thread of meaning that seems to structure the situation and discover within it the action that will result in the most satisfying outcome for all involved while at the same time holding each resolution lightly."

-- Nanette Monin and Ralph Bathurst