Leadership: The Waterglass Model

Leadership is simple. If, and only if, we have the right model.

This should display a glas of water. It’s a very simple system, right? We have clear system boundaries, and we have a simple content.

Actually the content is really simple, because it’s H₂O. One oxygen atom with two hydrogen atoms. So each molecule is very simple. But we have a vast number of them. 8,4×10²⁴. That’s really a lot. If we look at all humans on the planet right now, we have just 8,2×10⁹. That’s nothing in comparison. All humans wouldn’t even be a single drop. (Or we would need a trillion planets, the size of earth, to get the number of humans as we have H₂O in one glas of water.)

And each molecule has some relationsships with other surrounding molecules. Hydrogen bonds, which is “Wasserstoffbrückenbindungen” in German. A lovely word.

So we have no chance to model the inner state of a glas of water. Neither could we model any predictions of a future state.

While it is very simple on the molecule level and the system level, it’s complexity is mindblowing and overwhelming, when we try to connect the micro level with the macro level. How can something inherently simple become complex in the aggregation? And how can we nevertheless handle the whole system in a simple way? You never had to think about this complexity, when you used a glass of water, right?

Because the single elements share a common purpose. A common direction and play according to some common rules.

So based on these context we have a statistical predictability (and reliability) even if the concrete state and behavior is unpredictable. (And uncontrollable.)

And that’s an amazing picture for social systems and social intelligence.

Bonding

We start with the bonds: hydrogen bonds in the water and relationships in social systems. And human relationships are already complex in themselves. Somehow simple, but very volatile. The intensity und quality of a relationship changes permanently. It has to be maintained. A few days without contact? Changes something. A broken trust? Changes something.

And we see already with those examples that relationships have different attributes. Trust in itself is on important, which consists also out of other attributes.

Then we have the attitude towards each other, which may be very stable. And then the closeness or participation in each others life (as antidote to loneliness). This highly depends on the invest.

Leading or The Inner State

Now we understood relationships and connection. This is the micro level. So what about the big picture? How can we explain the steering of a social system? What’s happening on the macro level?

Also there water is a great example, because it has basically three states: water (liquid), ice (solid), and steam (gas). And certainly we have mixed states, like the glas with water and ice cubes. What does this mean?

This picture above should represent the frozen water. All the water in the glas is frozen. Frozen means, that the bonds between the molecules are fixed. Nothing moves anymore. When we use this picture for organizations, it’s the state of perfect control. Everything is defined and works exactly as planned. That’s the dream of every manager.

With control we lost dynamic and flexibility. To change this type of organization you have to unfreeze it, reshape, and freeze again.

Steering as we’ve seen above is not possible. It’s static. So control is the antidote to steering and leading!

Sidenote: Control is based on fear. I want the people in the “freeze” mode; this is one of the basic fear patterns: fight, flight, freeze.

The opposite of ice is steam. The organization is so dynamic that it lost it’s shape and the system boundaries. Because steam knows no boundaries.

Funny thing is: We are so scared of this state (in organizations and society) that we most of the time we freeze everything down, just to avoid the steam part.

But especially when you look at politics and society, all problems ever came from frozen systems. Never from the steam. And there is rarely steam. It’s just our fear of loss of control. And we fear to lose control, because we fear. (See OrgIQ_GeckoCheatSheet_Release_EN)

The natural state would be just liquid water. The balance between sticking together, serving one purpose (being together in one system), and full flexibility to adapt in an intelligent way.

Let’s become smart.