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Today we unpacked and inflated... (and inflated... and inflated...) a boat which one of our children received for Christmas, then tried to introduced them to the fine art of rowing. Talk about counter-intuitive! They all wanted to face the way they wanted to go and consequently had difficulty learning how to row. All of them gave up in frustration after a short time.
It reminds me of a neglected aspect of leadership: working out where you are going by looking at where you have been. History is one of the great determinants of any organisation’s immediate future, and needs to be addressed in order to move forward. These are the times we need to “row” an organisation – leading by looking backwards. If we do not understand what happened to bring the organisation to its present place, we are in danger of making choices which simply reinforce the things we want to change. Some unusual reactions to suggestions and ideas can be explained on the basis of historical events.
A good leader knows the history of the organisation before they arrived. People who know the history control the future.
Posted by gary at January 18, 2005 08:49 PM
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