Say organization and we see leadership. That\u2019s why those charts are so ubiquitous. They show us who sits on top of whom, but not who talks with whom, when, and about what. Why are we so fixated on formal authority? Is there no more to organizing than bossing? Have a look at Figure 1 to see an Organization. Then look at Figure 2 to see a Re-organization.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/henry-chart.png\")
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Figure 1: This is an Organization<\/p>\n
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Figure 2: This is a Re-organization<\/p>\n
Did you notice the difference? A few names were changed in a few boxes, but the chart\u2014the very perception of organization\u2014remained the same. Do you know why re-organizing is so popular? Because it\u2019s so easy. Shuffle people on paper and the world is transformed\u2014at least on that paper. Imagine, instead, if people were shuffled around offices, to make new connections?<\/p>\n
Say leadership and we see an individual\u2014even if that individual is determined to “empower” everyone else. (Must people who are hired to do a job have to be empowered to do that job?) Too often, however, it\u2019s about something else: a great white knight riding in on a great white horse to save everybody else (even when headed straight into a black hole). If one individual is the leader, then everyone else must be a follower. Do we really want a world of followers?<\/p>\n
Think of the established organizations that you admire most. I\u2019ll bet that beyond leadership is a profound sense of communityship. (Never heard that word? I made it up), to put leadership in its place, namely to support communityship.) Effective organizations are communities of human beings, not collections of human resources.<\/p>\n
How can you recognize communityship in an organization? That\u2019s easy. You feel the energy in the place, the commitment of its people, their collective interest in what they do. They don\u2019t have to be formally empowered because they are naturally engaged. They respect the organization because the organization respects them. No fear of being fired because some \u201cleader\u201d hasn\u2019t made the anticipated numbers on some bottom line. Imagine a whole world of such organizations!<\/p>\n
Sure we need leadership, especially to establish communityship in new organizations and help sustain it in established organisations. What we don\u2019t need is an obsession with leadership\u2014of some individual singled out from the rest, as if he or she is the be-all and end-all of organizing (and is paid accordingly). So here\u2019s to\u00a0just enough leadership<\/em>, embedded in communityship.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Henry Mintzberg 2018. Modified from \u201cOrganizing beyond Leadership\u201d, to appear in\u00a0Bedtime Stories for Managers<\/a>\u00a0(Berrett-Koehler, February 2019). A similar TWOG appeared on 15 February 2015.<\/p>\n About the author:<\/strong><\/p>\n Henry Mintzberg,\u00a0Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, is the author of\u00a0Rebalancing Society<\/a>, and a\u00a0weekly\u00a0TWOG<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photos from the author\u2019s collection of beaver sculptures<\/a>.<\/p>\n 1.\u00a0I first wrote about this in 2006 and again in 2009: \u201cCommunity-ship is the answer\u201d\u00a0Financial Times<\/em>, 23 Oct 2006, page 8, and \u201cRebuilding Companies as Communities<\/a>\u201d\u00a0Harvard Business Review<\/em>,\u00a0July\/August 2009, pages 140-143.<\/p>\n This article is one in a series related to the\u00a010th Global Peter Drucker Forum<\/a>, with the theme\u00a0management. the human dimension<\/a>, taking place on November 29 & 30, 2018 in Vienna, Austria #GPDF18<\/strong><\/p>\n