st<\/sup>\u00a0century, we may have to take Socrates and his fellow Greek philosophers seriously.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
But what is the main challenge of our century\u2019s advanced democracies? A lot of the challenges can actually be related to one dominant culprit: complexity. Small start-ups are good sources for inspiration when it comes to agility, but past a critical mass agility gives way to complexity as a bureaucracy grows in size. And advanced democracies are experiencing the \u201ccomplexity\u201d by-product of progress to a growing degree (see the 2008 financial crisis and other systemic events). And so, in the current construct of democratic progress, agility and complexity seem to be mutually exclusive; so much so that the left and right political ideologies of the leading modern democracy, the USA, can be said to be increasingly aligned to the agility thesis and complexity antithesis. On one hand, the left ideology is advocating for a top-down, bureaucratic approach to tackling complexity. The right by contrast is advocating for an agile bottom-up, government-free approach to tackling complexity. In true agreement with the dialectical method, the future of democracy may well need a transcendence of those two viewpoints into a synthesis that would bring together bureaucracy and agility: an innovative, agile, next generational government together with a private sector responsible to all its stakeholders, not just its shareholders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But the transcendence of the current left and right political ideologies which could be the answer to the complexity dilemma also has to happen at the level of the individual human being. And there are more subtle ideological differences between the left and right political parties at that \u201cmicro\u201d level. There are so to speak, emotional and behavioral differences in how the individual is perceived. The left ideology emphasizes a compassionate view of the individual, and sharing opportunity with the less fortunate, those that are somehow left outside the system with all its benefits. At the same time, the right ideology emphasizes the competitive human side that is by definition individualistic and not necessarily in alignment with compassion. Are these ideologies, apparently opposed, actually facets of the same human construct when regarded from a more holistic perspective? Are human beings both compassionate and competitive? For a successful society that both makes progress and takes care of its less fortunate, are these attributes not required simultaneously? And if so, is there a model that could reconcile these so that democracy itself has a future? Is the distant future of democracy predicated upon the disappearance of the left and right ideologies?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Roger Martin\u2019s second area of interest, Design Thinking, may provide the solution to an ideology-free democratic construct. Design Thinking, closely related to Integrative Thinking, can be described as a style of thinking that is generally associated with the ability to combine\u00a0empathy<\/i>\u00a0for the context of a problem,\u00a0creativity<\/i>\u00a0in the generation of insights and solutions, and\u00a0rationality<\/i>\u00a0to analyze and fit solutions to the context. A Design Thinking approach to political ideology could bring the two dominant ideologies closer together, by demonstrating a shared concern for the individual\u2019s well being, both in terms of the basic need for individualism (competitiveness) and inclusiveness (compassion). Creativity, the key ingredient of Design Thinking, represents that uniquely human trait which could lead the way to a future world where competitiveness and compassion are symbiotic and\u00a0simultaneously\u00a0harmonious: that is, there is no need to alternate between the two every four years.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Liviu Nedelescu is a management consultant and business thought leader with an astute globalization understanding framed by two opposable extremes: high complexity transformation in advanced economies and agile start-up entrepreneurship in emerging markets.\u00a0Mr. Nedelescu is also a keen observer of the enduring human predicament defined by the perpetual tension between creativity and fear of change.<\/p>\n
Combining formal rigor at the intersection of system technologies, design principles and complexity thinking with large scale transformation expertise and entrepreneurial practice, Mr. Nedelescu is currently developing a management science ontology suited for 21st century systemic challenges. Mr. Nedelescu is also currently lending his subject matter expertise to the transformation of the air transportation system alongside industry principals. Most recently, Mr. Nedelescu has become involved with executive business education and advising higher learning institutions on innovation and differentiation strategies. Other career highlights include several patents and peer reviewed publications, two start-ups, disruptive management consulting theoretical models and methods, operational and commercial strategies in advanced and emerging economies, innovation and change initiatives leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over two and a half millennia ago, Greek philosophers gave us the \u201cdialectical\u201d method of constructive argument. In the 21st\u00a0century<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[48,46,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":360,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Socrates\"](\"http:\/\/www.druckerforum.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/socrates.jpg\")
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