This website or its third-party tools use cookies which are necessary to its functioning and required to improve your experience. By clicking the consent button, you agree to allow the site to use, collect and/or store cookies.
Please click the consent button to view this website.
I accept
Deny cookies Go Back

Intelligent Management

Deming and Theory of Constraints for CEOs and Executive Teams for the Age of Complexity. Ess3ntial Critical Chain Project Management

  • THE DECALOGUE METHOD
    • The Problem for Every Business
    • The Systemic Solution
    • synchronize competencies
    • How It Works
    • business insight and foresight through systemic cause and effect reasoning
    • Our Education Modules for Systemic Management
  • about us
    • Dr. Domenico Lepore
    • the founders
    • Intelligent Management Success Stories
    • Our Books
    • Clients
    • Expanding Spiral of Positive Systemic Results with Intelligent Management
  • blog & books
    • Blog Theory of Constraints and Deming
    • Our publications
  • ITALIA
  • Contact
You are here: Home / project management / Pride Comes Before a Fall – A (Systemic) Lesson For Leaders and VW

Sep 24 2015

Pride Comes Before a Fall – A (Systemic) Lesson For Leaders and VW

Screen Shot 2015-09-24 at 9.55.48 AM

Being conceited can come from occupying a position of power. It’s easy to convince yourself that if you are in the driving seat it’s because you deserve it, because you are intrinsically better than others. This is a vicious circle of wrong assumptions.

If you are rich, you are better than the poor (even though you might have started out poor yourself). If you are born into the ruling class you are better than everyone else, forever. If you are a top manager then you deserve to command others and expect them to follow orders, especially if that’s the way you climbed the ladder. If you are a world leader, like Toyota and VW, then you can cheat and get away with it.

Until you can’t.

The sickness of separation

All these attitudes are the symptoms of a mindset built on some kind of vertical hierarchy. Everything works in a top down way and you have to “make your way up” to get ahead. The point is, all these symptoms reveal a sickness of separation, where individuals and even organizations believe they exist in a Newtonian, mechanical world where entities interact like billiard balls. This is no longer true. Our reality today is complex and complexity means we are all immersed in a network of interconnection where interdependencies exist. You can no longer just poke things around with a big stick. At best, you can influence a network.

A network of networks

We are evolving rapidly into a reality that is made up of a network of networks. This is our contemporary world and we are helped in our understanding by contemporary science, from physics to biology, where research is revealing more and more about complexity and networks. We no longer inhabit a reality where we can divide things up neatly into categories and silos. We live in a world of interconnection and power is increasingly a question of influence. The difference is that today the influence can also come from a broad base of communities, as the election of Obama illustrated. Another example is the Austrian student, Maximilian Schrems, who is taking on Facebook over privacy issues. His efforts have created a kind of movement that may well influence the regulation of access to, and ownership of, online information.

Leaders are not servants

Clearly, we need a different kind of leadership and different kinds of organizational structures to accommodate the way we now know reality works. Master and Commander is out. While the intention behind thinking of a leader as a servant is undoubtedly worthy, the language is inaccurate. Calling a leader a servant is just more traditional hierarchy speak turned on its head. However, leaders do need to be humble. Where does the humility come from? From understanding and knowledge. Understanding how organizations are in fact networks and knowing the principles, methods and tools it takes to orient the nodes, hubs and linkages of the network towards its goal. Leaders have the responsibility to enable the work of others.

VW, like Toyota, lost its way because they lost sight of what should have been their main concern as providers of safe automobiles and pursued greed instead. The lesson for leaders is that organizations are systems and as such they need to be managed systemically and led systemically, through collaborative efforts directed towards a precise and ethical goal. That is the only way to ensure sustainable prosperity.

To learn more about principles, methods and tools of systemic management for ethical and sustainable prosperity see also Ten Steps for Transformation: The Decalogue

About the Author

Angela Montgomery Ph.D. is Partner and Co-founder of Intelligent Management, founded by Dr. Domenico Lepore.  Dr. Montgomery’s new business novel+ website  The Human Constraint looks at how Deming and the Theory of Constraints can create the organization of the future, based on collaboration, network and social innovation.

Written by angela montgomery · Categorized: project management, Systems Thinking, systems view of the world · Tagged: complexity, interdependencies, leadership, organization, servant leader, Systems Thinking, VW

Search Form

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sign Up For Our Systems View Blog!

Search Form

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025
  • Exponential Thinking for Exponential Growth December 1, 2024
  • Why Physics Matters for Managing Organizations Systemically November 17, 2024
  • Addressing the Cognitive Human Constraint in Organizations October 27, 2024
  • Obstacles, Ambition and Getting to the Goal October 10, 2024
  • The Theory of Constraints: Why Words Matter so Much September 27, 2024
  • Can a Systems Approach Prevent Greed? September 12, 2024
  • The Human Constraint that Frees Us August 30, 2024
  • Optimize Your Company for the Digital Age August 22, 2024
  • Beyond Teams: Build a Systemic Organization August 15, 2024
  • A New Generation of Entrepreneurs and Leaders Facing Unprecedented Challenges July 11, 2024

Social Icons

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo

Archives

  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025

Our Blog

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025

Recent Posts

  • Companies that Challenge their Limiting Beliefs Can Thrive April 23, 2025
  • A Method for Breakthroughs: The Theory of Constraints March 31, 2025
  • The Biggest Bottleneck that Blindsides Business: Management March 14, 2025
  • Revealing the inner nature of any organization to create a leap in performance February 14, 2025
  • Dealing with Uncertainty in 2025 January 13, 2025

Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Sign Up For Our Systems View Blog!

Search Form

  • Home
  • Blog Theory of Constraints and Deming
  • Library
  • How to adopt systemic organization management
  • Knowledge Base for ‘The Human Constraint’
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Intelligent Management Inc. Canada

Privacy Policy