Next Generation Leaders

Changing times mean Changing Approaches

World leadership is changing. Throughout history, the leaders were those who were the most effective in utilizing advancements of progress: the philosophical Greek societies, the might of Rome or the dominance of the British fleet. The leaders of this past century, the industrial age, were those who dominated through productivity. However, today, the production centers of the world have shifted to cost-shaving developing countries, without a corresponding shift in leadership. This means, once again, we are entering a new age and those who lead will be those who choose to embrace it.

The industrial age was sparked by the advent of the Assembly line. In the early 1900’s, a movement was started focused on the application of efficiency. Among the members was a young man by the name of Henry Ford, who eventually implemented principles of the movement into his automobile business. The result was the modern day assembly line, which was so successful it gave his company Ford Motors almost 50% of the market within a few years.

The efficiency of the assembly line led to greater productivity in less time at lower costs. By dividing production into simple tasks, it allowed the company to hire, train, and replace an unskilled workforce with very little effort. Management became an issue of control thus leaving the need for only a few hard-to-find and expensive talent in selected positions at the top.

The model was so successful that it was adapted to many other industries including clothing, restaurants, hospitals, even schools.

Today, the production centers of the world have moved to more developing regions, leaving leadership in the hands of those who embrace what is now the Information Age, and understanding the principles of the Knowledge-Based Society (KBS). Dominance by productivity has been replaced with innovation.

Today, information which was once held by scholars, experts and books, is readily available anywhere, at anytime, by anybody. So, although finding information is important, it is what is done with it that makes the difference.

The competitive edge from the division of responsibility in Assembly line production is giving way to a pooling of resources that comes from team-learning innovation. Whereas before employers poured through workers with focused limited skills managed through control, competitive companies now struggle to retain creative holistic experience managed through facilitation. Conservative companies with top-down authoritative structures are losing market share to living organizations generating bottom-up ideas.

Whether a country, company or an individual; being competitive comes down to being creative. The leaders are those businesses, hospitals and especially schools which embrace this new age by taking advantage of the advancements which support it. The times are changing, will you?