1. Watching the Process –The Process
Management, Project Management, Process Management, each a process. Can
you isolate the moment you realised that? Can you remember the first moment
when you saw the process in action? I can.
I was in the second grade. We were out in the playground for recess. We were
playing kickball.
Recess was unstructured. There was no micromanagement of children then.
The two usual classmates were captains. This was SOP. Then, one day, one of
the teams had a co-captain.
While some of the other boys in my class complained, “Why do they always get
to be captains?” “They always pick their friends. That’s not fair,” I observed the
process.
The captains were the natural leaders. This was because they were good at the
game and good at picking players. (Athletes will routinely hang out with athletes.
Question: Are they picking their friends, or good athletes, or both? Answer: both.)
We root for the underdogs; but we want to run with the winners. Good at sports
or bad at sports, each of us wants to be on a winning team.
However, we now had co-captains. I was less concerned with why. I simply
wanted to be on a winning team. That was over 50 years ago. I still remember
the day. However, we never stop learning. It was only a few weeks ago when I
thought about that day that I realised something.
If you are a good athlete, and I am a good athlete, and we have three powerful
players in the class; Tom, Dick, and Harry, and we toss a coin for first pick, the
following are the possible results:
You have three power players: I have two power players.
I have three power players: you have two power players.
It comes down to the toss of a coin.
Plan B. I have a co-captain. It doesn’t matter who wins the toss. Either way, I
have three power players on my team and you have two on your team.
Now, that was not the end of the lesson. That was the beginning.
1. We learned not only about leadership, but also about followship.