Abstract
It is not difficult to see why this book is now in its second edition, for this is a text which, somewhat ironically, aims to sweep away some of the mystique surrounding complexity. Not without reason does the cover of this book suggest that it should ‘particularly appeal to practitioners wishing to improve their leadership effectiveness as well as for students and researchers in the field of leadership’.
Obolensky opens his text by considering each of the terms which constitute the book’s title. He identifies that ‘in trying to deal with complexity many leaders make things unnecessarily complicated’ (p. xix). The text is structured into four parts highlighted as the ‘why’ (Complex Adaptive Leadership [CAL] has emerged); ‘what’ (CAL looks like at the organizational level); and ‘how’ (it can be applied); with the final part suggested to be looking at CAL’s future (p. xxii), albeit appearing to be largely an encouragement to put learning from the text into action.
Part 1 emphasizses the scale of change which influences the environment in which we co-exist, providing a wealth of examples including those related to variant technologies as well as the general level of human awareness. Obolensky highlights that, ‘Of 100 per cent of all the people who ever existed throughout history working in Research and Development, the majority are alive today. That either means that researchers have discovered the elixir of life, or that an awful lot is going on and we are just at the beginning of some more radical change’ (pp. 15–16). The highlighted downside of this environment, as anyone involved in educational leadership research will testify, is that ‘The more we know, the less certain things are’ (p. 16).
If only one chapter were to be studied from Part 1, and that would certainly preclude the reader from engaging with a wealth of detail, both theoretical and empirical, then Chapter 4 ‘Finita La Comedia – Stop Playing Charades’ should be in the running. This chapter’s reflection on organisational problem solving, particularly in relation to ‘who knows what’, what they do as a consequence, and the impact of those approaches, offers much food for thought.
Part 2 falls under the heading ‘Chaos and Complexity’, like almost all the other chapters in this book, the first chapter in this part starts with a ‘quick test to open up the mind’ (p. 51). The approach supports the individual in challenging their existing conceptualization. On occasion the author returns to this ‘quick test’ material; an approach that serves to reinforce its relevance.
Part 3 is entitled ‘The Leadership Angle’. If it were not immediately evident why this section commences with an oversight of the leadership versus management debate, or why it moves on in the next chapter to consider followership, the third chapter entitled ‘Complex Adaptive Leadership in Action’ commences by identifying how these ‘can be combined to provide some powerful and simple strategies to enable polyarchy [the investment of power in multiple people] to thrive and to lessen the tension that exists when oligarchic assumptions hold sway whilst polyarchic realities are emerging’ (p. 170). The argument does not stop there for Obolensky moves on to provide reference back to several of the earlier chapters in the text, highlighting both the value to be derived from a more robust engagement with the text and that ‘complexity has an underlying order which can be harnessed’ (p. 188).
Chapter 10 identifies the CAL approach to embracing differing behaviours, the blending of these behaviours, and how this compares with a focus on leadership styles per se. Also acknowledged is the formulaic appearance of the material in spite of the outcome being ‘probabalistic rather than deterministic’ (p. 170). Certainly a quick scan of the following 16 pages reveals a series of figures which would not have appeared out of place alongside the earlier cited work of Hersey and Blanchard, Goleman and Eisenhower. What this chapter presents, and Obolensky is reasoned to have been selective in his choice of term, is a ‘roadmap’ for leadership. Like any roadmap, it acknowledges there may be a number of routes to a single destination; some intended, some resulting in new experiences, but simply veering off the originally intended route does not mean that the destination cannot be reached.
The final part, Part 4, sits under the heading of ‘Looking forward and other interests’ and is just three pages in length. It uses the KISS mnemonic, not as the regular ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’ or ‘Keep It Short and Simple’ but in two parts: Keep and Increase - for the strengths to build on - and Start and Stop - for weaknesses to address. The chapter ends by encouraging reflection on these four elements suggesting, ambitiously, that ‘the average executive can save one or two days a week for more valuable things if the lessons in this book are taken on board fully’.
The beauty, and perhaps shortfall, of this text is in the breadth of sources accessed. At times, such as on page 90, as much space is dedicated to the footnotes as it is to the main body of text. Of course, footnotes do not need to be engaged with in depth but it is not unusual for a single footnote entry to be a paragraph in length and for several of these to occur on a single page. Furthermore, whilst this text exposes the reader to a wealth of ideas, at times that wealth risks compounding the complexity which it seeks to unravel. However diligent application is not without reward and rigorous study did result, as the outset to this review highlights, in some sweeping away of the mystique surrounding complexity.