Leadership and the American Experiment

My friend Coach Judi made the following post in response to a question I posed on LinkedIn. I asked what the current debt ceiling debacle teaches us about leadership. I obtained her permission to reproduce her response below.

As a paradigm our government was designed to work as a "government of the people, by the people, for the people" per Abe Lincoln.

From an Anthropological standpoint, humans are not naturally predisposed to herding where the strongest "bulls" end up as leaders. We are social creatures but we survive by co-operation in pooling our brain power against the brute force of our enemies and the physical superiority of our prey. Our superior brainpower used in co-operation is what enables our species to not only survive but to take our place at the top of the "food chain," for the time being, that is.

Historically, humans have had Hunting and Gathering, Herding, and Agrarian (farming) cultures. Only the Agrarian succeeded and that's because it was based on co-operation. A man might be the "leader" of his family, but when the farmers came together into community, each man represented his family and each co-operated with the others for the good of the community at large. It worked, but they were a small, close community, highly-visible, responsible, and accountable. They were intelligent, had character, excellent co-operation, and communication skills so were also in full co-operation with their wives and children because working together was how they ensured survival for all.

When the "community" grew to the point where neighbors no long knew one another and such cooperation became too difficult, Democratic government was invented and designed to duplicate the co-operative community, but on a larger scale.

In theory it seemed an excellent idea. They tried to design it so that a larger "family unit" would vote for their leader to go to the community meetings and cooperate on their behalf. It didn't come off the drawing board so well, so they invented the "electoral college" as part of the checks and balances, but it became an excuse for confusion when activities needed some confusion to hide them.

The net effect was that with so much distance from the "family" which the "leaders" were supposed to represent, they realized how much power could be had with so little visibility and they fell behind the convenient cloak of "group dynamics" where a group of people can do the most awful things and no single person is accountable. So, they began to view their new power as a personal "cash cow" and the distance and group dynamics made them invisible to the "family" and all responsibility and accountability began to fade and fall by the wayside. Co-operation was lost as self-interest was born and the very same "leaders" used their power for personal gain.

The very core of humanity is not going to change. We are still only able to survive through pooling our brainpower in co-operation. We may not have to fight off woolly mammoths and lions, but there are other animals who can bring us down, like super-bugs, and there are other enemies who would like to steal our resources, and are certainly actively attempting that even as we speak. And then there is our economy and the feeding of our "family," along with shelter (housing)... which we are now losing. And there is the defense of our nation also at stake.

Given that our species only survives by co-operation of brainpower, and the co-operation of brainpower at the core of our nation has become completely absent, we are in big trouble. What the pseudo-leaders in Washington have failed to realize is that they are also part of the Human Enterprise and there are certain rules for survival that must be adhered to or we all fall down, and they fall with us. If they think they truly are above the "Law" and they don't have to co-operate, they will learn the error of their ways, but the big concern is how much damage will be done in the meantime?

In human terms on a "natural" level Cooperation is Leadership..

http:/www.ecninstitute.com
http:/www.entrecomm.net/Blog
http://www.entrecomm.net/Forum
http://www.coachjudi.com