First Place Essay: Glenn Corser
Evolution, leadership, and organizations are intimately related. Leaders, by definition, cannot exist without an organization and organizations, to be effective, require leaders. Evolution, being the grand organizing principle of nature, can teach leaders about running organizations. All populations undergo continual genetic change, due either to mutation or transfer of DNA between distinct populations. Evolution is the change in a population’s DNA that is passed from one generation to the next and depends on two mutual and opposing forces.
Genetic drift - the probability that a particular genetic sequence passes to the next generation - is a random process defined by chance. Natural selection - the process by which the DNA that make it possible for an individual organism to survive becomes more and more common in the population - is caused by outside forces acting on the population. Interplay between these two forces determines what happens to any species. The species that survived the various mass extinction events were usually not the species that were dominant before the event; but rather those species that possessed the genetic variability needed to cope with radically different post-event environments.
The overarching requirement for a species to survive is for individual organisms to survive long enough to successfully reproduce. There is nothing requiring a species to become more complex or smarter. These are side effects, not goals, of evolution. Business organizations face many of the same survival challenges as biological species. Organizational behavior is a complex interaction between economic and social forces and the internal makeup of the organization. The crucial difference is leadership; biological species cannot look ahead and work to increase their odds of survival – human organizations can. Given this advantage, what lessons can leaders learn from the evolution of biological species?
A species survives because its DNA is variable enough to survive the current threat. The more variable the DNA for a species is, the more severe a stress it can withstand. Therefore, leaders should seek to diversify their organizations as much as possible; inability to adapt to changes or withstand stressful periods can lead to extinction. Leaders are responsible for shaping their organizations to meet future challenges; evaluation of their performance by market driven metrics will encourage increased reliance on organization members and creative reactions to those stresses. Not all successes or failures are the result of good or poor leadership.
While good leadership is important, it is more important to have a robust and diverse organization. An organization’s sole requirement for continued survival is profitability over the long run. It is not important to optimize yearly profits or seek business sector domination. Those may be side effects, but set as goals may unexpectedly restrict the organization’s ability to meet day-to-day stresses or respond to unexpected challenges. Raccoons and coyotes have adapted to human society while mountain lions and wolves have not. Clearly, when it comes to survival, adaptability is more important than size and power. Organizations often strive to be mountain lions when they should focus on becoming raccoons.
Second Place Essay: John Farrell
Traditional knowledge versus western science, how do whales lead? Each spring, the bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus), migrate north, out of the Bering Sea and into the Arctic Ocean, where they feed and reproduce during the summer, before returning in the fall. This annual journey requires some whales to serve as “scouts,” to find pathways through the seaice that are short, viable (in terms of providing breathing holes and food along the way), and safe (from Inuit hunters). How do we know about this leadership in nature? Where does our knowledge of these whales come from?
For over 10,000 years, Arctic indigenous peoples, such as Alaskan Inuit, have hunted the bowhead whale for food. The hunt, an inherent part of their culture, continues today, through a sustainable, approved, and well-managed practices. The Inuit people have developed “traditional knowledge” of the bowhead, based on the collective experiences they have gained by observing and hunting the whales, and by passing along this knowledge verbally, generation-by-generation. Beginning in the 1840’s, whalers from New England traveled to Alaska and undertook massive hunts of the bowhead that are prized for their for their oil-rich blubber, used, among other things, to light lamps.
Scientists trained by typical methods in “western society” were not especially familiar with the bowhead whales, but they attempted to learn about them by accompanying the whalers and by visiting indigenous villages and talking to the locals. As is sometimes the case, western-trained scientists hold views that sometimes differ from those held by the Inuit. It’s a case of western science vs. traditional knowledge. Classic examples include the size of the bowhead whale population, the lifespan of whales, and the pathways by which leaders in the whale herds move the group north and south each year. Scientists’ estimates of whale population sizes were always smaller than those of the Inuit. As additional scientific data were collected, the Inuit were proven to be correct, and thus were able to take a few additional whales each hunting season, given the larger population.
Scientists thought the lifespan of the whales was maybe 80 years, but recent evidence (broken spear tips dated to the 1890s, found in newly harvested whales) indicates that they may live as long as 130 years, or perhaps even more. Finally, scientists didn’t understand how whale “scouts” found paths through the sea-ice-covered Arctic, and thus led herds north to breeding ground, and south, in winter, to warmer waters. The Inuit explained that the scouts could literally push thinner ice to the surface, buckling it, cracking it, and making pockets for breathing that couldn’t be seen by scientists observing from planes and satellites overhead. This enabled the whale “followers” to migrate undetected by western scientists. The lesson we learn from the whale migration is that leadership in nature isn’t always easy to see. It takes close and careful observations that sometimes even scientists miss. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19195624/
Third Place Essay (tie): Sumi Kim
Leadership is often associated with being demanding and controlling. Some people believe that it is essential to be forceful to be a leader. I disagree with that idea. In my opinion, you actually have to let go of that idea to be a great leader. A leader is a person who leads a group of people or an organization to a certain goal, and what is needed is the ability to coordinate and facilitate tasks without force.
A great leader does not force, but rather encourages and influences people to accomplish what they are supposed to do. A leader makes it a point to know exactly what the followers need and goes on to fulfill those needs so the followers can accomplish whatever objectives they have. In other words, a great leader knows how to accomplish what needs to be done without forcing.
To me the sun can teach us how to be a good leader. The sun is actually far from the earth, neither demanding nor controlling and yet it influences and leads every life on earth. As you know, energy enters the food chain from the sun, and it fuels all life on earth so that the business of nature is accomplished. There is no force involved at all, but all life follows what the sun intends.
There is a story about the sun that I read in my childhood. In the story, the sun and the wind argue about who is more powerful and agree to see who can take a jacket off a passerby first. The wind first tries to take a jacket off a passerby with a very strong wind but fails. The stronger the wind gets, the harder the passerby holds the jacket. After that, the sun comes out and pours down sunlight on the passerby. Even though the sun does not try to take a jacket off the passerby forcefully, he feels hot and voluntarily takes his jacket off. I think this story exemplifies the action through influence, instead of direct force – an essential quality to be a powerful leader.
I believe excellent communication and an efficient action plan have the same effect as the sun’s rays in that they give energy to the followers. One also need to create and foster an environment where everyone is compelled to follow the plan. This is why I think the sun can teach us all to be better leaders.
Third Place Essay (tie): Gloria White
As a senior administrator in an institution of higher education, I have learned three important lessons from observing groups of female lions---or prides of lions, as they are called. I have also observed that many successful senior administrators in colleges and universities have learned these lessons, too. I thank my own mentors very much for having shared these lessons with me early in my career.
First lesson: Never expect to herd cats; they decide when and if they will follow you. Just as a pride of lions will follow their oldest, wisest, and strongest member, so will your colleagues. Leading by example is effect for the 'alpha' lioness that leads her pride, and likewise leading by example can be effect for college administrators. But it can be only done when one has acquired the appropriate experience, wisdom, and stamina for the process.
Second lesson: Always treat each individual with dignity and respect, since that individual may someday become your leader. The lioness who leads a pride of lions will be replaced over time, often by an unexpected new lioness. A wise college administrator recognizes that leadership always changes over time---and is aware that one's new boss may come from one's previous subordinates.
Third lesson: The pride of lions that hunts together, rather than individually, is much more likely to succeed together rather than separately. In like manner, higher education administrators who work side-by-side with their colleagues in completing tasks together are much more likely to be effective jointly rather than separately. Collaboration also has the added benefit of avoiding stupid results, since more eyes, ears, and efforts are focused together on the same goal! There are additional lessons that can be learned from observing a pride of lions; however, these three lessons are perhaps the most important for higher education administrators.
Example Essay: Monika Auchterlonie
Democracy of the Collective
Those of us that voted in the 2008 presidential election are very familiar with the elaborate campaigning process that both candidates and voters must endure during election year. Voters swarm in support of their candidates, whereas candidates must go through a lot of song and dance to communicate their views on key issues to the public. By November, Americans make their decision on which of the remaining candidates is the one that will lead the country through social and economic challenges. Through this democratic process, members of a national community collectively choose a representative that meets most, but not necessarily everyone's approval; a process not unlike the one used by social bees to choose a new hive.
When a colony of bees has outgrown its hive or is displaced from its home, a process of quick and efficient group decision making ensues. A homeless swarm takes many risks in this process because it is completely exposed to the elements and any potential predator looking for an easy meal. In order to waste the least amount of energy, most of the swarm clusters in a safe location and sends out several scouts that will survey the area to find an adequate venue for the new nesting site. These scouts act as representatives for each potential nesting site and advertise their findings by performing a "waggle dance." This behavior varies on how excited the scout is about this new site based on the duration and number of spins in the dance. Scouts visit these sites multiple times and report their enthusiasm to the hive. If other scouts liked what they are hearing and seeing about the advertised site, they will start to support it as well. If not, the scouts will simply continue advertising their sites until they gain enough support. (Seely et al. 2003).
This behavior continues until all or most of the scouts are advertising one site. The swarm does not require a consensus to lift off and pilot the rest of the bees to the new site; it merely requires majority support from the quorum of scouts to signal liftoff (Seely et al. 2003).
Given the choice between several venues, the scouts will always choose a site with the best interest of the entire swarm in mind. In a study where a swarm was presented with multiple nest boxes that harbored different volumes; the swarm chose the box with the greatest volume in each trial. In fact, when two of the nest boxes had equally favorable volumes, the swarm was split in its decision and fragmented upon liftoff. This forced the swarm to reconvene until a majority decision was reached (Seely et al. 2003).
The lesson we humans can learn from this example in nature is that large groups make good decisions. Like the bees that advertise their findings with the best interest of the collective in mind, citizens of a nation vote to elect representatives who "waggle dance" in support of our best interests.
Reference
Seely D. Thomas and Kirk P. Visseher. 2003. Choosing a home: how the scouts in a honey bee swarm perceive the completion of their group-decision-making. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiology [internet]. [cited 2009 June 23]; 54:511-520. Available from: http://bees.ucr.edu/reprints/bes54.pdf. |
