First Principles Based Leadership Requires First Order Learning

Premise I read this post by John Hunter, which was originally published in 2014 but is still very relevant. In this blog, he shares one key insight from the work of Deming – managing (or leading) can’t be taught (prescriptive) and needs to be learnt (experiential). First Order Learning Vs Second Order Learning One needs to learn to lead by leading and to manage by managing. We can learn from our own experience (first order learning) or from the experience of those who have gone before us (second order learning). When we learn from our own experience, we start to […]

The Responsibilities of a Leader

Observe: As leaders it is our responsibility to observe what is happening inside the organisation, within his team, with the people who we are leading. It is our responsibility to observe what is happening at the periphery of our organisation, with our customers (internal or external). And to observe what is happening within the industry that we operate in and at the intersections of the different industries that we might be participating in. And lastly to observe what is happening at the societal level. We can use all the different tools that are at our disposal for this. We can […]