January 08, 2008
Leadership to Run the World
“… the world will not be run by those who possess mere information alone… The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely.”
- Edward O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1999
I have been thinking a great deal about what kind of leaders the world needs. This is not a new activity for me - I have contemplated the subject for several decades - but my interest has been invigorated in the context of the Inamori Center, whose purpose is “to foster ethical leadership around the world.” At the outset I want to make clear that I believe that leadership is not the exclusive domain of those individuals with high ranking titles. Nearly everyone will have the opportunity to be a leader. That is why the development of ethical leadership is so important within our colleges and universities.
During the Case Western Reserve University Commencement, May 20, 2007, I told the graduates that they will have a lifetime of opportunities for leadership. I said, “I believe that the world needs leaders who can think big - and can think small - simultaneously. Leaders who think and act strategically and tactically at the same time. Leaders who are capable of understanding broad ideas simultaneously with understanding their application. Leaders who use both analytical and intuitive thinking, who are capable of fusing their left brain and their right brain. These are people I call ‘pragmatic visionaries.’”
I further posed, “Where would you learn such leadership?” and, no surprise, the answer is right here at Case Western Reserve University, which is a paradigm for the leadership I describe. At this university students are exposed to outstanding science, engineering, medicine, other health sciences, social sciences, law, business, arts, and humanities. Its location, in University Circle among some of the finest cultural institutions anywhere, is unique. It is a university where the left and right brain can be fused. (Here is an opportunity, by the way, for us to clarify our understanding of this university and help define its future direction.)
I also believe that we need leaders who are truthful and have high integrity, who value and respect people, and who are broadly educated. We need leaders who understand history and why history is important and who understand poetry and literature and music and opera and philosophy and social sciences and mathematics and biology and genetics and physics and chemistry and engineering and nanotechnology, and why they are important and how they are related, because everything is related.
The notion that leaders should be broadly educated is not new. The arguments for a broad education are centuries old and the liberal arts tradition sustains countless colleges and universities. I believe that a broad education always has conferred an advantage on effective leadership. The difference now is one of urgency and who benefits. That the world is in crisis and needs effective, ethical leadership in all domains I will not debate or rationalize here, but simply accept. Res ispa loquitur. With regard to who benefits, the traditional argument for a broad education seems to have focused chiefly on the advantages to the individual - personal satisfaction, social grace, perspective, ability to make informed decisions within a comprehensive context, perhaps some economic benefit. Now, because of the urgent need for effective, ethical leaders, the larger and thus main benefit is to society. I do not think it is too dramatic to say that the development of effective, ethical leaders is imperative for the future of humankind and thus our commitment to doing so is primarily a commitment to our collective future.
Posted by: Gregory Eastwood January 8, 2008 03:39 PM | Category: Inamori Center , ethics , leadership
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Posted by: gle5 (Gregory Eastwood) January 8, 2008 03:39 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback
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