Choosing Leaders

Appointing leaders requires the sort of stability associated with organizations that can afford hierarchies and bureaucracies.  Whether in politics or organizations, most of us are a long way from those who are making the decisions that we are expected to abide by and have no relationship with them other than being on the end of carefully crafted communication. That’s acceptable for most people, for a while, providing the organisation is delivering what has been promised, but what happens in more fluid times, such as we are in now, the "while" ends and that implicit contract is broken?

The natural world organises differently. From the cellular level upwards, it self-organises. Self-organisation relies on a very simple principle; at all levels from simple cells upwards, attention is paid to the immediate environment and the needs of those around it. In the complex and stunningly orchestration of a murmuration, there are no leaders and no plan, just exquisite attention paid by each starl…