Philosophy at Work is a series of Socratic group dialogues conducted online with self-selected colleagues at a large company. Topics include freedom, authenticity, courage, and anything else that relates to work life. This is the script from the session on Negative Thinking. Words in bold are shared in an open document on screen.

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Welcome! To this “Philosophy at work” session, where we examine concepts related to our work life. We use Socratic dialogue to create a ‘Community of Inquiry’.

Thinking out loud also means that you don’t have to mean what you say, or stand for it – we’re just trying out some ideas. Really: a community of inquiry. Weaving it all together.

It’s ‘focused and directed thinking’. On any topic. (I love this group, and I’m so happy that you’re here.) “Thinking is listening to the answers that we give ourselves”, as Plato said (supposedly).

And now, I will share my screen and start us off with some ideas, and then we do a round, and then we finish on time.

So, today, we’re talking about…

Transformative leadership

Because this is very important, I gather. Everyone’s talking about it. But, why would we talk about it? Is it for us? I mean, we aren’t top management. Isn’t “transformative leadership” mostly for top management? Aren’t they the ones who should have the vision of the transformation that we’re supposed to go through …

Wait.

We’re supposed to go through a transformation…

Is this statement even true? (In a session like this, shouldn’t we ask that question too?) Do we need to transform? What does it mean to transform? To take another form – to transmute? Is there a difference between transforming and transmuting? Metamorphosis? Like, how different can we get?

Internet says that transform implies a major change in form, nature or function. Metamorphosis suggests that there is magic involved. Transmute implies transforming into a higher element.

How much can we change?

Do we have to, sort of, have the … What do we need to have in order to be able to transform? I’m thinking, like, a seed can become a tree, so, it needs the blueprint for what it’s destined to become … But it doesn’t need the branches or leaves. And if you don’t know what sort of seed you have, you give it soil and water and sun and adapt according to how it seems to grow, and then, you see what it was. In a corporate setting, we have to know what we want to become.

But, apart from that – it sort of works as a metaphor, doesn’t it? We can imagine some seeds who have been given too much water, and now they need to be left alone to dry a little bit. And then, you put them in the sun.

Is top management a gardener?

Hm.

I’m thinking about a book I just finished – the author said something like that top management is the operational visionary, and middle management personal trainer. And the employee signs a contract to say that they will be a colleague to their colleagues, and that they will benefit the company.

So simple, but quite …interesting, don’t you think?

Top management: operational visionary
Middle management: personal trainer
Employee: vows to be a colleague and benefit the company

(Huh? What do you think about that? Benefit the company? Aah!)

Transformation. From what, to what? This transformative leadership, who does what? A couple of years ago, I was part of a training series that was all about leadership. We divided it into three parts:

Personal leadership
Interpersonal leadership
Public leadership

Leadership, says the internet, is a set of mindsets and behaviors that aligns people in a collective direction, enables them to work together and accomplish shared goals, and helps them adjust to changing environments.

…Mindsets and behaviors that align people, enables teamwork and accomplishing shared goals, adjusting to changing environments

Now, that’s just usual leadership. So, when we lead ourselves, like, in personal leadership, we are, sort of, integrating our strengths, skills and values to accomplish goals, and evaluating and adjusting depending on stuff that comes our way. Now, for transformative leadership … I mean, does it begin with a need for change? It’s got to be something difficult about the change, right? It’s not just the next natural step, like a business that’s growing, so you hire more staff to do more of what you did before. Transformation is only needed when the original shape or function isn’t working anymore. But why is change difficult? Why don’t we all just see the same thing and start working towards the same goal? … Because we see different things? Like: we have different visions? What makes a vision … good? As in, compelling, and easy to want to work towards …?

Is vision the defining part of transformative leadership?

Or, what is? Communicating the vision?

Is communication the defining part of transformative leadership?

If so, how is transformative leadership different from other leadership? Where we’re at now in our company, what do you see? What should we transform? What is your vision? And now, we do a round. What are you thinking?

  • It’s also about taking risks! And believing in something
  • Leadership is the overview: having a vision and goal mindset but also willingness to take risks and being prepared to reevaluate, not afraid of failure
  • The bigger the company, the more difficult to keep the morale high
  • In a small company, you feel like family: appreciated & motivated. Profit is most companies’ main goal – but we should realize that there’s a lot in staff satisfaction. “They just see numbers”, you know?
  • You have to imagine a future.
  • It’s all about the vision and ability to convey it – this gets the creativity going.
  • I need to know WHY we’re doing something. For example: We need to migrate all of our customers to the new system, but why? What will happen when that’s done? We need to work on the narrative and tell the story.
  • Overview could mean … a collection of all the smaller things taking place all over.
  • You have to have a vision, so that you don’t end up a cockroach, like in Kafka’s story!
  • You ALWAYS have to transform… So, you need a vision all the time. One that can change. One that you can re-evaluate.
  • If we don’t have transformative leadership for ourselves, someone else will have it for us. We might end up as cockroaches.

Philosophy is what we need 😊