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Systemic Leadership Learning Theory (Sll)

SUMMARY
Billions of dollars are spent globally on the development of leaders in organisations on an annual basis. Research suggests that the return on this investment is limited, or at best, difficult to observe. The need for skilled managers and leaders is growing continually, and, while organisations are attempting to close the competency deficits of their managers and leaders, they are simultaneously confronted by increasing competitor activity and ever more educated consumers demanding up-to-the-minute information and world-class service. Simultaneously, technology is evolving at a higher pace than ever, leaders are more globally mobile than ever, the search for talent is becoming increasingly difficult and individual leaders have a better understanding of themselves than ever in the history of the employment of leaders by organisations. Despite this global phenomenon, many organisations still make use of leadership development processes that employ models of education created in ancient Greece and consolidated in Europe in the middle ages. Such educational models are characterised by content-driven processes in which respected subject matter experts, employed by educational institutions, enforce their wisdom on students. These students are deemed effective based on their ability to comply with the learning content. More recent evolutions in this basic model demand from students to internalise learning content and demonstrate such content in the performance of their duties for the benefit of their sponsors. Despite this incremental improvement, the same basic model still applies: leaders as students are subordinated to the demands of their sponsors through learning content and guided to compliance to the learning process by teachers who hold subject matter expertise. So entrenched has the model become (as indeed is the nature of paradigms) that the very mention of alternative models may appear un-educational. This author has had the privilege of working with a...