Working paper & presentation to 2nd Annual CAPPA Conference in Public Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, May 27-28th, 2013. This paper looks at leadership as a mechanism for social coordination - an outdated one - that is failing to generate followers due to a growing perception that leaders are either unethical or ineffective or both. In its place the author suggests another mechanism, stewardship, and outlines a process-based stewardship to use as a means to facilitate people working together when knowledge, resources and power are widely distributed. Instead of followers creating leaders, owners create stewards implying that stewardship is a more appropriate tool than leadership to facilitate network governance, collaboration and partnership and that it requires different skill sets and practices than leadership to be effective.

1. From Leadership to
Stewardship
Christopher Wilson
Senior Research Fellow
Centre on Governance
University of Ottawa
CAPP
A
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF
PROGRAMS IN PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION

2. The notion of leadershipThe notion of leadership
was for a different era.was for a different era.
It’s time to retire it.It’s time to retire it.

3. Leadership is a mechanism of
social coordination
One that can transform
random groupings into
ordered social structures
…and increases the groups’
capacity for specialization
and coordinated activity

4. But Leadership has Fallen
into Disrepute
Parliament is a Sham
- Macleans
The $50B leadershipThe $50B leadership
industry is a “fraud”industry is a “fraud”
- Barbara Kellerman,
Harvard
In over 40 years, theIn over 40 years, the
leadership industry hasleadership industry has
made no meaningful ormade no meaningful or
measurable improvementmeasurable improvement
in human condition.in human condition.
- The End of Leadership
The entire “leadershipThe entire “leadership
class” is “fundament-class” is “fundament-
ally self-dealing”ally self-dealing”
– New York Times
The Senate is theThe Senate is the
backwater of thebackwater of the
US governmentUS government
– New Yorker
US CEOs have done more toUS CEOs have done more to
hurt the economy thanhurt the economy than
anyone else – even more thananyone else – even more than
the President or Congressthe President or Congress
– Fox News
“a dog could have run GEa dog could have run GE” –
- GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt of his
predecessor Jack WelchHSBC execs apologize forHSBC execs apologize for
laundering money for Allaundering money for Al
Qaeda and drug cartelsQaeda and drug cartels
– The Star
Only 9% of CanadiansOnly 9% of Canadians
have confidence that thehave confidence that the
Federal government canFederal government can
address their problemsaddress their problems
- Nanos Research
Washington is
Suicidal
- Newsweek“Nearly every pillar ofNearly every pillar of
American society hasAmerican society has
revealed itself to berevealed itself to be
corrupt, incompetent,corrupt, incompetent,
or bothor both” - Time
The 2013 global "TrustThe 2013 global "Trust
Barometer" survey, finds as trustBarometer" survey, finds as trust
in institutions continues to climb,in institutions continues to climb,
only 18% of respondents trustedonly 18% of respondents trusted
business leaders, andbusiness leaders, and
government leaders scored onlygovernment leaders scored only
13%.13%.
- The Economist
Contempt for theContempt for the
whole institutionwhole institution
[of the Senate]
- Macleans

5. What is Leadership?
• What it should be
– “bringing people together to make something different
happen.” - Harland Cleveland
– A way for followers to coordinate their individual activities to
produce value-adding, collective outputs that are more than the
sum of the individual contributions
• What leadership has become
– a romanticized myth, a cult of personalities who are seen to be
intrinsically special, and somehow different from followers
– It’s perceived as the ‘cause’ that is capable of saving us from
ourselves
– It’s how you obtain additional perks and benefits…
– but, it’s often susceptible to people later exposed as weak, liars,
foolish, inept, corrupt, vain, lazy, demagogues, selfish and just
plain crooks
– A $50 billion industry that in 40 years has produced no evidence
that it has produced any ‘better’ leaders, mitigated the effects of
‘bad’ leaders or contributed to the betterment of human society
– an excuse for not adapting to environments where no one is or
can be ‘in charge’

6. The Leadership Bargain
• Leaders are created by followers
• Followers will follow, iff, the leader is
perceived as both ethical and effective
– Might, right or charisma no longer justify leadership
– People want to follow … but only if they believe the
integrity and competence of a leader will help them
get what they need
– However, the distinction between leaders & followers
is continuously being eroded -- generating at times
disloyalty and even active resistance
– No followers >> no leader

7. Laval Mayor Gilles
Vaillancourt
charged with
gangsterism
Former Italian PM,
Silvio Berlusconi,
sentenced to 1 year
in jail
Warning!
Leadership can be harmful to your organization
Rob Ford “violated
the municipal
conflict of interest
rules”
Ottawa’s Mayor
O'Brien charged
with bribery
Sarkozy under
investigation for illicit
campaign financing
Intergovernmental
Affairs minister
resigns over
campaign funding
irregularities.
Aboriginal Affairs
Minister John
Duncan resigns
over ethics
violations
I found Mr. Mulroney’s
evidence to be not
worthy of any credence
– Judge Oliphant
ex-SNC-Lavalin
CEO Pierre
Duhaime arrested
for fraud
Three ex-Nortel
executives
charged Lance Armstrong
addresses Global
Leadership Forum
Ken Lay,CEO of
“America’s
Most Innovative
Company”,
Enron
Richard Fuld, CEO
of Lehman
Brothers, leads
his company to
$639B bankruptcy
Jimmy Cayne,
Chairman & CEO
of Bear Stearns,
“worst CEO of
all time - CNBC
Senators Mike
Duffy, Mac Harb,
Patrick Brazeau,
& Pamela Wallin
investigated for
financial
improprieties
Wachovia CEO
Thompson linked
to $378B in
money laundering
prior to bank’s
collapse in 2008
Award winning
PennState coach
convicted serial
child molester,
school president
forced to resign
FIFA President,
João Havelange &
other top officials
receive millions in
bribes
US Congressman
Anthony Weiner
involved in
sexting scandal

8. Collaboration Diminshes Leadership
• But even ethical leaders are increasingly ineffective due to issue
complexity and distribution of knowledge, resources and power…
• The Result: Few Canadians (only 9%) have confidence that our
leaders can address the concerns that matter to them most
– eg. Issues like health care, jobs, education, environment & climate change,
first nations, aging population, social programs, living standards &
balanced budgets
• Why? Because these ‘wicked’ problems take more people, more
perspectives, more and different resources, and multiple sources of
power & authority to resolve. Citizens don’t believe our leaders in
government can work with others - Policy Options
• The Economist recently asked, “why the big gap between trust in
leaders and the institutions they lead?” Their answer - “leaders have
been slow to adapt to the requirements of a world in which top down is
no longer the best way to lead, or in many cases even a viable one.

9. Followers Create Leaders
(and increasingly followers won't follow)
A “weak” and “secretive” publicA “weak” and “secretive” public
service starves Parliament of theservice starves Parliament of the
information it needs to hold theinformation it needs to hold the
government to accountgovernment to account.
- Parliamentary Budget Officer
The US Budget failed becauseThe US Budget failed because
Boehner "did not haveBoehner "did not have
sufficient support from [his]sufficient support from [his]
members to pass."members to pass."
- Huffington Post
Leaders without FollowersLeaders without Followers
- The Economist
Federal scientists rally against the
“Death of Evidence” 10 July 2012
““public servants [should]public servants [should]
make their own judgmentsmake their own judgments
about the public interest.”about the public interest.”
– Former DM,
Ralph Heintzman
“we are the 99% and
we are leaderless”
Occupy MovementOccupy Movement
Idle No MoreIdle No More
protests beyondprotests beyond
control of chiefscontrol of chiefs
Globe & Mail
Federalism upsideFederalism upside
down: Who speaksdown: Who speaks
for Canada now?for Canada now?
iPolitics
Disloyalty isDisloyalty is
growinggrowing
- Optimum

10. Leadership is a mechanism of social
coordination but it is not the only one.
… there is no a priori reason to use
only leadership – only habit.

11. A Leadership Alternative
• Stewardship
– Instead of the ‘causal leader’, the steward
acts as a ‘catalyst’ among owners helping
them to shape change together by a
combination of process design & relational
governance
– The steward “depends for his power on
making other people powerful”.
– Stewardship is a collective attribute that is
neither personality based nor even people
based... But it can be encoded in a process

12. Stewards are Created by Owners
• Building co- ownership & developing
mechanisms to share it are key tasks
• Affecting stewardship is primarily process
design
– assembling principles, rules, norms, behaviours,
mechanisms and protocols into an ‘automatic pilot’
capable of generating wayfinding, meaningful self-
organization, social learning, resilience, trust and
innovativeness.
• Stewardship is ‘learning by doing’

13. Stewardship Process
• This coordinating process of stewardship has six separate
but interconnected tasks:
– gathering together all the relevant actors and information;
– creating an effective space for frame reconciliation to ensure
collaboration, leaning and innovation;
– doing together but avoiding the rush to decisions and action;
– generating trust with a mix of incentives & moral contracts likely to
fuel both the continuous inquiry needed to facilitate learning, as
well as the need for contingent cooperation;
– assuming failure, the constructing of feedback, fail-safe and safe-
fail mechanisms to ensure both effectiveness & resilience; and
– creating relationships that foster trust but also develop negative
capability - the conditions that ensure the collaboration will be
robust enough to survive.

14. Stewardship is a mechanism of
social coordination
One that coordinates,
not through hierarchy,
but networks of
relationship

15. Hints of Things to Come
• Goldcorp Challenge1
– Goldcorp recognized it’s own experts didn’t know
enough about where to find gold so they opened
themselves up to the world with a $500K challenge &
discovered many new approaches, 8 million ounces of
gold, and their net worth going from $100 m. to $9
billion
• Governance of Tech Startups
– A bringing together multiple perspectives - owners,
angel investors, customers, engineers, suppliers – with
no perspective taking precedence. Both innovation and
accountability are enhanced
1
Tapscott & Williams, Wikinomics

16. Hints of Things to Come
• Brazil’s HIV-AIDS strategy2
– With one of the worst infection rates in the world in 1990, WHO said focus
on prevention. The sick can’t be saved.
– With no one in charge, Brazil was guided by communitarian principle that
nobody would be written off
– Innovation & decision making were shared widely by a government that
asked questions about how things really worked & was committed to
sharing everyone’s successes
– Brazil’s infection rate now 33% better than that of the USA
• Canadian Partnership Against Cancer Corporation3
– A knowledge mobilization partnership of federal & provincial govts & VSOs
– It has policy authority & financial resources to implement a national cancer
prevention strategy
– It is a collective body which, when it comes to cancer strategy, directs both
federal & provincial governments
– Governments participate but in arm’s-length relationships
2
Westley, Zimmerman & Quinn-Patton, Getting to Maybe
3
Rocan, The Voluntary Sector In Public Health

17. Does the situation
need changing?
What is the
problem?
How can we
work together?
How do we learn
together & evaluate
our progress?
Info Gathering
Learning
Doing
Trust
Feedback
Relationships
Investigative
Observational
Relationship
Design
Learning While
Doing
Institutionalizing an Inquiring System
Heuristics
Affordances
Checklists
Judgement
Connoisseurship

18. Going Forward
“You never change things by fighting the
existing reality. To change something,
create a new model that makes the old
model obsolete.”
- Buckminster Fuller
“We cannot win the future with a
government built for the past.”
– US President Obama,
11 March 2011

19. Thank youThank you
Christopher Wilson
Senior Research Fellow
Centre on Governance,
University of Ottawa
Tel: 613-355-6505
Email: wilson@telfer.uottawa.ca