Dynamic Incompleteness – AKA Open for Contribution

I love this Prime number 12 from Chris McGoff.  Dynamic – changing and moving and growing and present – Incompleteness – with holes in it.  It really describes a state where contributions are welcome.  The vision or goal is incomplete.  there is enough information to see the shape of the thing but room to contribute in a meaningful way.  What that does is allows people to own it.  The contribution is the key to ownership and champions are born of ownership.  The best leaders know about ships.  Carol Steen and I, when we taught leadership at the University of Lethbridge for 10 summers, used the ship metaphor a lot.

There is a fleet of ships called leader.  Ownership is one of the most important.  People take care of what they own and once they have CHOSEN to contribute they begin to develop that sense of pride and attachment that only comes from ownership.  Leaders do not need to have all the answers.  Sometimes they just need the right questions and to provide the right kind of opportunity for their followers to contribute… to fill in the blank or the holes in the Swiss cheese which is the metaphor that McGoff uses. So a leader who strategically allows for his followers to contribute to the vision he is creating wins in two ways.  He gains the loyalty and commitment of his followers and he likely has a better product at the end.

It’s interesting that no matter what they BEACH, the dynamic incompleteness concept holds.  The difference will be in the kind of hole each perspective or DO point will want to fill.  The excellent leader leaves the right kind of holes to allow for nine kinds of contribution.