Leadership.
It’s a word people are constantly talking about.
People want to develop their leadership skills. Build leaders. Create leaderful organizations. Create strong leaders. Accountable leaders.
But, what if leadership isn’t the point?
What are we really talking about when we talk about leadership?
Most popular leadership frameworks and leadership development programs tend to have the same focus: the individual.
You might look at these 12 leadership styles, 6 leadership styles, or comparative meta-frameworks, which seek to answer the same basic question:
What does the good “leader” do?
Even when people (like our very own co-founder, Simon at Harmonize) question whether we should be using the word “leader” at all, we still end up circling back to the individual.
Let’s take an old-school example – psychologist Kurt Lewin’s six leadership styles in 1939.
- Authoritarian: Set clear expectations, command and control.
- Participative: Guide, but encourage collaboration.
- Delegative: Step back, let others lead
- Transformational: Motivate and inspire to unlock new possibilities.
- Transactional: Motivate through clear exchange
See a pattern? Each one centers on the behavior of the person in the “leader” role, so it’s no surprise that most leadership development programs focus on how to help that person lead more effectively.
But, that focus misses something essential–a critical conversation we are not having:
How do we work together?
In a group where lots of people bring different strengths and capacities of what someone might call “leadership,” how do we join forces to create something that no individual could create by themselves?
The truth is, there’s a big gap in the leadership development world.
While many programs focus on personal growth and influence, there are very few who talk about the technical skill of building an organization that actually enables people to work together. Missing from these programs are the mechanics of building organizations where people can consistently work well together, enabling people to bring forth their brilliance, genius, and dare we say “leadership” to create a group genuinely capable of collective action. An organization that is not constrained by the limitations of whoever holds the title or self-image of “leader.”
That is the gap Harmonize’s “Unshakeable Orgs” course is here to fill.
Our course focuses on the frameworks and skills necessary to build an organization that works. Because it doesn’t matter how inspiring, transformative, trustworthy, or values-centered you are; if part of your job is creating a functional organization, and you don’t understand the mechanics of how to do that, you aren’t going to get very far.
It’s like planning a crosscountry bus trip—you can be clear on the destination, committed to the people coming with you, thoughtful about the relationships and the route, but if the bus itself isn’t built to function, you’re not going anywhere. In an organization, if the systems and structures can’t carry the weight of the work, you’re not going anywhere. Vision alone isn’t enough when the wheels come off.
So, what does it take to actually get a group to work together?
Here’s where Harmonize comes in.
Over the past 10 years we’ve developed frameworks to help people build that metaphorical bus. Our work is rooted in our See, Be, Work, Grow Framework. In order to create a functional organization a group needs shared ways to:
- See: Make sense of the world and their place in it
- Be: Navigate the complexities of being a human with thoughts and feelings
- Work: Create the processes, structures, and practices to enable group action
- Grow: Notice and respond to the need to change as a group
These aren’t just personal development goals for a singular “leader,” they are collective tasks. Creating and maintaining the strong foundation that enables people to do these things together is a technical skill—one most leadership programs never touch.
That’s what makes our work different.
We don’t just support individual growth for its own sake, or as the primary lever for organizational change. We equip people with the frameworks and tools to turn groups into aligned, resilient, unshakeable organizations. Organizations that don’t depend on a single person to hold everything together, but are built to move forward together.
And yes, you still get a bunch of personal skill building and transformation along the way!
Click to learn more about our Creating Unshakeable Organizations course.
