"Head bone connected to the neck bone…" or Interdependency

A few months ago, who amongst us would have  thought that any of us here in the UK could have had any interest in the affairs of an Icelandic bank?  It now appears because some smart Alec US bankers persuaded their bosses and then the rest of the banking system to lend more money than any sane person would think prudent, to people who were likely to have problems affording it, that those ambitious Icelandic bankers have caught a cold.  This affects us because many of our public sector bodies including local and police authorities  felt they were being responsible by putting their funds where they would get the best rates… in Iceland.  So one hand washes another and  when one part of this global economy sneezes it seems the germs travel everywhere!

The thing is we live in a highly connected, very interdependent world.  In much the same way, within companies, there are all these connections and unforeseen consequences to actions.  We need to stay tuned in to make sure that the changes we are trying to create don’t cause many more we don’t want!  Systems are complex, and you need to really be sensitive to these links, interdependencies and relationships when you are making decisions.

“Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.”   Mahatma Gandhi

Tags: connections, Leadership, relationships

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 15:19 and is filed under Business Change, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.