I was reading a book by one of my favorite authors (John Ralston Saul) and his work The Collapse of Globalism which was written twenty years ago, but has presciently described the current global changes we are experiencing. Saul likes to distinguish leadership from management and the theme jumped off the page for me considering the themes the last couple months.
In discussing leadership, he laments on breakdown of originality of thought in today’s leaders (a theme he has been famous for writing about). There is a discussion about The Marshall Plan that really stuck with me as it encapsulates a lot of what we have been writing about since the fires.
In describing the Marshall Plan in post-war Europe (and something our leaders point to here as a response to the fire), he writes the response was unique because the leadership Marshall exhibited, in his eyes, “involved both taking risks and searching for meaning in times of uncertainty,” a theme very applicable to today’s situation here in Altadena.
He further wrote that in implementing the Plan, the primary interest “was not to manage disorder. It was to find a new reality that would make the disorder go away (emphasis added).”
The distinction is very clarifying to me. Leadership is about taking risks, not “managing” the problem. As I have said numerous times throughout these Posts, the “old order” or the “old way” of doing things is crumbling.
Whether you believe it is right or not, the reality is things are shifting. We can try to “manage it,” or we can “find a new reality.” That is the tension we are seeing here. Control demands “managing” things or “elongating.” Visionaries want to “find the new reality.”
I mention this tension because we are moving to a stage where the City of LA is going to hire a new Chief Recovery Officer. There will be a similar position hired for here in Altadena whether through the County or through some form of private effort. Whispers are names are being thrown around here in Altadena and a full on search is happening in LA.
We need people who do not manage, do not see things the “old way.”We need people to see the problem, accept its messiness and want to “find that new reality.”
Yes, it is a needle in the haystack.
The new leaders for the City and Altadena should be able to articulate that new reality vision clearly and effectively. They should be able to see the multi-faceted nature of the response.
The role is hard.
It is hard because you have to take the “slings and arrows” for the leadership. You have to go “walk the plank,” making uncomfortable decisions so electeds are protected. You have to walk the community and live in the community. You have to be accessible. You have to know what it feels like every day for the people you are helping.
Balancing the messiness of the various interests and ensuring there is a new way forward will be a crucial component. The inputs dictating disaster responses for the last 30 years are no more.
We live in a new reality. A new reality demands a new way of thinking.
Like many of the structures in the world around us, things have changed. Lamenting on whether it is right or wrong does not solve the problem. It is not about “managing,” it is about “leading.”
Sometimes we get the two mixed up. We look to “managers” to bring us comfort and stability, but we revere leaders because they truly “lead.” Leaders are viewed at as polarizing figures, managers are nearly always considered “calm, steady, and comfortable.” Neat and tidy is management, messy and scary is leading. Leaders give us something to manage, not the other way around.
It is a moment when you have to decide who you are. Altadena, Los Angeles, California, and beyond needs Leadership now because the inputs used to manage do not exist anymore.
Those in Power will try and get back to those inputs to “manage” instead of leaning into leadership. They will try to manage you to keep the status quo going.
History does not remember managers, history remembers leaders.
They are unpredictable, or rather, “predictably unpredictable.” If you trust them, you can get experiences beyond anything you could imagine, mainly because as Saul was saying, it is not about what you see today, it is about imaging a whole new reality.
Why did Karen Bass select Steve Soboroff? She wanted someone who had been there before, someone she could trust, and someone from the community affected. She wanted what Mayor Riordan had after Northridge. He led the city and was credited with the response. She managed or was managed unfortunately.
Riordan led. He was not a politician. He knew how to make hard decisions. He knew what it took. He did not worry about the “political outcomes” because he knew leadership washes away the “old.”
He was described as mercurial in the day to day management of the city (as opposed to Bass who was comfortable in her role as Mayor until the fire), but nobody questioned his leadership in Northridge. He did not manage. It is hard for a manager to lead precisely because it is a very different way of thinking. Day to day, we need managers. In crises, we need leaders. Both are critical, but do not confuse one with the other.
In many respects, we as humans subscribe successes to people associated with those people instead of truly understanding where that success came from. Sometimes just because someone had a successful event on a certain “team,” does not mean the team’s success was because of that person, nor because that person was on the team, will they impart the perceived success on others at different events.
We like to simplify as humans because we hope to find that solution. Many will “offer” their solutions, but do they know how to say, “I have a vision, but the solution will be messy and require iteration?” You need the visionary today. Any hesitation or lack of clarity in the vision means they should not be considered.
Leaders seize the vision. They understand the moment. They are energized by the new reality. It is about helping people. It is about thinking different. It is not about being coy. Sure there will be politics, but it is not political.
The stakes are too great for small games. Those thinking about the material thoughts of what the positions portend for futures are missing the moment. Like a marathoner who lets the thought of giving up enter the mind, the idea of the future is what poisons the moment. There is plenty of time to consider what a position might portend down the road, but leaders do not know where it goes and if you start to manage for “what could be,” you have already lost “the today.”
It must be about the here and now. It is about standing up the city. It is about embracing the hard and making decisions which need to be made. There is no calculation for the future. We know success begets success and nothing else matters.
It is about doing what no one else wants to truly do. It is about not being fearful of what happens. Look in the mirror and ask do you really want this? Does wrestling with a giant gorilla scare you or excite you? Do you want to change the established order or just be the same? We need the former not the latter.
40,000 people depend on you in so many different ways. Drive through the neighborhoods, listen to their stories, feel their everything, and provide hope.
It is not a game. Live here. Be here. It should be one of us. It is real. It is not about raising money. It is about raising a town up.
Whoever it is has to be able to say, “it is what we do, so let’s fucking do this,” and just fucking do it.
Such a great post sir.