The End of Leaders and Followers and the Emergence of Collaborating Co-creators

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the emerging future of organizational theory and practice will de-emphasize the concepts of leaders and followers. The authors provide evidence of the rise of a theory and practice that replaces those industrial era constructs. We identify four sources signaling a change to thinking of organization members as collaborating co-creators. The authors call attention to the works of Joseph Rost, Ron Heifetz, Marty Linsky, David Bohm, William Isaacs, and Frédéric Laloux. Additionally, underlying the work of all these thinkers is the implicit (and sometimes explicit) recognition that the move from leaders and followers to collaborating co-creators requires a significant amount of what Joseph Jaworski calls “inner work.” The essence of inner work is a highly developed sense of mindfulness. For people to make the mindset transition into collaborative co-creators, they must diminish their ego-centeredness, increase their open-mindedness, employ a wider empathy, and finally fully participate in dialogical conversations that result in breakthrough innovations. These changes are only possible through the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is a methodological connection to the wisdom literature of the East.