Reading Now: Rebuilding Companies as Communities by Henry Mintzberg

Community – “the social glue that binds us together for the greater good” – is missing from many modern corporations that value leadership that demands results rather than improve performance. To Henry Mintzberg, community means “caring about our work, our colleagues, and our place in the world, geographic and otherwise, and in turn being inspired by this caring.” In a world that favors individuality and top-down leadership, companies aren’t designed to embrace and engage employees and foster community.

In his article in the July 2009 Harvard Business Review, Mintzberg suggests companies focus on rebuilding their forgotten and starving communities and, in turn, engage and inspire employees. All too often, leaders become out of touch by leading behind closed office doors. A community leader, on the other hand, is “personally engaged in order to engage others, so that anyone and everyone can exercise initiative.” Leadership should actually be called “communityship” and “stand between individual leadership on one side and collective citizenship on the other.”

So how can companies create a strong sense of community? Mintzberg suggests a healthy balance of “leadership, communityship, and citizenship” that comes not from the top-level leadership, or from the ground up, but from the “groups of middle managers who bond together and drive key changes in their organization.”

This article addresses a popular theme in many organization development case studies: how do managers engage and inspire employees? Mintzberg’s thoughts hit the mark; leaders need to be on the ground and be conscious of long-term performance rather short-term goals, and employees need to know and believe in the vision of the organization.

The strongest point for me was Mintzberg’s recommendation that managers at all levels “slow down and reflect” on what’s happening internally. By taking time to process what is working and share successes with colleagues, relationships will grow and the organization – and community – will benefit. On another level, Mintzberg’s article made me reflect on what it means to be a citizen in my own community. Am I a responsible citizen? In this day in age it is easier and easier to stand back and not contribute – to be a passive observer rather than an active participant. What can we do more to benefit the organizations we belong to – business and otherwise?

To read the article reviewed in this post please go to: http://bit.ly/9kzp0s
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Erin Kenny stumbled on the field of Organizational Development in graduate school when she came across an article about Appreciative Inquiry. She holds a master's degree in Nonprofit Management and a post-master's certificate in Organizational Development from Milano The New School of Management in New York City. She currently is a freelance organizational consultant working on projects in the Bay Area, most recently with the Mill Valley Philharmonic to create an audience development plan. Erin is a native of Utah but now consider the Bay Area her home. She is an amateur bassoonist and enjoys long-distance running.