Recognizing fractals in social context to enhance leadership effectiveness

Applying to leadership the concept of fractals illustrates how similarities emerge from turbulence. From this perspective, leadership is not about isolating elements, behaviors, traits, and situations to fix symptoms. Leadership becomes recognizing connections and patterns among seemingly disparate elements interacting within turbulence to solve complex problems. Rather than imposing cookie-cutter practices on a dynamic context, the leader develops the capacity to let context illuminate the solution.

The patterns of behavior that emerge from interacting elements within turbulence show how dynamically interacting people, processes, and context adapt. Survival, adaptability, and resilience become a function of the relationships and connections that emerge within the turbulence. Everything is connected. Nothing exists separately. Recognizing these patterns illuminates how social realities interact with material reality to fit within the context, allowing leaders to see and influence adaptive interactions from associations.

In comparison, those who insist on imposing static methods on dynamic and chaotic processes can stifle change, adaptability, and readiness--while they diminish the capacity to adapt and survive. This is because traditional mechanical leadership practices can shut down adaptability behaviors by imposing static control processes on dynamic situations. Creativity, adaptability, and survival are limited by the control that leadership imposes on people and processes.