Ex­per­i­ment­ing lead­er­ship: from goal-driv­en to mis­sion-driv­en

A leader is typically perceived as someone who leads from the front. But what would happen if you chose to take a back seat to follow? This thought experiment is crucial if you want to develop your organisation through experimentation, according to Associate Professor Anders la Cour an lecturer Christa Breum Amhøj.

"Many experiments lead to radical changes in the understanding of what a leader is. A leader is often perceived as someone who has authority, control and foresight. But in some of the municipalities I've worked with on experiments, it works best when the leader, instead of leading, follows and has the courage to let go of some of the control to let others have the innovative ideas. Therefore, a redefinition of the leadership role is needed," says Anders la Cour.

Christa Breum Amhøj adds: "As a leader, you shouldn't persuade someone to do something. But open up the field of possibilities. Understand resources in new ways. Be in the movement between what your organisation does and what it wants to be better at. As a leader, you need to be a creative pathfinder instead of leading linear processes with goals and milestones. Don't be goal-driven, but mission-driven. We sometimes talk about a leader minimising differences. In experiments, a leader should multiply opportunities and be a midwife."

The two teachers have developed a new course within the Master of Public Governance (MPG), Leadership in the Experimental Organization, where they use both theory and practical experiments to explore the special leadership challenges associated with experiments and innovation with the participants (please note that the course is in Danish 🇩🇰).

"In the public sector, we talk about liberation. But liberation for what? We want to explore this with leaders so that it's not just liberation to an empty space, but to rethink society. How we use resources better and create value in new ways by experimenting," says Christa Breum Amhøj.

New Public Entrepreneurship

Both teachers justify the need for experimentation with societal developments: The uncertainty, the complexity and the crises place new demands on public leaders, as there is an increased focus on the fact that leaders can no longer keep doing more of the same. It is necessary to rethink leadership, organisation and value creation in order to contribute to solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time. This means that the well-known doctrines of New Public Management and New Public Governance are today complemented by New Public Entrepreneurship, a new doctrine for innovation and experimentation in the public sector.

"Wicked problems and a simultaneity of crises mean that we need to do something different from what we usually do if we want to create something different from what we usually do. Today's challenges are interwoven and ambiguous and therefore cannot be managed in simple ways," Christa Breum Amhøj says .

Anders la Cour continues: "Innovation is further accentuated by the government platform and a political desire to liberate municipalities based on the idea that rules limit the possibilities for innovation. And they do. But you will not become innovative just because you are freed from rules."

Experimentation before innovation

To understand the management task in the experimenting organisation, it is important to realise that there is a difference between experimentation and innovation, says Anders la Cour: "Before you can even plan innovative change, you have to experiment. And you quickly realise that things rarely go as planned. So planning innovation is an impossibility because it requires prior experimentation. That is important as a leader to be aware of."

Both trainers emphasise that innovation processes require management and leadership. Because the experimental approach does not make the manager redundant. Far from it. Instead, the approach calls for new ways of leading.

"Experiments challenge formal leadership. As a leader, you have to learn to walk on the edge of formal leadership and lead in the space in new ways. This is challenging in organisations that have been used to leading through power over others. The experimental organisation challenges leadership and strategic thinking because the strategy is to have a lot of ongoing experiments," says Christa Breum Amhøj.

Anders la Cour points to another new dimension that experimentation adds to leadership. It's about ensuring learning while experimenting.

"As a leader, you are responsible for learning along the way. It's exciting that experiments rarely turn out the way you thought they would, and that's a huge generator of learning. But you can easily lose it if you as a leader aren't good at facilitating a conversation about learning. And it's really demanding to learn from a wild process. Because when it comes to experiments, it can be very difficult to figure out cause and effect," he explains.

The deviations are important, according to Christa Breum Amhøj: "It is about learning through every single step the organisation takes. And not choosing the same routines, but constantly choosing to do something qualitatively different. In New Public Management, the manager must reduce deviations from the plan. But in New Public Entrepreneurship, deviations are potential learning and development."

Both micro and macro experiments

Both point out that innovation is not only linked to large agendas. It can be anything from micro experiments in mobilising and involving employees in more trusting and creative ways to large and long-term experiments, such as the simplification of rules for job centres to make more room for citizens' special wishes and employees' professional judgment.

As part of the MPG course, participants will work on an experiment in their own organisation.

"You may want to investigate new forms of meetings to increase motivation. Or to rethink the routines in your department so that you collaborate better with another department in the hospital for instance. As a participant in the course, you will be presented with theoretical suggestions on how different types of experiments enable liberating pattern breaks that can rethink relationships, organisational forms and leadership in valuable ways," says Christa Breum Amhøj.