40 Strategic Leadership
of sense making rather than as the exercise of authority. Cohen and March (1986)
describe a “technology of foolishness” and a reflective “playfulness” that expands
on some of their earlier suggestions about the limits to rational decision making.
In questioning the rational model, they emphasize the unpredictability of translat-
ing goals into actions.
Reflective playfulness involves the idea that goals should be seen more as
exploratory hypotheses to be tested than as rigid objectives to be achieved. They
suggest as well that our goals might arise more from our actions than the reverse.
They affirm that planning may be more of a discovery of the meaning of the past in
the present than the definition of future outcomes. This involves treating “experi-
ence as a theory,” meaning that past events are subject to reinterpretation as a way
to gain new self-understandings (Cohen and March 1986, 229). In keeping with
these notions, they see leadership more as a journey of search and discovery than
as the calculated voyage of ships marshalling their resources for battle.
These perspectives are entirely consistent with leadership as an interactive
process that is focused on the complex interplay of human rationality, values, and
narratives. In their pursuit of “foolishness,” Cohen and March have touched on
some of the deeper layers of human experience and agency.
Toward Contextual Leadership
Were we to start with contextual questions about the actual patterns and
processes of leadership at work in organizations rather than with authority, our
conclusions would be decidedly different. How is influence actually exercised
by presidents and by others throughout the organization when universities or
programs within them achieve the goals that they set for themselves? How are
effective strategies for change actually developed and implemented? Whether in
the leadership of presidents or, as likely, in leadership and decision-making pro-
cesses distributed throughout colleges and universities, something has happened
in much of the world to create institutions of higher learning that are purposeful
and productive centers of learning. To be sure, purpose cannot be preconceived
to be like a monarch in exile waiting to be summoned home by college presi-
dents to perform a sovereign’s duties. Purposes are often buried in the work being
done and need to be attentively excavated from that source. In spite of enormous
challenges, complexities, and deficiencies, many academic organizations, and
especially specific programs and the people within them, continue to respond
effectively to change. How is this possible without various forms of contextual,
distributed strategic leadership?
HUMAN AGENCY AND VALUES
We have described leadership as an integrative process of sense making, choice,
and action that influences groups and individuals to pursue shared goals in the
context of change and conflict. Some aspects of the process are so contingent on