values and cultures. Failing to see this hidden part and underestimating its size and
shape can cause leaders to fail, despite all of their technical skills.
3.1.2 The Leader as Part of the System
According to systems theory, leaders are observers. They construct their reality
from what they see. An “objective,” measurable and invariable reality does not
exist according to systems theory (see Neuberger 2002, pp. 593–641). There are
only individual concepts and perceptions of reality. Thus, leaders observe –
ideally themselves first and then the system that they are part of. Leaders have
to realize that they not only work “withinthe system” but also “on the system.”
That means they must leave their comfort zone in order to be able consider the
system with all of its advantages and disadvantages from the outside and to
change it if need be.
According to Niklas Luhmann, former professor of Sociology in Bielefeld,
Germany a business organization is a closed system of individual parts that is
distinguished from its environment by its borders. These borders are at the same
time the basis for the system’s identity. The fundamental cornerstone of the system
is communication. Relationships between the parts of the system are formed and
sustained by communication. A system is not directly controllable from the outside.
Instead it processes inputs using its own laws, it is self-organizing (autopoietic) and
adapts independently to changes in the external environment by processing the
corresponding signals from the outside:
A social system comes into existence if an autopoietic communication connection develops
and delimits itself from the environment by constraints of communication. Social systems
therefore do not consist of individuals nor of actions but of communication. (Luhmann
1984, p. 269)
This last sentence is only of theoretical value and does not help us with practical
leadership, because there we indeed deal with both individuals and actions. The
point I want to make here is instead the importance of communication for the
system and for systemic leadership. In my work with leaders, especially in this
point I repeatedly find major shortcomings regarding structures and forms of
communication within the organization as well as the individual readiness and
ability to communicate. Communication is more than distributing information in
memos or company magazines. Communication is also more than giving orders.
Communication is interaction, is listening and speaking and comprehending – in
exactly this order.
Concerning this problem the communication researcher Friedmann Schulz von
Thun talks of the four sides of a message (see Schwarz 2005). Besides the already
known aspects of contents and relationship, Schulz von Thun added the points of
self-revelation and appeal. What is his point? That every communicating individual
reveals a part of himself or herself. And moreover every statement contains an
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