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Can you introduce us to the concept of an ego-system versus an ecosystem within an organisation?

If a leader is approaching the organisation as an ecosystem, they are going to be able to take in all the complexity that they are responsible for managing and leading through. The advantage of adopting this stance and viewing your organisation as an ecosystem means you are going to be fed a lot of what we would call systems intelligence (SQ). That’s a different form of intelligence to standard analytical intelligence. Perhaps it’s best to explain what it isn’t in order to explain what it is! We all understand IQ and EQ. These are vital forms of intelligence that leaders obviously need to draw on a continuous basis, but they will only provide so much insight. Why? Because they are both forms of intelligence that enable you to look quite closely at and understand the parts of the organisation. 

Take EQ for example. EQ is amazing at understanding individuals, but it won’t necessarily predict the behaviour of a team, let alone the behaviour of the enterprise. IQ is similar. It is brilliant for analysing patterns, trends and behaviours and will work in certain situations to predict future success, but not when things start to get complex. By complex I’m talking about ambiguous, unpredictable, and volatile. What we are seeing globally at the moment is the need for something more than IQ and EQ. We need a level of systems intelligence or systems thinking as is commonly known. To be clear, I don’t mean technical systems as in what technology platforms you are running. We are actually talking about relational and behavioural intelligence. 

If we go back in time, Indigenous community leaders were absolute experts at factoring in the entire ecosystem and appreciating that if one thing changed, then potentially everything else could change. Leaders who draw on these ways of knowing can operate wisely on behalf of not just the inner organisation and all its people, but to consider all needs and possible consequences. This is a more sophisticated form of leadership that ensures that decisions are made on behalf of the whole and not necessarily by focusing exclusively on individual parts. 

 

Can you tell us what are the benefits of an ecosystem over an ego-system?

Leading, according to the whims of the ego-system is a trap, particularly for enterprise leaders. Why is it a trap? Because you are going to be presented with an ego-system on a daily basis… at any point in time, many of us human beings can get caught up in our ego. Simply with regards to individual ambitions, agendas, the need to get ahead, and the need to compete internally. These are very common energy patterns. It’s not to say they are bad, it’s simply to say that if you lead according to these individual perspectives, you will miss the richness available across your enterprise. What you want to do when you are planning enterprise change is get to the root cause of whatever behavioural patterns the company is currently exhibiting. 

For example, you might be rolling out an AI transformation and you might be getting a lot of resistance. It’s all too common for an enterprise leader to say, “Oh, we’ve got people who don’t like change, who are resisting change.” When in reality, viewing it as an ecosystem that resistance to change could be vital intelligence on multiple levels. For example, it could be intelligence about the loyalty that exists across all people to vital decisions made in the past that have significantly progressed the organisation to where it is today. It also might be a signal about unintended and unanticipated consequences and risk with a broad scale change like AI. If we were to describe the quintessential difference for a leader who is operating according to an ego-system versus a leader who is leading according to the needs of the entire ecosystem, the latter is a lot more curious, slower to judge yet potentially faster to impact.  

 

Can you provide an example of how we can recognise these systems at play inside an organisation?

If we want an example of a leader who is operating more holistically and more soundly for the betterment of the entire organisation, they are going to be inspiring people to seek to benefit each other and not just themselves. They are going to be talking about the vital contribution that each function, each team, and each individual makes, not just for their specific role and outcomes, but for the success of the entire company. This releases a lot of motivation, energy, and goodwill back into the system because people are inspired to be more than individual achievers. They are inspired to be significant system contributors. 

 

How would a leader start the shift towards an ecosystem mindset?

The shift starts with not just zooming in on dilemmas, problems or opportunities, but learning to zoom out, learning to be curious about presenting symptoms, whether that’s conflict or poor performance, and considering if it’s coming out of the individuals or if it’s coming out of the system itself. What do we mean by this? It could mean simply stop focusing on incidents and start focusing on patterns. As a leader, we can ask ourselves, is this difficulty happening because of what the individuals are bringing into the workplace? Or is it happening because of what’s coming out of our workplace and into the individuals? This means looking back in time, looking into the present, as well as looking forward. That requires zooming out and avoiding the myopia born from adopting a strictly detailed, analytical view to problem solving and planning.  

 

Can an individual, not just a leader, help with this shift?

Any individual can help towards this shift. It is as simple as every member of the team considering not just how to make themselves successful, but to pull together on behalf of the whole team in any challenge or any opportunity. To think outside my domain, although I still need to fully occupy my role, for example, and start thinking about if I approach this in the best possible way, how can that help others too? 

 

Lastly, what happens if an organisation is run purely through an ego-system?

Most organisation will be more than just an ego-system. Humans do want to help each other. They do want to pull together, and they want to see success for everybody, not just for themselves individually. Some might be more weighted towards individual egotistical tendencies, and some will be weighted more towards collective success. One doesn’t exclude the other either. We’ll always have egos because that’s part of the human experience. Great leaders lift people above their egos by inspiring their people with the bigger picture.