Leadership that leads to dysfunction

Dysfunction in organizations is antithetic to progress.  Or at least to planned progress.  Or at least to progress that the current leadership wants to see.

When an organization is engrossed in politics, conflict, disagreement and turmoil, it is not focusing on what it needs to do to move forward, at least according to the views of those who control or are attempting to control the agenda.  "What is wrong with those people?" is the lament from the top leadership.

From a strategic planning perspective, one can say that when an organization is dysfunctional the organizational vision is not shared or perhaps the strategies to get to the vision are not shared.  In reality, it more likely is a failure of the leadership, of those "in charge" to build a consensus, rather than something being wrong with "those people."

Hosni Mubarek and his government in Egypt offer a perfect example of leadership the leads to dysfunction.  His vision of Egypt was not shared by his people.  There was no consensus built around a shared vision.  The strategies pursued by the government were not those wanted by the people.  The process used to govern was not participative.

A major reason to engage in a participative strategic planning process is that it helps build consensus and avoid embedded, stagnant, out-of-touch leadership.  Dysfunction is the precedent to failure.  Finding a shared vision and building a consensus for strategies to get to the vision is the antidote to dysfunction.  Whether a country, a company, a non-profit organization or a family, working off an agreed upon script to get to a common goal is much better than dysfunction.