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2022 | Book

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Negative Capability in Leadership Practice

Implications for Working in Uncertainty

Authors: Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

Working in uncertainty has become the new normal, but what do leaders have to draw upon when lacking the requisite knowledge? In this book, the authors make a case for Negative Capability, which enables leaders to work in a state of not knowing without simply reaching for old ideas or resorting to habitual behaviours. It is not a practice that can be measured, but its impact in leadership practice is immense and tangible.

Offering fresh insights for leadership students, researchers, and practitioners on the challenges of working in uncertainty, the book offers a novel perspective on Negative Capability as a way of being. Each chapter explores an aspect of Negative Capability through the accounts of leaders and managers who had the courage to explore this way of being and share the stories about its powerful impact. Ultimately, this book explores how a practice of attention can lead to new ways of understanding the role of purpose, leisure, and passion in leadership practice.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
In this short chapter we set the scene for our exploration of the contribution of Negative Capability to leadership practice. As we strive to navigate and make sense of the unparalleled global challenges facing us, organisational life is still influenced by the image of effective leadership as an individual in a position of authority with exceptional capabilities, and most significantly possessing knowledge that others do not. If we want to update our image of leadership and renew our relationship with knowledge, it starts with a commitment to self-knowledge and a new approach to leadership education. It is against this backdrop that we situate Negative Capability in leadership practice as a way of being when working in uncertainty. The brilliance of the English poet, John Keats, who coined the term Negative Capability, was to understand how ‘high achievement’ relies on a temporary abstinence from active, measurable, or positive capabilities, in favour of just being—creating what might be thought of as an empty space that is normally filled with thoughts, emotions and activity. As such, Negative Capability has a place in the leadership landscape in relation to the experience of being without—not knowing, not acting, and not having, as well as associated tensions, contradictions, ambiguities, and anxieties inherent in its practice.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 2. Working in Uncertainty
Abstract
Negative Capability was conceived by the English poet, John Keats. We note that applications of the idea in leadership studies have tended to interpret it as a ‘positive capability’: as ways of thinking, feeling, or doing. This is an approach that we challenge in more detail in chapter three, arguing that Keats’ understanding of Negative Capability was more existential: to be capable of being in uncertainty without needing to grasp for knowledge and certainty. We discuss how he saw the influence of Negative Capability in both the ordinary interactions between people, particularly in its contribution to a higher quality of thinking, as well as in relation to the extraordinary—the ability to gain insight into the transcendent qualities of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. These ideas are then discussed in relation to modern leadership practice, and how Negative Capability relates to the practice of attention, a sense of purpose, the work of leisure, and passion in leadership practice. This provides an outline of the conceptual framework that structures the book.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 3. Negative Capability
Abstract
In this chapter we explore in detail the notion of Negative Capability and how it can be understood to contribute to leadership practice. Having discussed in Chapter 2 the genesis of the idea and its relevance to working in uncertainty, we begin by illustrating what such leadership might look like. The early part of this chapter then explores the origins of Keats’ insight gained through a catalogue of challenging life experiences. This forms the basis of a critique of existing literature on Negative Capability in leadership, which tends to focus on ways of thinking, feeling and doing.By contrast, our interpretation of Negative Capability is as a way of being, being with, and being without. It is argued that Negative Capability enables us to work in a state of not knowing without simply reaching for old ideas or resorting to habitual behaviours. This focus on being-in-the-world also contributes to the important task of humanizing our responses to dealing with the challenges of working in uncertainty. The chapter ends by introducing the importance of a focus upon inquiry and the practice of attention when leadership involves working without knowledge—ideas that are explored in greater depth in Chapters 4and5.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 4. The Practice of Attention
Abstract
Against the backdrop of the global challenges facing us now, we ask: what do leaders have to draw upon if not knowledge? In this chapter we explore the relationship between Negative Capability and a practice of a heightened quality of attention. We start by suggesting that our existing narratives about the world and our place in it must be revised if we are to liberate our attention from the capture of outdated stories. In the current reality of the Attention Economy, where our attentional behaviours are tracked and traded as a highly prized commodity in the global marketplace, we propose that a regular and deliberate practice of attention is crucial to restore a sense of individual agency and develop new faculties of discernment. In this context, we also highlight the urgent need for an ethics of attention. Lastly, we introduce the specific practice of evenly suspended attention as a particular doorway to a way of being in uncertainty that creates the conditions for experiencing Negative Capability in our leadership practice.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 5. Leadership
Abstract
Leadership benefits from an extensive knowledge of the complexities of the organisational and societal context, but it is also concerned with a shared journey into an unknown future. The ability to work in uncertainty with others but without the required knowledge is where Negative Capability can contribute. We align with those who believe that leadership is better understood as a process that may emerge from any individual or group of individuals, rather than necessarily requiring positional authority or outstanding ability. Leadership is a process of transformative change where individual and collective will is brought to bear in an energetic and dynamic interchange of value. From this can emerge a shared sense of purpose and meaning, which is explored further in Chapter 6. The challenges of a practice of deliberately eschewing positive capabilities to make space for fresh ideas is explored through an extended illustration of the experience of an organisational leader facing a crisis. Through this we explore the challenges of working with ambiguity and contradiction, including the pain and suffering that sometimes has to be endured in the practice of leadership. The chapter concludes with an exploration of Foucault’s ideas on Care of the Self in leadership.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 6. Purpose
Abstract
In the context of leadership practice, there is a creative tension between the definable and undefinable aspects of purpose. This chapter begins by challenging the dominance of the understanding of purpose as something that can be described with precision. This has supported an approach to the leadership of organisations dedicated to the pursuit of utilitarian ends and undisputed growth. Instead, we suggest that purpose can emerge as a sense, as well as a set of measurable outcomes, and the leadership challenge is to hold in balance these definable with undefinable elements of purpose. This idea is explored in a case study that highlights the complexity faced by leadership practitioners, particularly in relating to others who demand clarity and simplicity—and sometimes irritably reach after fact and reason. We introduce the idea that a sense of purpose can be experienced at the level of the ordinary, where we find ourselves in the liminal space between knowing and not knowing, as well as at the level of the extraordinary, where the ineffable engages us with its Mystery. Drawing on themes from other case studies explored in the book, we investigate how leadership practitioners can develop a ‘poetic sensibility’ from working with an emergent sense of purpose in a state of flow, whilst also holding the important balance between internal and external expectations that must be met.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 7. The Work of Leisure
Abstract
As a complement to the ‘work of production’, we introduce the phrase ‘work of leisure’, which plays an important and specific role in learning and inquiry. Drawing upon Negative Capability, leadership practice will involve giving attention to the need for an appropriate balance between leisure and production. It is an overemphasis on the latter that has contributed to a culture of busy-ness and overwork. In relation to Negative Capability, we are drawing attention to the requirement for a particular form of leisure—not merely as rest from productive work but as a form of work that is concerned with the search for something not yet known. Productive work is associated with mastery, power, and control. By contrast, the work of leisure is concerned with contemplative inquiry and receptive vision that can permit unplanned transformations in understanding and insight. For example, it is through the work of leisure that we can find, or be found by, a sense of purpose, as discussed in Chapter 6. Through two illustrations, we explore the challenges of legitimising the work of leisure in our organisations but suggest that this may in fact support the work of production as well as contributing to humanising the workplace.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 8. Passion
Abstract
In this chapter, we explore how passion lies at the heart of leadership practice. This sometimes manifests as a spirited enthusiasm but Negative Capability sensitises us to passion as a felt absence or lack that stimulates our desire to know, to have, to do, or to be. It is this desire to fill the sense of lack, or vacuum within us that can generate our passion for the task. When associated with Negative Capability, passion is being without an irritable reaching after mastery and control, and it is an acceptance of things as they are, even if things are not to our liking. We position our inquiry into the role of passion in leadership practice against the backdrop of Plato’s Symposium with a particular focus on the lineage and mythology of the figure of Eros. This leads us to explore the parallels between Keats’ notion of Negative Capability and the Socratic Paradox of knowing only that one does not know. We end the chapter by sharing a leadership practitioner’s account of lived experience that points to the importance of mutuality and shared inquiry in leadership practice with passion.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Chapter 9. Concluding Thoughts
Abstract
To consider Negative Capability requires Negative Capability. We cannot measure, quantify, describe, or even practice Negative Capability—it is not an objective that can be met or a task that can be ticked off the to-do list, nor is it a goal one can be set. Yet in the context of leadership practice, the implications of Negative Capability can be experienced by us and the people we work with. We experience Negative Capability at the level of being as we become attuned to its nature, significance and impact. This is not a quick fix, but we take inspiration from the philosopher, Pierre Hadot, who draws our attention to ‘Philosophy as a Way of Life’, a tradition that has clear echoes in Keats’ life and work. We end with a caution that any leadership practitioner that seeks to become attuned to Negative Capability should be mindful of the potential challenges they might face in their own context. We have drawn attention to the inner work required, the need to address external expectations—imagined as well as actual—and the potential consequences of making leadership decisions that are not automatically justified by the typical demonstration of established ‘fact & reason’.
Charlotte von Bülow, Peter Simpson
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Negative Capability in Leadership Practice
Authors
Charlotte von Bülow
Peter Simpson
Copyright Year
2022
Electronic ISBN
978-3-030-95768-1
Print ISBN
978-3-030-95767-4
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95768-1