Liberate individual goals within a boundary

Coaching is gaining popularity as a critical tool for organisational development and improved business results, but what forward-looking enterprises foster is ‘a culture of coaching,' notes Sangeeth Varghese in Open Source Leader: The future of organizations and leadership (Penguin).

The author takes the example of Dave Whatmore who coached Bangladesh from 2003 to 2007, a team that had not won a match in several years. “Under Dave, they captured their first Test match victory early in 2005. Later that year, Bangladesh shocked the cricketing world with a victory over the top-ranked team, Australia. During the 2007 World Cup, they again defeated a top-ranked South Africa, and then India, to reach the Super 8 stage.”

Dave's secret: During his stint as coach when he turned underdogs into winners, Dave transformed the ‘defeatist attitude' to a ‘victorious approach' by creating an atmosphere where the team management, captain and the board mutually encouraged and supported every player's growth, the author explains. That way, he says, coaching can in a direct way nurture relationships and social capital and indirectly enhance results by relying on improved bonding. The title of the book is inspired by the ‘open source' software initiative where the most valuable and vulnerable resource, the source code, is opened up for scrutiny and use by almost everyone.

Varghese likens the source code to the access to power, authority and influence which drives day-to-day operations and long-term vision in organisations. Traditional organisations, like closed source code software organisations, keep their secret code of power to themselves, while open source leadership opens it up, he distinguishes.

IISc, Bangalore: An interesting example of an open organisation that has been elaborately discussed in the book is the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where every individual is on a mission to explore and find his or her own goal.

D. Murali

> BookPeek.blogspot.com