Saturday 4 February 2012

Powerful Institutions versus Powerful People

I believe in setting up powerful systems versus having powerful people. However humans are in the Habit of creating great personalities instead of creating working systems that are strong. it is the system however that has a great and far reaching effect that is sustainable for time infinite. Humans have a shelf life and an expiry date comes with it, however systems that are strong and well entrenched with long systems have a longer life span and usually affect people daily lives more.
When we create powerful human beings and personalities, we run the risk of creating demigods who usually turn out into self serving ego maniacs who seek nothing but personal glory and fame. Abraham Lincoln once rightly said it that power and money corrupts and that assertion will forever be true. Powerful human beings are tempted by their power to wield it and use it for personal good even if it is to the detriment of many, the abuse of such power is often common as these people go unchecked and no one dares ask. Whatever they do is right and it always turns out right with everyone else until it becomes too evident that they are abusing power. they create cults and literally people worship the soil they walk on.
Whatever happened to strong systems? I wonder. Whatever happened to teamwork, i hope to get the answer some day soon. In any sector you can think of there are people who are worshipped and have become a cult to themselves, look at how those people have abused that influence and power. In governance, music, sport, religion, you name it, look at how all these powerful personalities have used their influence to exhault themselves high above every one else, to somersault themselveds into the realm of gods.
On the other side strong systems place a guarantee against abuse of power. It limits the power one wields and makes it impossible that people become cults. Strong systems serve their purpose and really all that humans do is to come in and fit the system, do their part and leave when their time to do so comes. No one becomes indispensable and it is unimaginable that any man is worshipped. All people take responsibility for their failures and credit for their success. The outcome is always a shared outcome because that's what life really is, at the end of it all, it is a culmination of efforts of a lot of people.
Good leaders build powerful names, but wiser leaders establish powersful, efficient and effective systems.


By Glen Dhliwayo

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