ABSTRACT
Chapter 23 explores the Art of Being Unreasonable. When reasonable people say there are not enough people, resources or time to get a job done, leaders may need to act unreasonably and that requires courage. The morale courage to do what they believe to be right in the face of pressure from others to do something different or nothing at all. It is the ability to transcend the group. A further challenge is to strike a balance between pushing people too hard and not pushing them hard enough. We use the notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to illustrate this point. The chapter concludes by drawing lessons from the British military experience to illustrate how leaders can strike that balance, in part by recognising that organisational success is a product of individual empowerment or mission command.
