Facing the Crisis: Relying on Ruddership to Tackle Complexity

RUDDERSHIP: The Exercise of Discernment Driven by Experience to Face Crises

An explosive and volatile security situation.

The Merah affair in 2012, the shock of Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan in 2015, and Nice in 2016 created an indelible emotional fracture in France. Since then, the litany of Islamist-inspired attacks, assassinations, and knife attacks... continues to grow in France(1) and Europe(2).

Our cities(3) are infected by drug traffickers who commit executions and settle scores with impunity. Our suburbs and neighborhoods increasingly erupt into guerrilla episodes, reaching unprecedented levels during the riots of summer 2023.

Since the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, France has been experiencing an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism. Our law enforcement and security forces face almost daily refusals to comply and are regularly ambushed and attacked. Recently, a prison convoy was subjected to a "commando-style" attack at the Incarville tollbooth, and just a stone's throw from the Paris 2024 Olympics, New Caledonia is now in flames...

The return of "high-intensity" conflict in Ukraine, the resurgence of armed conflicts (West Africa, western DRC, Sudan...), zones of chaos - like in Haiti -, and regional tensions (Strait of Hormuz, Houthis, Taiwan...) all exacerbate international complexity.

In this alarming, extremely volatile, evolving, crisis-prone, and uncertain security paradigm, conventional frameworks and stances have reached their limits and may prove ineffective in grasping the complexity and identifying the maneuver to navigate out.

Facing multifaceted, polymorphic, sudden, and unexpected crises requires organizations to exhibit agility, responsiveness, and resilience, along with a "little something extra" beyond traditional leadership: ruddership.

Navigating Crisis by Transitioning from Leadership to Ruddership

To withstand the adverse winds, organizations today need "war pilots"; extreme "helmsmen" capable of steering the "enterprise" ship safely to port, navigating obstacles, taking reef, and facing challenges like Ulysses encountering traps, storms, and obstacles.

Navigating adversity - having ruddership - requires preparation, expertise, calmness, clarity, humility, and responsiveness; skills acquired only through extensive experience in managing complexity.

Derived from english word "rudder", ruddership is neither an evolution nor an extension of the traditional leadership concept, which merely involves exercising authority. A leader, however competent in ordinary conditions, does not necessarily possess ruddership in extraordinary conditions. Having ruddership does not necessarily imply having an exaggerated leadership. It is, however, essential to be able to impose oneself when leadership is lacking or when circumstances demand it.

While the leadership motto is "follow me !", the ruddership motto is "let's go !"

Relying primarily on situational, emotional, and empathetic intelligence "soft skills," ruddership incorporates specific skills and strategies defining the ability to guide and direct an organization with flexibility, precision, and foresight through modern challenges and emerging opportunities.

Ruddership can be characterized by adaptive vision, systemic thinking, decisional agility, and a culture of innovation. It allows for managing changing dynamics, anticipating the unexpected, and quickly adapting to new circumstances while maintaining a coherent strategic course.

It is the exercise of discernment driven by experience.

David HORNUS

1. 120 per day according to 2015-2017 statistics
2. Brussels 2016 and 2023, decapitation of a business leader (Hervé Cornara) in Saint-Quentin-Falavier in 2015, murder of Father Hamel in 2016, murder of Samuel Paty in 2020, of Dominique Bernard in Arras in 2023, and many others... Moscow's Crocus City Hall attack on March 22, 2024.
3. 47 in 2023 for the city of Marseille alone.