99. Role models

 One of the six causes proposed by Aristotle is the exemplary cause. It is a model or example to be emulated. The carpenter makes a chair after a model, the portrait painter uses a model, and in organizations and society there are role models. Adam Snith used the pin factory as a leading example of division of labour: one worker draws the wire, a second cuts it into pins, a third sharpens, and a fourth polishes them.

 Exemplar is the original meaning of the term paradigm. That term has acquired a range of meanings, such as philosophical, scientific or political doctrine, or a set of basic perceptions, notions, assumptions, or methods. This suggests that at the source of these lies some exemplar that is emulated.

 There is wisdom in this. Using the exemplar to be emulated or imitated is an alternative for a set of precise prescriptions, instructions, rules, or a protocol to be followed. Those do not do justice to the complexity and variability of human life, and conditions of practice. Complexity and variability arise in the diversity and change of specific contexts in which a practice is to be performed. Practice, of work, art, debate, thought, and life in general, are too variable and complex to be caught in strict, universal, fixed concepts and rules. I discussed this in earlier items of this blog (e.g. item 16), where I argued for an interplay between universals and contexts of application in which universals can shift. The exemplar is a universal with built-in room for variety. 

Compared to strict rules or protocols, an exemplar leaves room for interpretation according to context. Thus it leaves room for individuality in work, and takes the variability and complexity of contexts into account. Such room for variety of practice is important especially for innovation, where ideas need to be adapted to novel challenges and opportunities.

Entrepreneurs, in business (Henry Ford), science (Einstein) and politics (Ghandi), are examples. They were originals, and what they did was difficult to reduce to strict prescriptions. It was more a matter of style. In retrospect one can reconstruct elements of it, such as efficiency from uniformity (Ford’s assembly line), unity of time and space, in four dimensions (Einstein), non-violent protest (Ghandi).

But variations upon the theme arise. Assembly lines developed into new forms of production (just-in-time, demand pull, self-regulating teams). In nature, four dimensions developed into eleven. Protest adopted social media, and standing silent for hours on Taksim square in Istanbul. What is imitated and improvised upon is not just a logical principle involved but also a spirit in which forms of thought and action are found.

As a result, the imprint on practice of the original inventor can last a long time. In the economy we see this in family firms that parade the founding father. Imitating the exemplar becomes part of the culture of an organization. And then it can atrophy, becoming a myth, ritualized, and can then become rigid, dogmatic, inflexible and brittle, to ultimately crumble in the winds of change.