Mindful leadership

摘要

EM Forster's 1909 short story The Machine Stops depicts a world where most of the people live underground in "The Machine". Each person lives in his or her individual cell. The Machine feeds, clothes and houses them. It allows them to socialise via a surprisingly well imagined version of the internet. All seems idyllic. And then one day a small fault appears. A slight noise mars one of the pieces of music that people access on The Machine. At first there is consternation but as time goes by people stop noticing it - the fault becomes part of the music. Soon, other things start to go wrong. Small faults become bigger faults. Gradually "things go from bad to worse unchallenged". Eventually, the inevitable happens. The accumutating faults kill The Machine along with those it had once nourished. Our 21st century "machine" is jusl as vulnerable.