WORLDVIEW: Why Tuckman’s archaic theory isn’t going to help America. Or the world.

By Alec Hogg.During his first 10 days in office, US President Donald Trump used his newly acquired power to sign 18 mostly sweeping executive actions. They started on inauguration day when he began dismantling Obamacare, through to scrapping a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership and implementing a travel ban on citizens of seven mainly Muslim countries..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Still, we should have expected it. Trump's worldview stems from his personal experience. As a self-made entrepreneur, he learnt in business that reliability is everything. Trump's vote-catching pre-election promises smack of being made on the fly. But in his head he is now morally obliged to implement them, no matter how little they stand up to rational scrutiny..Also, their success and ever-present sycophants tend to make billionaires super-confident in their own judgement. On everything. Luck, a very necessary ingredient for business success, also develops a misguided belief that it is always best to act fast and decisively. Not exactly strengths of public servants. But for good reason. Wheels turn very differently there..South Africa learnt this lesson soon after democracy. Inspired by the Mandela-led spirit of nation building, numerous business executives volunteered to apply their skills to help a floundering public sector. Highest profile recruit was SABMiller's chief executive Meyer Kahn, duly appointed in 1997 to the critical role as head of the SA Police Services..Despite an impressive business pedigree, Kahn's stint in the police force was an abject failure. Months before his contract ended he publicly complained the fight against crime was being lost; claiming his plan was good but resources to implement did not exist..Kahn's engagement certainly shook things up. But there is a fine line between constructive and destructive disruption. His rattling of the law enforcement cage opened the way for deeply flawed Jackie Selebi's appointment as SA's top cop – sparking nine years of even greater criminality which only ended when the top cop was jailed for corruption..Another thing bothering me about Trump's actions is how his approach clearly follows the "forming-storming-norming-performing" theory still idealised by many in business. Invented in 1965 by then 27-year–old group dynamics specialist Bruce Tuckman, it is a tough love, quick results approach to the challenges of change. Tuckman argued the process of transforming organisations can be divided into these four stages. In theory, after destructive "storming" comes the commitment of "norming" and then efficiency of "performing"..Within the business context, there is an easy solution for attrition caused during "storming" when conflict is deliberately created (as Trump is doing now). Dissenters simply resign from the company. In countries, however, citizens rarely just pack up and go. Instead, they tend to gather with those who feel the same way, egging each other to greater resistance. That part of the Tuckman theory doesn't seem to have made it into Donald Trump's vision of making America great again. Perhaps because in his businesses, like his TV show, he could tell objectors "You're fired." It's a lot more complicated in the Oval Office.

WORLDVIEW: Why Tuckman’s archaic theory isn’t going to help America. Or the world.

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