3. Human Progress: Through the Lens of People

“If I have one piece of advice for would-be leaders, it is read some history.”[2]

—Margaret MacMillan, Oxford University

By definition, progress means an improvement from one state to another. To understand if you are making progress, you need to understand history.

Try to Google a list of the world’s most-influential leaders. Not all of them have moved the human condition ahead; a few nearly destroyed civilization or the people who followed them. Many are political leaders who made key decisions and inflection points in history. Many are founders of religions—take Abraham, Buddha, Muhammad, and Christ, for example. Many are business leaders who found a way to succeed over others. In this section and your assignment, you will explore truly transformative leaders who improved the world, not just changed it.

The Rare Transformative Leader

In this section, you are going to narrow your criteria on these influential leaders, and you will focus on those who meet ALL of some tough criteria:

Demonstrated Creative Disruption: Put in place something really new to their world, inspiring needed improvements and driving change to grow.
Demonstrated Complex Problem-Solving: Showed systems-thinking by pulling together resolutions to multiple, tough problems, either by themselves or by pulling in others.
Demonstrated Transformative Leadership: Leveraged a situational leadership condition and showed use of the 5-E leadership model.
Advanced the Progress of Civilization: Made their world and people a better place as a result of their actions.

Let’s look at two examples.

Confucius

From the first tribal leader to current world leaders, progress has never occurred without a person or a group of people behind it.

Imagine yourself born in a typical poor family in a small village controlled loosely by local lords reporting to an ineffective king. When you’re only 3, your father dies and leaves your mother penniless, so you are raised in poverty. You marry at 19, and one of your two children dies before the age of 6. Your mother dies when you are 23, and you move from being a bookkeeper to a shepherd and then try your way at politics, but you do not succeed in any of your attempts and eventually live in exile until you die back home at age 71.

All this happened around 500 BCE in a place called the district of Zou, near Qufu, China. The child’s name was Kongzi, meaning “Master Kong.” Westerners know him by the name Confucius.

Let’s look with the four key criteria at how this one person has had a continuing influence on human progress for over 2,500 years:

Demonstrated Creative Disruption

Confucius founded Confucianism, which is followed as a philosophy, an ethical framework, or a religion.
He wrote the Analects, putting a huge emphasis on the importance of studying so that answers could be determined through deep thought and observing history—what is today called critical thinking.
His teachings transformed political thought and developed one of the earliest teachings on ethics. His ethical foundations were built not on rules but on virtue and the attainment of skilled judgment based on fundamental principles.
He set forth a version of the golden rule: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”
Many of his teachings would be reflected in the key aspects of emotional intelligence.

Demonstrated Complex Problem-Solving

Confucius integrated the old and the new, pointing to the ancient wisdom of his time and insisting that people study and interpret how to use it in the current day.
His disciples evolved several schools of ethics and philosophy based on his teachings.
He managed extremely difficult political situations, which demonstrated foresight, practical political ability, and insights into the nature of humans.

Demonstrated Transformative Leadership

He believed in the innate goodness of people while also staying realistic and encouraging the rule of law.
His philosophy was the best example of humanism, pushing leaders to value people over property, a rare behavior in 500 BCE.
He set high ideals for the political leaders he coached, driving behavior change with etiquette, reciprocity, and sacrifice.
He defined the ideal government as one that moved away from bribery and coercion and moved toward rites, duty, and natural morality. He definitely had his own political agenda and would not have been supportive of democracy had it been known, but he strongly wanted to limit the powers of rulers and insisted they lead by example.

Advanced the Progress of Civilization

He laid the extensive philosophies of Confucianism that are still followed and studied today. Some parts of his teaching even continue as a religion, and he is treated as a divine prophet by the Muslim community and as a deity by Daoists.
His golden rule and the virtues of self-drive ethical behavior today in sincerity and the cultivation of knowledge and deep thought.
He began teaching at 30, and he taught over 3,000 students and 70 key disciples, which formed the most influential intellectual force in China through several dynasties, up to Mao and lately with a resurgence in the last few years in China.
His descendants have been accurately recorded today, down to over 80 generations that have been accurately DNA tested.

Dr. Jennifer Doudna

As another example, look at contemporary scientific leader Dr. Jennifer Doudna. Dr. Doudna is a professor at UC Berkeley, and together with Emmanuelle Charpentier she developed the CRISPR gene-editing system, which essentially allows scientists to “cut and paste” any gene in our DNA.

Demonstrated Creative Disruption

“In 2012, Doudna and her colleagues made a new discovery that reduces the time and work needed to edit genomic DNA.”
“As CRISPR becomes increasingly used to edit multicellular organisms, Doudna continues to be called upon to speak clearly about the ethics of changing an organism's function using CRISPR. Their discovery has since been further developed by many research groups for applications ranging from fundamental cell biology, plant, and animal research to treatments for diseases including sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, and HIV.”[3]

Demonstrated Complex Problem-Solving

Doudna has taken a normal biological process seen in viruses and adapted it for use in an immune system so that it cooperates with guide RNA and works like scissors. The protein attacks its prey, the DNA of viruses, and slices it up, preventing it from infecting the bacterium. This took incredible insight.
In addition, she has researched RNA structure and function and has used X-ray diffractions to create a three-dimensional structure.

Demonstrated Transformative Leadership

She is viewed as a leader in her field and in science.
She acted as an influential team leader working with the Emmanuelle Charpentier lab to develop CRISPR.
She received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her contributions to CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing technology; the Gruber Prize in Genetics (2015); the Tang Prize (2016); the Japan Prize (2017); and the Albany Medical Center Prize (2017). In 2018, she was awarded the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences; the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from the Rockefeller University; and a medal of honor from the American Cancer Society.

Advanced the Progress of Civilization

The CRISPR technology is already used globally in most top labs to change and modify DNA genes.
It is possible that the technology will result in a permanent elimination of some genetic disorders.
There is also some risk of abuse, and Doudna is taking the lead on ethical use.