Why Top Executives Derail: A Performative-Extended Mind and a Law of Optimal Emergence

Abstract

This article defines the mind as an ecosystem within a larger ecosystem. It uses an extended model of the mind and proposes a definition of human values as attractors emerging from ecosystems. The classical model of the growth curve is linked to time and growth dependent conditions for the creation and destruction of ecosystems. The conclusion of this article suggests a direct link between top of the growth curve processes and the loss of values. Top executives feel a strong responsibility to their shareholders to maximise profits. To do this, they move themselves and their organisations precisely to the stage in the growth curve where values are at risk of being lost and derailment seems unavoidable. The combination of understanding the extended mind as an ecosystem within which the conditions to create or destroy values are related to phases of the growth curve might lead to an ecological explanation as to why many top executives derail in situations of wealth, profit, power, and status.