Herding Cats

"Leadership of a group of people, be it in the commercial sector, on community boards, or at an academic institution, is one of the hardest tasks one can tackle. I have often been asked by others, many not in academia, why it seems that "nothing gets done" or "change takes forever" at universities. It's easy to point fingers at the leaders (e.g., department chairs, deans, provosts) as their job descriptions could be summarized as "make sure stuff gets done." The poor saps have to do that with people who think they are all that and a bag of chips."