Part one: Introduction ? Purpose and Possibility - Philosophie ...

The practice of adaptive leadership
By Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky & Ronald Heifetz Synthesized by Laurent Ledoux
01/11/09 This synthesis is only meant as a teaser to read the full book. Before to
read it, we recommend to first read "Leadership without answers" by Ronald
Heifetz which presents the concepts in a less formalized way, through
historical cases which will touch your heart and stick in your head.
Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough
challenges and thrive. To be an adaptive leader, there are at least 4 pre-conditions: 1. Get rid of the broken system's illusion.
There is a myth that drives many change initiatives into the ground: that
the organization needs to change because it is broken. The reality is
that any social system is the way it is because the people in that system
want it that way. In that sense, on the whole, on balance, the system is
working fine, even though it may appear to be "dysfunctional" in some
respects to some members and outside observers, and even though it faces
danger just over the horizon. As Jeff Lawrence poignantly says, "There is
no such thing as a dysfunctional organization, because every organization
is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets." No one
who tries to name or address the dysfunction in an organization will be
popular. When you realize that what you see as dysfunctional works for
others in the system, you begin focusing on how to mobilize and sustain
people through the period of risk that often comes with adaptive change,
rather trying to convince them of the rightness of your cause.
2. Learn to live in the Disequilibrium
To practice adaptive leadership, you have to help people navigate through
a period of disturbance as they sift through what is essential and what
is expendable, and as they experiment with solutions to the adaptive
challenges at hand. You need to be able to do two things: (1) manage
yourself in that environment and (2) help people tolerate the discomfort
they are experiencing.
3. Engage above and below the neck
If leadership involves will and skill, then leadership requires the
engagement of what goes on both above and below the neck. Courage
requires all of you: heart, mind, spirit, and guts. And skill requires
learning new competencies, with your brain training your body to become
proficient at new techniques of diagnosis and action.
4. Connect to purpose
It makes little sense to practice leadership and put your own
professional success and material gain at risk unless it is on behalf of
some larger purpose that you find compelling. What might such a purpose
look like? How can you tell whether a particular purpose is worth the
risks involved in leading adaptive change in your organization?
Clarifying the values that orient your life and work and identifying
larges purposes to which you might commit are courageous acts. You have
to choose among competing, legitimate purposes, sacrificing many in the
service of one or a few. In doing so, you make a statement about what you
are willing to die for, and, therefore, what you are willing to live for. The practice of adaptive leadership consists in 4 groups of interconnected
activities (see next page). |Diagnose the system |Mobilize the system |
| | |
|Be ready to observe and interpret|Make interpretations |
|before intervening |Notice when people are moving toward |
|Diagnose the system itself |technical or adaptive interpretations |
|Appreciate the elegance and |Reframe the group's default |
|tenacity of the status quo |interpretations |
|Discover structural implications |Generate multiple interpretations |
|Surface cultural norms and forces|Audition your ideas |
| |Generate a diversity of interpretations |
|Recognize default interpretations|Design effective interventions |
|and behavior |Get on the balcony |
|Diagnose the adaptive challenge |Determine the ripeness of the issue in the|
|Determine the technical and |system |
|adaptive elements |Ask "Who am I in this picture?" |
|Listen to the song beneath the |Think hard about your framing |
|words |Hold steady |
|Distinguish the challenge from |Analyze the factions that begin to emerge |
|four archetypes |Keep the work at the center of people's |
|Diagnose the political landscape |attention |
|Uncover values driving behavior |Act politically |
|Acknowledge loyalties |Expand your informal authority |
|Name the losses at risk |Find allies |
|Realize hidden alliances |Stay connected on the opposition |
|Understand the qualities that |Manage authority figures |
|makes an organization adaptive |Take responsibility for casualties |
|Name the elephants in the room |Protect and engage the voices of dissent |
|Share responsibility for the |Orchestrate the conflict |
|organization's future |Create a holding environment |
|Value independent judgment |Select participants |
|Build leadership capacity |Regulate the heat |
|Institutionalize reflection and |Give the work back |
|continuous learning |Build an adaptive culture |
| |Make naming elephants the norm |
| |Nurture shared responsibility for the |
| |organization |
| |Encourage independent judgment |
| |Develop leadership capacity |
| |Institutionalize reflection & continuous |
| |learning |
|See yourself as a system |Deploy yourself |
| | |
|Identify who you are |Stay connected to your purposes |
|Identify your many identities |Negotiate the ethics of leadership and |
|Identify your loyalties |purpose |
|Prioritize your loyalties |Keep purposes alive |
|Name your unspeakable loyalties |Negotiate your purposes |
|Know your tuning |Integrate your ambitions and aspirations |
|Know your triggers |Avoid common traps |
|Pay attention to your hungers and|Engage courageously |
|others' expectations |Get past the past |
|Broaden your bandwidth |Lean into your incompetence |
|Discover your tolerances |Fall in love with tough decisions |
|Understand your roles |Get permission to fail |
|What roles do you play? |Build the stomach for the journey |
|Identify your scope of authority |Inspire people |
|Articulate your purposes |Be with your audience |
|Prioritize your purposes |Speak from the heart |
|Test the story you tell yourself |Run experiments |
| |Take more risks |
| |Exceed your authority |
| |Turn up the heat |
| |Name your piece of the mess |
| |Display your own incompetence |
| |Thrive |
| |Grow your personal support network |
| |Create a personal holding environment |
| |Renew yourself |
I. Diagnose the system 1. Be ready to observe and interpret before intervening
The practice of leadership, like the practice of medicine, involves two
core processes: diagnosis first and then action. And those two processes
unfold in two dimensions: toward the organizational or social system you
are operating in and toward yourself. That is, you diagnose what is
happening in your organization or community and take action to address
the problems you have identified. But to lead effectively, you also have
to examine and take action toward yourself in the context of the
challenge. In the midst of action, you have to be able to reflect on your
own attitudes and behavior to better calibrate your interventions into
the complex dynamics of organizations and communities. You need
perspective on yourself as well as on the systemic context in which you
operate.
The process of diagnosis and action begins with data collection and
problem identification (the what), move