Leadership Theories with a Systemic Perspective Heifetz, Adaptive Leadership Senge, the Learning Organization
Adaptive Leadership Heifetz
Technical vs. Adaptive Challenges Technical Challenges Existing strategies work. You know what you need to know You apply your process, skills or problem-solving strategies to a new context and it fits Adaptive Challenges Existing approaches no longer work Experimentation, adjustment from many angles Change our way of understanding ourselves in relation to the problem
Adaptive Leadership Learn to be on the dance floor and the balcony at the same time. Monitor interpersonal dynamics (are people being silenced, marginalized, encouraged) Listen for the emotion beneath the words Read authority figures for clues Do not be so distanced in your observations that you are not also participating in the dialogue
Identify the Adaptive Change Look to internal and external stakeholders – what is their experience here? What are their assumptions? Find out “where they are at.” Examine recurring problems and conflicts, treat them as clues Examine yourself. What are your assumptions?
Regulate Distress Balance the tension of challenge and support Create a holding environment Make choices and prioritize in order to sequence/pace the work Frame the adaptive challenge, make meaning of the journey, conflicts, problems in a way that promotes resilience and learning Represent a steady presence the group can trust
Maintain Disciplined Attention Do the work Work avoidance can look like: blaming, scapegoating, personal attacks, denial, restoring balance too quickly, focusing on technical issues, political games, etc. Doing the work means Having awareness of avoidance: am I/ are we avoiding an issue because it makes me/us uncomfortable? Facilitating authentic dialogue (not debate) about issues and conflicts Uncovering people’s hidden assumptions and working to address them
Avoid Top-Down Approaches Give the work back to people Protect voices of leadership from below Don’t fixate on whether the strategy is right, focus on whether the people in the organization have the structure, skills and trust they need to learn and create an adaptive response
“Leadership is an improvisational art “Leadership is an improvisational art. You may have an overarching vision, clear, orienting values, and even a strategic plan, but what you actually do from moment to moment cannot be scripted. To be effective, you must respond to what is happening… you have to move back and forth from the balcony to the dance floor, over and over again…. You take action, step back and assess the results of the action, reassess the plan, then go to the dance floor and make the next move. You have to maintain a diagnostic mindset on a changing reality.” - Heifetz, Leadership on the Line
The Learning Organization Senge
The Learning Organization continuously transforming itself able to be nimble, flexible, adaptive to a constantly changing environment uses an interconnected way of thinking; people continually learning to see the whole together grounded in member commitment to the shared vision; a sense of being part of something larger than themselves; belonging; mattering people continually expand their capacity to create the results they desire and better understand their purposes learning is seen as a process, not an event
Learning Adaptive learning Generative learning Expanding our ability to respond to changing environment Generative learning Learning that enhances our capacity to create A shift in seeing people not as reactive to their reality, but as shaping their reality. Able to create their future.
Features of Learning Organizations Systems Thinking Personal Mastery Mental Models Shared Vision Team Learning
The new role of Leaders Old view: leader sets the direction, makes the decisions, and energizes the troops. New view: Designers – creating a space for individual and tea learning, shared vision, questioning of assumptions and systems thinking Stewards - shaping the narrative, holding the larger story of the organization, holding the vision Teachers – focusing attention, defining reality in a systemic way, and helping members truly understand how to think this way If you are the leader of an ocean liner – what is your role? Captain deciding direction? Navigator moving ship in that direction? Engineer providing energy? No the one who designed the ship.
New beliefs about Change Change starts small and grows organically Change is only sustainable if it involves learning Develop the mindset of conducting experiments – an inquiry approach. Try multiple strategies and take intentional time to reflect on the lessons learned from them. Pilot groups are incubators for change Bird on a wire metaphor. Go back to systems thinking maps. There is no silver bullet solution there. Name five small changes you could implement that would leverage a butterfly effect.
Team Learning Involves dialogue and the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine “thinking together.” Dialogue: free-flowing of meaning to discover insights not attainable individually NOT Discussion: heaving ideas back and forth competitively Recognizing patterns of interaction in teams that undermine learning (defensiveness, competitiveness, etc.) Any examples of being in a group that felt like team learning? Checking competitiveness at the door and being honest about what you know and don’t know? How do we address group culture where posturing is the norm? People trying to set themselves up as knowing it all? Afraid to admit what they don’t know.
Challenges to Creating a Learning Organization Fragmentation Problems are broken into pieces and considered separately (budgeting, technology, marketing..) Competitiveness Members try to out do each other rather than collaborating Reactiveness Organizational change only occurs in response to external forces rather than a spirit of continual creating How do we address these?
Not a New Idea? Lao-tzu: The bad leader is he who the people despise The good leader is he who the people praise The great leader is he who the people say “we did it ourselves”