1. Objectives Background Adaptive Framework overview
Leadership/Authority
Breaking it down—what do I do?
Moving ahead
Discussion and questions

2. The Way It Is
We no longer live in a world where we have the right to expect authorities to know the answers
The challenges our organizations face are complex
Require MORE THAN application of expertise
Require changes in the habits, attitudes and values of people high and low in the organization

3. Recognizing the Challenges of Leadership
Dance but keep the whole pattern of the dance in mind
Move back and forth between the dance floor and the balcony
“ You are under the influence” - avoid becoming a prisoner
View patterns
Identify struggles over values and power
Recognize patterns of work avoidance
Watch for functional and dysfunctional reactions to change

4. Framing the issues Adaptive Challenges
Situation is complex, solution not obvious
Can’t be done within present system
Need to change/address deeply held beliefs and values
Loss is inherent part of process

5. Framing the Issues Leadership = authority
Technical Challenges
Problem well defined
Answer can be found within present structure
Implementation is clear
Value of “expert” to provide answer
Leadership = authority
Expertise and well designed procedures meet the challenges
Authorities provide
Direction
Protection
Orientation
Conflict control
Norm maintenance
A wise and expert authority can provide times of reasonable stability

6. Adaptive Challenges We look for the wrong kind of leadership
Human behavior and Uncertainty
Leadership and authority
Based on human behaviors, and our reaction to uncertainty.
We want somebody to make the hard problems simple
We call for someone with answers, decisiveness, strength and an accurate vision of the future AKA the quick and painless fix
We should be calling for leadership that
Summons us to face the problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions
Challenges us to learn in new ways

9. Authority Power entrusted to perform a service
Meeting expectations  “good” leader
Power and position decrease if expectations are not met
Important in driving technical change
BUT—what if it’s not technical?
Leadership = authority but used differently
Traditionally formal and informal authority have been two kinds of power
Leadership is commonly associated within informal authority because of the ability to use non-coercive power to persuade and inspire a following
Both informal and formal authorities are saddled with expectations that constrain their exercise of leadership

10. Authority in the Adaptive Work Using Authority with a New Focus
Frame and provide tough questions
Rather than fulfilling the expectation for answers
Let people feel the pinch of reality
Rather than protect people from an outside threat
Disorient people so that new role relationships develop
Rather than orient people to their current roles
Draw issues out
Rather than quell conflict
Challenge the way to do business, distinguishing those values and norms that must endure from those that should go
Rather than maintain norms
Time urgency exists
No clear path to success presently
Stakes are high
Losses are inevitable, a given
Pressure on you as leader to “know” the answer
Feel pressure to be decisive
Feel the pressure to restore equilibrium
Often take action that skirts or avoids the issue the issue
Short term relief of distress but the problem festers and authority loses credibility
Constituents look for a better authority who can provide more certainty and better promises

11. Six Principles of Leadership for Addressing Adaptive Challenges
Get on the Balcony
Identify the Adaptive Challenge
Regulate Distress
“Productive level of distress”
Maintain Disciplined Attention
Give the Work Back to the People
Protect Leadership from Below

12. Getting on the balcony See patterns instead of isolated events
Understand structure, culture, norms
Identify struggles over value/power
Watch for reactions to change/loss
Dance but keep the whole pattern of the dance in mind
Move back and forth between the dance floor and the balcony
“ You are under the influence” - avoid becoming a prisoner
View patterns
Identify struggles over values and power
Recognize patterns of work avoidance
Watch for functional and dysfunctional reactions to changeA problem causing the distress will
frequently not be on the surface
seems to be about power, schedule, structure and lines of authority
really be a struggle over perspectives/values on issues
What is causing the distress?
What internal contradictions does the distress represent?
What are the histories of these contradictions?
What perspectives and interests have I and others come to represent to various segments of the community that are now in conflict?
In what ways are we in the organization mirroring the problem dynamics in the community?
Interpreting reality
Ability to stop the action
Opens you to multiple possibilities
Wider differential diagnosis
Action based on a diagnosis
Test your interpretations
Even when you decide to take action - it is an experiment

13. Identify the adaptive challenge(s)
Need to understand whether you’re dealing with adaptive or technical work.
Open to gathering/hearing other perspectives
History of unresolved conflict
Festering issue, regardless of efforts
How do you distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges?
When people’s hearts and minds need to change, not just their preferences and routine behaviors.
Process of exclusion–if you’ve done a lot of technical “fixes” and the problem still persists, it’s time to explore underlying adaptive challenges.
How to distinguish between technical and adaptive work?
When people’s hearts and minds need to change, not just routine behavior
If despite multiple efforts, problem persists
Conflict is evident, suggests people have not accepted losses
Crisis may suggest festering adaptive issue
Persistence of conflict may indicate people have not yet made the adjustments and accepted the losses.
Crisis is often a good indicator that adaptive issues have festered and come to the surface.
Listen to ideas and concerns of people inside and outside the organization or community
Conflicts are symptoms
Disputes over technical issues
Require
experiments
new discoveries
adjustments from numerous places in the organization or community
change in attitudes, values and behaviors
people to internalize the change itself for the change to be sustainable

14. Regulating Distress--Holding Environment
Need to provide environment which creates “productive level of distress”
Safe but not too safe
Fosters necessary discussions
Using the powers and influence (AKA authority) given formally and accrued informally to
strategically frame issues
frame and provide tough questions
orchestrate conflict
draw issues out
develop structures and processes
disorient people so that new role relationships develop
provide some orientation and protection
let people feel the pinch of reality
maintain norms that should endure
challenge the way to do business, distinguishing those values and norms that must endure from those that should go
Early in change effort
Create conditions for diverse groups to
talk to one another about the challenge facing them
frame and debate issues
clarify the assumptions behind competing perspectives and values
Give people a reason to make sacrifices
Give employees a strong sense of the organization’s history
What is good about its past
What forces are at work in the external environment
Responsibility people must take in shaping the future
Sequence the work
Not everything can be equally important
Do not start too many initiatives at once
Hold people through a sustained period of disequilibrium during which they learn to do adaptive work

15. Distress and Adaptive Work
Adaptive challenge
Limit of tolerance
Disequilibrium
PRODUCTIVE
RANGE OF
DISTRESS
Work avoidance
A leader’s most difficult job
Must have presence and poise and emotional capacity to tolerate uncertainty, frustration and pain
Ability to raise tough questions without getting anxious
Pressures to restore equilibrium are enormous
Hold steady and maintain the tension
Communicate confidence
Control the heat by learning to intentionally:
Raise the temperature
Draw attention to tough questions
Give people more responsibility than they are comfortable with
Bring conflicts to the surface
Engine of creativity and learning
Protect gadflies and oddballs
Lower the temperature
Address the technical aspects of the problem
Establish a structure for the problem-solving process by breaking the problem into parts and creating time frames, decision rules and clear role assignments
Temporarily reclaim responsibility for tough issues
Employ work avoidance mechanisms
Slow down the process of challenging norms and expectations
Using the powers and influence (AKA authority) given formally and accrued informally to
strategically frame issues
frame and provide tough questions
orchestrate conflict
draw issues out
develop structures and processes
disorient people so that new role relationships develop
provide some orientation and protection
let people feel the pinch of reality
maintain norms that should endure
challenge the way to do business, distinguishing those values and norms that must endure from those that should go
Technical problem
Threshold
of learning
Time

16. Raising the Heat…. Draw attention to tough questions
Give people more responsibility than they are comfortable with
Bring conflict to surface
Not in the “parking lot”
Listen to the gadflies, “peons”

17. Lower the Heat…. Address technical aspect of issue first
Address problem solving by breaking an issue into parts
Take responsibility back—carry the load
Use “work avoidance” wisely for short time
Slow down process of changing norms and expectations

18. Maintaining the Focus Keep attention on the task at hand
Ensure topic has time to mature
Watch for “work avoidance”
Shifting focus to another topic
Laying blame
Creating “ad hoc” committees
Methods to avoid dealing with uncomfortable, disorienting issues
Denial
Diversion
Laying blame
Holding onto the past
“Phony” solutions—task force, committee
Sterile conflict—no true engagement
Focus on technical elements
Diversions
Laying Blame (Displacement)
Externalizing the ‘enemy’
Attacking authority
Neutralizing the intervener
Scapegoating - what distressing perspective does the faction or person represent?

19. Give the Work Back to the People
Resist the temptation to resolve the issue
Get people engaged
Place the work with the relevant parties
Ensures “fair process”
Give work back without abandoning them
Overload them and they will avoid learning
Underload them and they will grow too dependent or complacent
For a time the authority bears the burden of the problems
Shouldering the pains and uncertainties in times of distress comes with the job of authority
Unloading the weight on people unprepared to respond is negligent.
Get people engaged - people see different needs and opportunities
Resist the temptation to resolve the issue
Leads to complacency and habits of work avoidance
Place the work with the relevant parties
People must dare to take risks and responsibility
Support the front line rather than control it
Leader must back them up if they make mistakes
Develop “collective” self-confidence
from success, experience and the organization’s environment

20. Protecting Voices of Leadership Without Authority
Protect the voices you want to silence
Annoyance is a signal of opportunity
Is there potential value in addressing the provocative questions being raised?
Emotional impulse will be strong to squash those voices raising disturbing questions and increasing the disequilibrium
Strategies
Value of dissent
Get on the balcony
resist the urge to squelch the voices
Reflect/ask questions
What is the real issue being raised?
What am I risking if I ignore their concern?
Provide Cover
Validate/appreciate concern publicly
Benefits
Signals to group its ‘ok’ to dissent
Shows you are willing to experiment and learn
Builds capacity for holding environment
Allows adaptive work to proceed

21. “The key to successful adaptive leadership is disappointing people’s expectations at a rate they will tolerate.”
--Ron Heifetz, MD

22. Leadership Actions for Adaptive Challenges
Listen
Concerns, fears expressed
Create environment to foster dialogue
Reflect
Feed back from your “balcony” position
Assess reaction to see if you are “on mark”
Intervene
PDSA—”experiment”
New discovery to introduce
INTERVENTIONS:
What do I want people to see?
What do I want people to learn?
Is the group ready for what I want to offer?
What may be the consequences of an intervention?
What is the temperature?
How can I be sure I do not become the issue?
Will I get attacked?
Am I being used by a faction?
What will help the group move forward?
Offer a hypothesis and be open to being wrong or being vulnerable.
Describe what you see and offer interpretation
Invite data
Ask questions
Tell me more why you think what you do?
Ask yourself questions
What position, value, faction does this voice represent?
See marginalization as diagnostic of a systemic issue

23. The most common cause of leadership failure is treating an adaptive problem with a technical fix.

24. Your Commitment Get on the balcony Identify the adaptive challenge
Keep the level of distress within a tolerable range for addressing adaptive challenges
Focus attention on ripening issues and not on stress-reducing distractions
Give the work back to the people -- at a rate they can tolerate
Protect voices of leadership without authority