Adaptive Leadership

-- per (Harvard) Prof. Ron Heifetz

Walking the Razor’s Edge (b/c

Exercising Leadership is Dangerous….)

& Building the Bridge

As we Walk on it
(i.e. a Pedagogy of Adaptive
Leadership Development)

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I. Walking the Razor’s Edge:

Exercising Leadership is rife w/ risks

& challenges (per RH) b/c:

“…to lead is
to live dangerously”
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Etymology of word “lead”:
“leit” (Indo-European):
= “to go forth and die”

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Followers’/Humans’ Natural
Ambivalence re: Being Led
Assassination/Martyrdom:
the fate of many leaders

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A caveat:
Heading toward
the Heat
Diving into the fire

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So BEWARE of unnecessarily

Diving into
the Fire

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II. Building the Bridge as we walk
on it:

The pedagogy of adaptive

leadership development
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II. Exercising & Teaching L’ship
Adaptively:

Means seizing the teachable moment(s)

in the Here & Now

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Adaptive Leaders are
capable of Learning
as they Lead
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& Adaptive Leaders
are capable of Leading
as they Learn….
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 Exercising--& Teaching--
Adaptive Leadership is
a dialectical process:
like a dance….
•  Pacing--& Leading by:
•  Modulating the provocation
•  Regulating the heat
•  Surfing the PZD: “productive
zone of disequilibrium”
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Modulating the
provocation

Surfing the PZD: “productive

zone of disequilibrium”

& Regulating the heat

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Adaptive Leadership (per RH):
“…requires disturbing and/
or disappointing people—but
at a rate they can absorb.”
i.e. * Regulate the heat
• Modulate the provocation
• Stretch the rubber bands
• Surf the PZD
• Create & maintain a holding environment
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Adaptive Leaders (per R.H.):
Place the (adaptive) work of
exercising leadership
“where it belongs” by:
•  Promoting an ethos of learning,
collaboration, creativity & resilience
•  Generating capacity—not dependency
•  Making themselves expendable/
dispensable
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Walt Whitman (from Song of Myself):
“I am the teacher of athletes;
He that by me spreads a wider
breast than my own
Proves the width of my own.
He most honors my style who
learns under it to [transcend] the
teacher.”
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 The long-term task of
leadership (& l’ship development)
– a la Heifetz:

= to enhance people’s
adaptive capacity
(your own as well as others)
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Adaptive Leadership
(defined, per RH):

= “…the practice of
mobilizing people to
tackle tough
challenges and
thrive.”
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Technical vs. Adaptive
Leadership:
Technical Challenges: Adaptive Challenges:

Solutions are already known: Require new learning in order

to solve
So just “follow the recipe”
(like baking)

So leaders must mobilize group

members to collaborate in
generating (new) solutions

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Technical Challenges/Leadership:
gcLi LL example?

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Adaptive Challenges/Leadership:
gcLi LL example?

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Binocular Vision means
seeing/being:

< On the Balcony

And on the dance

floor >

…at the same time!

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 Use Binocular Vision – in
order to see the whole picture
(more) “objectively”:

“The challenge is to move back and

forth between the dance floor and
the balcony, making interventions,
observing their impact in real time,
and then returning to the action. The
goal is to come as close as you can
to being in both places
simultaneously….” – Ron Heifetz
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Practical (TIP/RIP) Application
Moment for/by gcLiers:

Example(s) of developing
“binocular vision” from the
gcLi L’ship Lab?

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Exercising Adaptive Leadership
requires: Experimenting *
* “peri” root recurs in words like:
•  Experience
•  Experiment
•  Expert
•  Peril

Synonyms:
•  Trial
•  Crucible

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Adaptive Leaders:
Create & maintain a
holding environment—for
tolerably regulating stress &
disequilibrium—i.e. keeping
themselves & others in the
PZD

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Practical (TIP/RIP) Application
Moment for/by gcLiers:

Implications of adaptive
leadership for creating &
seizing teachable moments
for student leadership-
development….?

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Noel Tichy:
“Teaching is at the heart of leadership. In
fact, it is through teaching that leaders lead
others. Leading is not dictating specific
behavior. It is not issuing orders and
commanding compliance. Leading is getting
others to see a situation as it really is and to
understand what responses need to be taken so
that they will move the organization toward
where it needs to be….Simply put, if you aren’t
teaching, you aren’t leading.”
--from The Leadership Engine

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Todd Warner:
“Leadership is at the heart of teaching. In
fact, it is through leading that teachers teach
others. Teaching is not dictating specific
behavior. It is not issuing orders and
commanding compliance. Teaching is getting
others to see a situation as it really is and to
understand what responses need to be taken so
that they will move the organization toward
where it needs to be….Simply put, if you aren’t
leading, you aren’t teaching.”
-- not from The Leadership Engine

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 Walking the Razor’s Edge (or going
against the grain) as an adaptive leader
in the PZD:
1.  Stimulate questions
(vs. providing answers or
technical solutions)

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 Walking the Razor’s Edge (or going
against the grain) as an adaptive leader
in the PZD:
2. Allow group to feel the
stress or challenge

(vs. protecting them from

external threats or
internal conflict)

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 Walking the Razor’s Edge (or going
against the grain) as an adaptive leader
in the PZD:
3. Disorient members from
current roles or norms

(vs. maintaining equilibrium

& continuity --as is
appropriate in technical
leadership)

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5 Distinctive Qualities of an
Adaptive Culture (per R.H.)
1.  Elephants in the room are named.

2.  Responsibility for the organization’s future

is shared.

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5 Distinctive Qualities of an
Adaptive Culture
3.  Independent judgment is expected.

4.  (Adaptive) Leadership capacity is

developed. *

5.  Reflection & continuous learning are

institutionalized.

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Live life as a Leadership
(Development) Lab:

Exercising Leadership &

Developing Leadership are
improvisational arts (per R.H.)

“There is no recipe.”
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Live life as a Leadership
(Development) Lab:
Lean into your
“incompetence,” live on your
growing edges, surf your
PZD

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Live life as a Leadership
(Development) Lab:
Broaden your bandwidth &
stretch your rubber bands (to
expand your l’ship repertoire)

A matter of Will > Skill (per R.H.)

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 Bibliography:

& see also Walking the Razor’s Edge (LL 2010) MP

presentation in the “Graduates” section of the gcLi
website
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The Penultimate*
End

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 *Bibliographical Appendix
--especially for Inputters, Learners, & other “Strategic Thinkers”
See also all the gcLi Grads’ Newsletters posted
under “Resources” on the gcLi website:
http://gclileadership.org/resources/gcli-
newsletters/

& the gcLi Facebook page:

http://www.csee.org/products/180

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 The End

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