Adaptive Leadership

Be married to your mission and values

I don’t think the values should change but

everything else can

Change or die

Change or die

Change or die

People fear LOSS, not CHANGE

Intergenerational, Engaging Worship

Adaptive leadership is spiritual

work

Leadership is . . .

. . . The activity of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges (problems) and do the adaptive work necessary to achieve progress and thrive.

Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky

Adaptive leadership is . . .

. . . About change that enables the capacity to thrive. New environments and new dreams demand new strategies and abilities, as well as the leadership to mobilize them.

Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky

Four traits of adaptive leadership

Preserve the essential

Discard the unnecessary

Expand capacities

Innovate via experience

Technical challenges . . .

Can be solved with existing knowledge

Are well-defined and easy to repeat

Do not require significant changes in

behavior

Do not require significant changes in

attitudes and assumptions

Adaptive challenges . . .

May be hard to define

Require new knowledge and

learning

Require new ways of thinking and

doing

Usually involves some

experimentation

You may be facing adaptive challenges

If the . . . • solution requires operating in a different way than

what’s currently done.• problem AND the solution require learning.• solution requires shifts in people’s authority and

responsibilities.• solution requires some sacrifice of past ways of

working or living.• solution requires experimenting before you’re sure of

the answer.• solution will take a long time and is connected to

people’s values.

What challenges are you facing?

The adaptive intervention process

1. Observing events and patterns around you and interpreting what you are observing and developing multiple hypotheses about what is really going on, and if the concern is broad-based or held by just a few.

2. Designing interventions based on observations and interpretations that identified adaptive challenges. This involves framing the adaptive challenge in ways that lead to constructive engagement.

3. Analyzing the factions that begin to emerge, seeking to understand their motivations and assumptions.

9 step adaptive leadership process

1. Discern

2. Identify

3. Interpret

4. Identify Interventions

5. Design interventions

6. Think hard about your framing

7. Hold Steady – stay the course

8. Analyze the factions

9. Focus on the work at hand

Hindrances to being adaptive

Failure to observe

Failure to interpret

Failure to intervene

Failure of will

Building an adaptive culture

Name the elephants

Share the responsibility

Develop leadership capacities

Learning and reflection are the

norms

Stay fresh . . . be curious

Pay attention to timing

Get a balcony view

Ask, “Who am I in this picture?”

Expand your set of adaptive tools

Separate the issues

Solve the right problem

Ask, What is God up to in this situation?