Download Adaptive Leadership Etymology of word “lead”: “leit” (Indo

6/21/11
I. Walking the Razor’s Edge:
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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Etymology of word “lead”:
“…to lead is
to live dangerously”
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Followers’/Humans’ Natural
Ambivalence re: Being Led
“leit” (Indo-European):
= “to go forth and die”
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Exercising Leadership is rife w/ risks &
challenges (per RH) b/c:
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Assassination/Martyrdom:
the fate of many leaders
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II. Building the Bridge as
we walk on it:
Adaptive Leaders are
capable of Learning
as they Lead
The pedagogy of adaptive
leadership development
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Exercising--& Teaching-Adaptive Leadership is
a dialectical process:
like a dance….
& Adaptive Leaders
are capable of Leading
as they Learn….
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•  Pacing--& Leading by:
•  Modulating the provocation
•  Regulating the heat
•  Surfing the PZD: “productive
zone of disequilibrium”
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Modulating the
provocation
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
Surfing the PZD: “productive
zone of disequilibrium”
& Regulating the heat
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Adaptive Leaders (per R.H.):
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Walt Whitman (from Song of Myself):
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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“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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6/21/11
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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Technical vs. Adaptive
Leadership:
Adaptive Leadership
(defined, per RH):
= “…the practice of
mobilizing people to
tackle tough
challenges and
thrive.”
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Technical Challenges/Leadership:
gcLi LL example?
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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Binocular Vision means
seeing/being:
Adaptive Challenges/Leadership:
gcLi LL example?
< 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”:
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Practical (TIP/RIP) Application
Moment for/by gcLiers:
“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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Example(s) of developing
“binocular vision” from the
gcLi L’ship Lab?
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Adaptive Leaders:
Exercising Adaptive Leadership
requires: Experimenting *
* “peri” root recurs in words like:
•  Experience
•  Experiment
•  Expert
•  Peril
Synonyms:
•  Trial
•  Crucible
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Noel Tichy:
Practical (TIP/RIP) Application
Moment for/by gcLiers:
Implications of adaptive
leadership for creating &
seizing teachable moments
for student leadershipdevelopment….?
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Create & maintain a
holding environment—for
tolerably regulating stress &
disequilibrium—i.e. keeping
themselves & others in the
PZD
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“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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6/21/11
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:
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
3. Disorient members from
current roles or norms
(vs. protecting them from
external threats or
internal conflict)
(vs. maintaining equilibrium
& continuity --as is
appropriate in technical
leadership)
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6/21/11
5 Distinctive Qualities of an
Adaptive Culture (per R.H.)
5 Distinctive Qualities of an
Adaptive Culture
1.  Elephants in the room are named.
3.  Independent judgment is expected.
4.  (Adaptive) Leadership capacity is
developed. *
2.  Responsibility for the organization’s future
is shared.
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So What?
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5.  Reflection & continuous learning are
institutionalized.
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Live life as a Leadership
(Development) Lab:
Now What?
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:
The Penultimate*
End
& see also Walking the Razor’s Edge (LL 2010) MP
presentation in the “Graduates” section of the gcLi
website
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6/21/11
*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/gclinewsletters/
The End
& the gcLi Facebook page:
http://www.csee.org/products/180
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