Adaptive Leadership Action Frameworks

Getting on the balcony– this is a perspective strategy. The metaphor is to remind the leader to remove herself from the action (the dance floor) and gain a viewpoint that is above the fray. By making this shift one gets a better feel for what is happening inside the people system and how well actions are being implemented. This strategy can temper the urge for the leader to rescue people or strategies. Getting on the balcony is a back and forth movement during the action
Frame the challenge – an important early move for a leader is to define an issue as a technical problem or an adaptive challenge. Getting this correct enables the leader to speak to the opportunity, convey urgency, provide useful perspective and acknowledge the effort that will be required to deal with the issue. Framing the challenge values a leader’s capacity to be a storyteller, to engage followers, to enroll them in the work that is ahead. But the leader is clear that if he misdiagnoses the challenge, all the storytelling skill in the world will not help.

Give the work back to the people – work means all the responsibility, accountability, initiative and confidence needed to do the job. Here the leader pushes back some of the difficult work and decisions that need to be made if progress is to result. The leader is challenging and encouraging followers to take risks and initiative and to get into action. This is also a strategy that encourages the contrarians to go ahead and explore new ideas with cover provide by the leader.

Manage work avoidance – this is first an observation strategy. Working on hard challenges often requires being out of equilibrium and off center, while experimenting with new ways of doing the work. This is an uncomfortable state for many people but it is required if progress is to be made on adaptive challenges. This strategy is oriented to check that people are working on the real issues versus working on the safe work they know how to do but is not relevant to the challenge they are facing.

Resist seduction of your authority – here is a strategy designed to address issues of ego and fear. Specifically fear of failing due to being incompetent. The role of leader offers many temptations including being the hero; being the one who has the answer and the power to implement a solution. Followers understand the effect ego and fear can have on the leader and they may sometimes attempt strategies that play on those aspects of the leader to avoid doing the real work themselves. Checking to see to whom does the work belong and putting that work in that place is adaptive work. It is important to recognize and resist the temptation to rescue people by taking the challenge off their plate. Leave it there and provide leadership support.

Orchestrate conflict – adaptive work is new work and it is forged under pressure. Conflict is a very useful ingredient that contributes to making progress on adaptive challenges but it needs to be use judicially. The adaptive leader advocates creating a space for the conflict to unfold inside. The leader’s job is to get the right people in the space to have a conversation and then to facilitate that conversation and control the temperature of the space. Sometimes the temperature needs to be turned up and sometimes it needs to be turned down. The leader needs the sensitivity and skill to do both.

Intervene, regulate stress and hold steady – homeostasis or comfort zones are no place for organizations to stay when faced with difficult challenges. And that is exactly where most people want to inhabit when faced with difficult situations. An adaptive leader manages this comfort zone scenario by staying grounded and steady when the heat rises and by knowing when to let the pressure build for the sake of something new to be forged and knowing when to back off for the sake of the health of the group. This is difficult work but a required skill to lead others through hard patches.

Think politically and find partners – a realist’s strategy. The adaptive leader does not forget that politics and relationships are still valuable chips in the game of leading organizations. He advocates “digging wells of water before you are thirsty.” Build people connections, help others to do the same and stay engaged on a regular basis with that network of people. The adaptive leader understands that relationships are primary and everything else is derivative.