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Adaptive Leadership
Paul Schmitz @paulschmitz1
www.leadinginsideout.org www.collectiveimpactforum.org
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An action many can take, not a position few can hold
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Taking responsibility to work with
- thers on common goals
Stepping Up When did you first step up on behalf of an issue, - - PDF document
Stepping Up When did you first step up on behalf of an issue, - - PDF document
5/18/17 Adaptive Leadership Paul Schmitz @paulschmitz1 www.leadinginsideout.org www.collectiveimpactforum.org Stepping Up When did you first step up on behalf of an issue, cause, or person important to you? 1 5/18/17 Defining Leadership
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Who was the leader?
Social Change has always come from the leadership of the many
Who was the leader?
What lessons can you draw about distributed leadership?
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An action many can take, not a position few can hold
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Taking responsibility to work with
- thers on common goals
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Practice of values that engage commitment from others
3 Defining Leadership LUNCH
Reconvene at 12:45 PM
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Symbols 1
When you think of the big challenges before you, you feel like (a) Pushing a boulder up a hill (b) Maze (c) Candle (d) Space Shuttle
Symbols 2
When you think of your role currently in working on these challenges, you feel like a: (a) Giraffe (b) Owl (c) Butterfly (d) Horse
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Symbols 3
When you think of capacities you need to address your biggest challenges, you think of: (a) Compass (b) Swiss Army Knife (c) Football (d) Kite
Symbols Debrief
What are 3 challenges your team is facing?
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Adaptive Leadership
Technical Challenges Expertise, past experience, existing capacity Adaptive Challenges Outside of expertise, experience, capacity; change in people’s habits, beliefs, loyalties
Adaptive Challenges
- Gap between stated values/aspirations and actions
- Outside our current capacity and technical knowledge
- Competing interests/priorities
- New stakeholders must be engaged
- People must work across boundaries
- Difficult learning required
- Elephants in the room – much is unspoken
- Nonlinear progress is required
- Recurring problem
- There are casualties and losses
- Emotionally fraught
- Work avoidance is main response
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Work Avoidance
Diverting Attention
- Focus only on technical parts and technical fixes
- Define problem to fit capacity
- Turn down heat on discussion
- Deny problem exists
- Create a proxy fight, like a personality conflict
- Take options off the table to honor legacy behaviors
Displacing Responsibility
- Marginalize person raising the issue
- Scapegoat someone
- Externalize enemy
- Attack authority
- Delegate adaptive work to those who can’t do anything about it
Adaptive Leadership
1. Resist leap to action
- 2. Get off the dance floor and move to the balcony
- 3. Separate technical from adaptive challenges
- 4. Share alternate interpretations; understand and
test mental models
- 5. Observe, Diagnose, Hypothesize, Propose; identify
burdens of proof and tradeoffs
- 6. Manage people’s adaptive capacity
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Mental Models
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Ladder of Inference
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Adaptive Leadership
1. Resist leap to action
- 2. Get off the dance floor and move to the balcony
- 3. Separate technical from adaptive challenges
- 4. Share alternate interpretations; understand and
test mental models
- 5. Observe, Diagnose, Hypothesize, Propose; identify
burdens of proof and tradeoffs
- 6. Manage people’s adaptive capacity
Managing Change
- 1. Recognize different adaptive capacities
- 2. Signal early
- 3. Focus less on your excitement about the
change; more on empathy for other’s stress
- 4. Disclose how and why decisions were made
- 5. Acknowledge trade-offs and losses
- 6. Clearly describe change process
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Managing Conflict
Call the question Give people more responsibility Bring conflict to surface Tolerate provocations Name dynamics
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Heifetz, Alinsky, Grashow
Work on easier problems Reclaim responsibility Break problem up Employ work avoidance Slow down
Leadership Styles
Visionary Nurturer Mobilizer Analyst What is your leadership style? Why do you need the others?
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Leadership for
Collective Impact
Paul Schmitz
www.leadinginsideout.org www.collectiveimpactforum.org