Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
When change requires you to challenge people's familiar reality, it can be difficult, dangerous work. Whatever the context, whether in the private or the public sector, many will feel threatened as you push though major changes. But as a leader, you need to find a way to make it work.\ Ron Heifetz first defined this problem with his distinctive theory of adaptive leadership in Leadership Without Easy Answers. In a second book, Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and coauthor Marty Linsky...
Search in google:
When change requires you to challenge people's familiar reality, it can be difficult, dangerous work. Whatever the context, whether in the private or the public sector, many will feel threatened as you push though major changes. But as a leader, you need to find a way to make it work.Ron Heifetz first defined this problem with his distinctive theory of adaptive leadership in Leadership Without Easy Answers. In a second book, Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and coauthor Marty Linsky highlighted the individual and organizational dangers of leading through deep change in business, politics, and community life. Now, Heifetz, Linsky, and coauthor Alexander Grashow are taking the next step: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership is a hands-on, practical guide containing stories, tools, diagrams, cases, and worksheets to help you develop your skills as adaptive leader, able to take people outside their comfort zones and assess and address the toughest challenges.The authors have decades of experience helping people and organizations create cultures of adaptive leadership. In today's rapidly changing world, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership can be your handbook to meeting the demands of leadership in a complex world.
Preface xiAcknowledgments xvPart 1 Introduction: Purpose and Possibility1 How to Use This Book 5Overview 8Adaptive Challenges and Adaptive Capacity 102 The Theory Behind the Practice 13The Illusion of the Broken System 17Distinguishing Technical Problems from Adaptive Challenges 19Distinguishing Leadership from Authority 23Living in the Disequilibrium 28Observe, Interpret, Intervene 32Experiment and Take Smart Risks Smartly 36Engage Above and Below the Neck 37Connect to Purpose 383 Before You Begin 41Don't Do It Alone 41Live Life as a Leadership Laboratory 42Resist the Leap to Action 44Discover the Joy of Making Hard Choices 45Part 2 Diagnose the System4 Diagnose the System 49The Elegance and Tenacity of the Status Quo 49Discover Structural Implications 54Surface Cultural Norms and Forces 57Recognize Default Interpretations and Behavior 635 Diagnose the Adaptive Challenge 69Determine the Technical and Adaptive Elements 70Listen to the Song Beneath the Words 76Four Adaptive Challenge Archetypes 776 Diagnose the Political Landscape 89Uncover Values Driving Behavior 91Acknowledge Loyalties 93Name the Losses at Risk 96Realize Hidden Alliances 977 Qualities of an Adaptive Organization 101Name the Elephants in the Room 102Share Responsibility for the Organization's Future 103Value Independent Judgment 103Build Leadership Capacity 104Institutionalize Reflection and Continuous Learning 105Part 3 Mobilize the System8 Make Interpretations 113Notice When People Are Moving Toward the Left Side of the Chart 116Reframe the Group's Default Interpretations 118GenerateMultiple Interpretations 120Audition Your Ideas 122Generate a Diversity of Interpretations 1229 Design Effective Interventions 125Step 1 Get on the Balcony 126Step 2 Determine the Ripeness of the Issue in the System 126Step 3 Ask, Who Am I in This Picture? 128Step 4 Think Hard About Your Framing 128Step 5 Hold Steady 129Step 6 Analyze the Factions That Begin to Emerge 130Step 7 Keep the Work at the Center of People's Attention 13010 Act Politically 133Expand Your Informal Authority 133Find Allies 136Stay Connected to the Opposition 138Manage Authority Figures 142Take Responsibility for Casualties 144Protect and Engage the Voices of Dissent 14511 Orchestrate Conflict 149Create a Holding Environment 155Select Participants 158Regulate the Heat 159Give the Work Back 16112 Build an Adaptive Culture 165Make Naming Elephants the Norm 166Nurture Shared Responsibility for the Organization 168Encourage Independent Judgment 169Develop Leadership Capacity 170Institutionalize Reflection and Continuous Learning 171Part 4 See Yourself as a System13 See Yourself as a System 181Your Many Identities 18214 Identify Your Loyalties 187Prioritize Your Loyalties 189Name Your Unspeakable Loyalties 19115 Know Your Tuning 195Know Your Triggers 200Hungers and Carrying Water 20116 Broaden Your Bandwidth 205Discover Your Tolerances 20617 Understand Your Roles 209What Roles Do You Play? 210Identify Your Scope of Authority 21518 Articulate Your Purposes 221Prioritize Your Purposes 225The Story You Tell Yourself 228Part 5 Deploy Yourself19 Stay Connected to Your Purposes 233Negotiate the Ethics of Leadership and Purpose 233Keep Purposes Alive 236Negotiate Your Purposes 239Integrate Your Ambitions and Aspirations 242Avoid Common Traps 24420 Engage Courageously 247Get Past the Past 247Lean Into Your Incompetence 252Fall in Love with Tough Decisions 255Get Permission to Fail 258Build the Stomach for the Journey 26021 Inspire People 263Be with Your Audience 264Speak from the Heart 26922 Run Experiments 277Take More Risks 280Exceed Your Authority 282Turn Up the Heat 284Name Your Piece of the Mess 286Display Your Own Incompetence 28723 Thrive 289Grow Your Personal Support Network 289Create a Personal Holding Environment 292Renew Yourself 295Notes 299Glossary 303Index 309About the Authors 325
