Adaptive Leadership

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Adaptive Leadership The Possibilities of Small
Groups Facilitation, Dialogue, Cohesion, and
Co-Construction (Responsibilities, Behaviors,
Challenges)
Jane Lister ReisNorth Seattle Community College
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OPENING EXERCISEWhen you think of the word
leader, what image comes immediately to your
mind? Jot down the words that describe your
image and then share with your group. Compile
a composite leadership image to share with the
class. What do we discover?
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A New Understanding of LeadershipAn image of a
todays leader is not a top-down one, but one in
which the leader is a resonant and responsive
node in a dynamic network or field of energy and
an agent of emergent possibility (Daloz Parks,
Sharon. Leadership Can Be Taught, x-xi).
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Facilitation is a way of providing leadership
without taking the reins. As a facilitator, your
job is to get others to assume responsibility and
take the lead (Bens 2000).
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My learning about group facilitation came from
the river Concept of Balance
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Small Groups are organic living systems that need
tending, seek balance, and function best with
diversity. Like a swamp, they are complex,
contain many hidden elements, are important for
our survival, and function interdependently.
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Facilitator Attributes1
At Start
At End

• PROCESSstructure
• organized
• sense of direction, goal orientation
• CONTENTFLC focus, outcomes
• knowledgeable
• enthusiastic, passionate about
  teaching/learning
• curious, eager to learn
• RELATIONSHIPSharmonizer, soft skills
• listener
• open, non-judgmental
• assertive, firm, courageous
• motivator, personable

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1Qualitative Study done at Otterbein College,
Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens, 2008
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Facilitator as Adaptive and Collective Leader1

• Four concepts
• Authority vs. Leadership
• Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges
• Power vs. Progress
• Personality vs. Presence
• 1Leadership Can Be Taught, Sharon Daloz Parks

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Authority vs. Leadership

• Todays complex conditions require acts of
  leadership that assist people in moving beyond
  the edge of familiar patterns into the unknown
  terrain of greater complexity, new learning, and
  new behaviors, usually requiring loss, grief,
  conflict, risk, stress, and creativity (Daloz
  Parks, 9).

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Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges

• Adaptive challenges often appear as swamp
  issues tangled, complex problems composed of
  multiple systems that resist technical analysis
  and thus stand in contrast to the high, hard
  ground issues that are easier to address, but
  where less is at stake (Daloz Parks, 10).

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Power vs. Progress

• When leadership is understood as an activity,
  there is less attention to be paid to the
  transactions of power and influence and more
  attention given to the question of whether or not
  progress is being made on swamp issues (Daloz
  Parks, 10).

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Personality vs. Presence

• the multifaceted capacity to be present
  becomes a key factor in effective leadership the
  quality of ones capacity to be fully present,
  comprehend what is happening, hold steady in the
  field of action, and make choices about when and
  how to intervene in ways that help the group make
  progress on swamp issues (Daloz Parks, 11).

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Questions about Facilitator as Adaptive and
Collective Leader?

• Authority vs. Leadership do you want to rotate
  the role?
• Technical Problems vs. Adaptive Challenges
  what is the adaptive challenge your group faces?
• Power vs. Progress how will you measure
  progress?
• Personality vs. Presence how will you stay
  present? What group activities will keep your
  group focused, present and on task? (Social and
  Task Balance in Groups)

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Elements of a Strong Holding Environment
Creating a Living Field

• How do we create a safe, respectful environment
  (where our most authentic selves can be present)?
• Co-constructing a shared commitment to the
  vision, goal and process of the group
• What will keep us present and focused?
  Maintaining clarity and depth of common purpose

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Creating a Cohesive, Interconnected Group

• Individual task
• Reflect upon your participation in a group you
  are currently in.
• List the strengths you wish to hold onto and
  contribute (your natural abilities)
• List what qualities you would like to build on
  and practice in the future? (your growing edge)
• What norms or values will ensure you fully
  participate? (together these create your success
  plan)

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Role of Reflection

• Group task
• Share your lists with others in your group.
• Build a group success plan that lists your
  groups norms and values. This list should be
  generated from a process of listening and
  dialogue.

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Bens, Ingrid. Advanced Facilitation
Strategies Tools Techniques to Master
Difficult Situations. San Francisco
Jossey-Bass. 2005. Print. Daloz Parks, Sharon.
Leadership Can Be Taught A Bold Approach
for a Complex World. Harvard Business
School Press, Boston, 2005. Print.
References