ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

1

• ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
• Changing perceptions Adopting new
  representations

• Laurent Ledoux
• ledoux.laurent_at_gmail.com 0478 62 14 20
• (www.philoma.org)

2
What did Parsons do or didnt do? What did she
achieve? Is this a leadership case? Why or why
not?
3
Distinguish the challenges types
Primary locus of resp. for the work
Problem definition
Solution implementation
Kind of work
Clear
Clear
Physician
Technical
Type I (Benign flu)
Clear
Requires learning
Physician patient
Technical adaptive
Type II (Cardio-vascular problem)
Requires learning
Requires learning
Patient gt physician
Adaptive
Type III (Metastasized cancer)
Source Leadership without easy answers, by
Ronald Heifetz
4
The leaders social functions
Social function
Challenge
Technical
Adaptive
Direction
Protection
Authority protects from external threat
Authority discloses external threat
Role Orientation
Controlling conflict
Norm maintenance
Source The practice of adaptive leadership, by
Alexander Grashow, Ronald Heifetz Marty Linsky
5
Leadership Mobilize the group for the
adaptive work
Heifetz
6
Modulate the stress
Source Leadership on the line, by Ronald
Heifetz Marty Linsky
7
Identify the adaptive challenge (Unbundle the
issues)
Protect leadership voices w/out authority (Cover
who raises questions authorities cant raise)
Give the work back to people (Put pressure on
people with the problem)
5 strategic principles of Leadership
Keep the distress level tolerable (Control the
pressure cooker)
Focus on ripening issues (Counteract work
avoidance mechanisms)
Source Leadership without easy answers, by
Ronald Heifetz, adapted by Ledoux
8
Get on the balcony to see the patterns of the
dance floor and to look at yourself
1
2
Diagnose the system
Mobilize the system
4
3
See yourself as a system
Deploy yourself
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Adaptive leadership 4 related groups of
activities

• Diagnose the system
• Be ready to observe interpret before
  intervening
• Diagnose the system itself
• Diagnose the adaptive challenge
• Diagnose the political landscape
• Understand the qualities that makes an
  organization adaptive

• Mobilize the system
• Make interpretations
• Design effective interventions
• Act politically
• Orchestrate the conflict
• Build an adaptive culture

II
I

• See yourself as a system
• Identify who you are
• Know your tuning
• Broaden your bandwidth
• Understand your roles
• Articulate your purposes

• Deploy yourself
• Stay connected to your purposes
• Engage courageously
• Inspire people
• Run experiments
• Thrive

IV
III
Source Leadership without easy answers, by
Ronald Heifetz, adapted by Ledoux
10
Do the pizza dare to get beyond your scope of
authority
Your scope of authority
Adaptive challenge
Faction
Participant
Constituencies
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The best leader is the one whose existence the
group barely knows
Photo Radoslav Minchev
Laozi, 630 BC
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The boss does nothing
Le vrai chef cest celui qui a le ballon, celui
qui fabrique. Le chef ne doit pas jouer. Il doit
rester sur la touche. Sa tâche est avant tout de
regarder le dehors de son équipe léquipe
adverse, la direction du vent, la position
du Soleil. Il anticipe le match suivant. Il
essaye dentendre les signaux faibles, ceux de
lintérieur (les craquements du navire), ceux de
lextérieur, qui seront les signaux forts de
demain quil faut à tout prix anticiper.
Zobrist, 2005
12
13
Let go Rosnay
14
Let the effect impose itself
Julien
15
It shoots
Be one with the bow, the arrow, the target and
everything, everyone else
Anzawa
16
Pursue higher goals
Maximize the value (without limits) for
shareholders under the constraint of the respect
of the law
Friedman Chicago School
17
Authority
Leadership
Adaptive Leadership Leadership without easy
answers
Technical problems
Power
Adaptive challenges
Progress
Personality
Presence
Source Leadership without easy answers, by
Ronald Heifetz, adapted by Ledoux
18
Bibliography

• The practice of adaptive leadership, Ronald
  Heifetz, Alexander Grashow Marty Linsky, HBR
  ed., 2009
• Leadership without easy answers, Ronald Heifetz,
  HBR ed., 1994
• Leadership on the line, Ronald Heifetz Marty
  Linsky, HBR ed., 2002
• Leadership can be taught, Sharon Daloz Parks, HBR
  ed., 2005
• Leading quietly, Joseph Badaracco, HBR ed., 2002
• Questions of character, Joseph Badaracco, HBR
  ed., 2006
• Arts of the wise leader, Mark Strom, Sophos ed.,
  2007 (www.artsofthewiseleader.com)
• The powers to lead, Joseph Nye, HBR ed., 2008
• Leading with wisdom spiritual-based leadership
  in business, Peter Pruzan Kirsten Pruzan
  Mikkelsen, Response ed., 2009

19
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  2007
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