Adaptive Leadership

While an organization may be aware that its current challenges are both “adaptive” and “technical” in nature, the real need may be to make headway on the adaptive or cultural aspects of its challenges.  Technical challenges take resources, time, and effort to address, but they expand rather than change the accepted ways of doing business, whereas adaptive challenges involve a fundamental change in the organization’s culture and way of doing business.

Technical problems can be solved by an expert and fully implemented by clear direction using a “top-down” approach, because the solutions to the problem already exist. An expert, however, cannot solve an adaptive challenge because its solution, by definition, does not already exist.  A solution cannot be thought into existence using current thought patterns because those existing thought patterns are part of the problem. Adaptive challenges can only be identified and solved by new ways of thinking and perceiving throughout the organization as a whole. Adaptive challenges disturb the existing set of values, roles, responsibilities, and collaborative networks across and beyond an organization’s boundaries. As a result, the task of finding and implementing solutions to adaptive challenges must be met at every level of the organizational structure in a “top-supported, bottom-up” fashion.

Team discussions are helpful for solving technical challenges.  Because there are right and wrong ways to solve the problem, teams need to argue back and forth among the various options to discard the poor ones and select the good ones.  This is why meetings aimed at solving technical problems should be relatively quick; you do not need a lot of time to sift through the known solutions. However, discussion is useless when approaching adaptive challenges, because it assumes someone in a position of authority or expertise has the answer.  Adaptive challenges call for dialogue, a much harder, longer, and subtler practice for teams to master. The root of the word dialogue comes from two Greek words dia, which means “through”, and logos which means “word” or the “meaning of the word”.

Transforming Communication can assist you and your team to uncover and meet your adaptive challenges and build leadership and team dialogue skills.

Reference
Heifetz, R. A., & Laurie, D. L. (1997). The Work of Leadership. Harvard Business Review, 75(1), p. 124.c Bohm, D. (2012) On Dialogue, Routledge, New York, p 30.