Elf 2011 presentation by Craig Mc Dowell

Learning From the Future As It Emerges:
Being an Adaptive Leader 1

Craig McDowell
Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz
1. Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky (2009) ELF. Wellington. September 2011

Challenging people’s reality – taking people
outside their comfort zones yet at same time
addressing and assessing the toughest challenges.

Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

Meanwhile, you still have to lead!


Hunker down

• Default to what you know how
to do, weathering the storm
• Protect yourself from external
threats

Press reset

• Use turbulence to build on and bring closure to
the past, changing rules of the game, reshaping
the organisation, redefine the work people do
• Process of conservation as well as reinvention
• Targeting specific strands of organisational DNA

Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, Flowers (2004)

Leadership: An improvisational and experimental art

Foster Adaptation


Foster Adaptation

• Developing next practices

• Run numerous experiments

• Distinguish the essential from the
expendable


Embrace disequilibrium

• Without urgency, difficult change becomes far
less likely

• Leadership today involves orchestrating the
inevitable conflict, chaos, and confusion of
change so that the disturbance is productive
rather than destructive


Embrace disequilibrium

• Keep your eyes on the thermostat

• Depersonalise conflict

• Have courageous conversations


Generate leadership

• Acknowledge interdependence of people

• Use leadership to generate more
leadership deep in organisation

• Share leadership responsibility

From: Center for Creative Leadership: http://ccl.typepad.com

Generate leadership




Generate leadership



“Stability is a liability, not an asset in today’s world.
Each view of the horizon is a glance through a
different turn of the kaleidoscope”
(Egon Zehnder, 2000)

Adaptive Leadership

Uncertain,
Blurred
vulnerable,
boundaries
contested

Overlapping Flexible,
categories & dynamic,
membership responsive

Generate leadership

• Mobilise everyone to generate solutions

• Give up some authority and ownership


Taking care of yourself

• Balance with your own
thinking and emotions

• Be both optimistic
and realistic

• Find a sanctuary

Taking care of yourself

• Reach out to confidants

• Bring more of your
emotional self to the
table

• Don’t lose yourself in
your role


Learning from

as it emerges -
adaptive leadership

References:

• Heifetz, R., Grashow, A., Linsky, M. (2009) Leadership in
a (Permanent) Crisis. Harvard Business Review.

• Senge, P., Scharmer, C.O., Jaworski, J., & Flowers, B.S.
(2004). Presence:Human Purpose and the Field of the
Future. Cambrigde, MA: SoL (The Society for
Organisational Learning, Inc).

Elf 2011 presentation by Craig Mc Dowell

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Elf 2011 presentation by Craig Mc Dowell

More from SmartNet

Recently uploaded

Elf 2011 presentation by Craig Mc Dowell