Learning From the Future As It Emerges: Being an Adaptive Leader Presented by Craig McDowell

1. 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

2. 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

3. Meanwhile, you still have to lead!
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

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

5. Hunker down
• Default to what you know how
to do, weathering the storm
• Protect yourself from external
threats
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

6. 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
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

7. Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, Flowers (2004)

8. Leadership: An improvisational and experimental art
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

9. Foster Adaptation
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

10. Foster Adaptation
• Developing next practices
• Run numerous experiments
• Distinguish the essential from the
expendable
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

11. 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
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

12. Embrace disequilibrium
• Keep your eyes on the thermostat
• Depersonalise conflict
• Have courageous conversations
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

13. 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

14. Generate leadership
• Acknowledge interdependence of people
• Use leadership to generate more
leadership deep in organisation
• Share leadership responsibility

15. Generate leadership
• Acknowledge interdependence of people
• Use leadership to generate more
leadership deep in organisation
• Share leadership responsibility
“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)
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

16. Adaptive Leadership
Uncertain,
Blurred
vulnerable,
boundaries
contested
Overlapping Flexible,
categories & dynamic,
membership responsive
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

17. Generate leadership
• Mobilise everyone to generate solutions
• Give up some authority and ownership
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

18. Taking care of yourself
• Balance with your own
thinking and emotions
• Be both optimistic
and realistic
• Find a sanctuary
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

19. Taking care of yourself
• Reach out to confidants
• Bring more of your
emotional self to the
table
• Don’t lose yourself in
your role
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

20. Learning from
as it emerges -
adaptive leadership
Craig McDowell. Aspire2Lead Ltd. craig@aspire2lead.co.nz

21. 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).