This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "The Practice of Adaptive Leadership" by Ronald A. Heifetz. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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When your organization is facing changing conditions or never-before-seen challenges, the only way to survive is to adapt. Adaptive interventions are measures put in place to address “adaptive challenges”—unexpected problems with no known solutions.
You can launch an adaptive intervention at any moment of tackling the adaptive challenge, whether that’s during diagnosis or while another intervention is ongoing. In The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky offer practical strategies to help leaders navigate these kinds of complex challenges.
Originally Published: August 26, 2021
Last Updated: January 7, 2026
1. Choose the Right Level of Difficulty
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky write that you should aim to make your adaptive interventions difficult enough to kick people out of their comfort zones, but not so difficult that they become overwhelmed. If you do this properly, you’ll end up in what they call the “productive zone of disequilibrium.” This is a level of instability and discomfort that is motivating but not paralyzing—enough stress to engage people’s interests and focus, but not so much that they break down.
(Shortform note: In Brain Rules, John Medina provides scientific insight as to why people function well under some, but not too much, stress. He explains that acute, short-lived stress can enhance our memories and sharpen our thinking by temporarily boosting the hormone cortisol, which helps our brains retrieve memories faster. It’s chronic, long-term stress that’s problematic—when our brains are exposed to excessive, ongoing cortisol, our neural networks get disrupted, hampering our ability to learn and remember. This is why the zone of “disequilibrium” the authors refer to is a productive one: Our ability to learn is neurologically enhanced under the right stressful conditions.)
2. Step Back Whenever Possible
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky advise that to foster a culture of independent thought, resist the urge to solve problems unless it’s absolutely necessary. Instead, whenever possible, ask questions but don’t suggest answers. Encourage multiple interpretations of the challenge by asking what-if questions and seeking multiple perspectives. Your goal is to develop the ability of others to figure out solutions themselves. To nurture a feeling of empowerment, encourage your team to consider, when making decisions, what the best course of action is to advance their mission, rather than what they think their manager would want them to do.
(Shortform note: In Conversational Intelligence, Judith Glaser defines open-ended questions as ones that don’t seek a specific response, as opposed to closed questions that typically offer “yes” or “no” as the only optional answers. Glaser argues that yes/no questions are really just statements disguised as questions, because the asker is typically expecting a certain response. These kinds of questions often prompt responders to focus on what the question-asker wants to hear, rather than what they truly think. Open-ended questions, in contrast, lead to discovery and learning—for both the asker and the answerer. This can create the feeling of empowerment that Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky encourage.)
3. Expect Pushback
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky write that as you move forward with changes, you may encounter resistance from all levels of the group. We’ve already discussed why lower-level employees may push back—emotional discomfort brought about by the potential loss of things they’ve grown comfortable with—but the authors caution that management may also put up resistance.
Since adaptive problems don’t have known solutions, you won’t be able to fix them by following pre-existing directions and protocols. Therefore, the very people who gave you power may come to feel their expectations are not being met.
For example, if a company hired you to run a department, they’ll want you to follow their directions and run the department in the way they expect. They’ll expect you to stay within your scope of authority and defer to them—even if this isn’t effective. Thus, changing your leadership style to face an adaptive challenge may upset your superiors.
(Shortform note: In Leadershift, John C. Maxwell addresses the possibility of widespread resistance from multiple levels of your team. He recommends that you try to understand everyone’s needs and desires instead of simply imposing orders without considering their perspectives. People who implement change sometimes mistakenly assume they understand their team’s thoughts without asking them, and as a result, team members may feel out of sync with the company’s goals and the tasks they’re assigned. Then, even if those employees don’t outright resist, they may complete their work but without full commitment, affecting its quality. This is a more silent form of resistance but can be just as detrimental.)
4. Harness Political Power
The more political power, particularly informal authority, you have, the easier it will be to implement adaptive changes. Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky offer some recommendations on how to increase your political clout:
- Increase your informal authority by bolstering your relationships with people, gaining credibility by achieving small successes, and helping people with their problems.
- Recruit allies by teaming up with people who will benefit from your intervention, have the same values as you, have non-conflicting interests, owe you, or have a history with you.
- Warn senior leaders about the chaos you’re about to unleash. Then, when people complain, the leaders won’t be tempted to remove you because they’re prepared for sabotage attempts.
- Empathize with the opposition and accept responsibility for casualties (people who will be harmed) by the change. This will make people less hostile and show that you’re accountable for causing them harm.
| The Basis of Influence Is Character In Leadershift, Maxwell agrees that to be effective, you must develop your influence over others. He writes that the best way to do this is to enhance your moral authority—respect and recognition for exemplary personal qualities, values, and actions. Having a leadership position may force people to follow you, but earning moral authority makes people want to follow you. This is a broader perspective on how to increase your authority, and it suggests that before embarking on specific steps like the ones outlined by Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky, you have to establish yourself as a person with authoritative character. This increases your informal authority, which is based on how people feel about you on a personal level. All the other techniques you might use depend on this. Other people must agree to a fundamental understanding of you as someone appropriate for a leadership role, or your efforts to, for example, recruit allies and bolster relationships with others won’t bear fruit. To develop moral authority, Maxwell suggests you: Demonstrate excellence. Prove to your team members that you’re committed to producing excellent work even with the smallest of tasks. By regularly producing quality work, you’ll establish a reputation for competence and earn others’ confidence and esteem. This can help you empathize with your opposition, as Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky recommend—if you show that you’re willing to work as hard as others, they’ll see you as one of them, and will view you with less opposition. Be consistent in your actions and values. Be steady and reliable by living according to good character traits like integrity, authenticity, humility, and love. This shows people that you mean what you say, which builds trust and security within your team. Face challenges courageously. Maxwell writes that leaders should be prepared to face difficult realities and to be the first to take action. Recognize that success doesn’t come without sacrifice, and demonstrate bravery and resilience when confronting challenges. By demonstrating courage, you can inspire others during crises and energize them to perform at their best. |
5. Encourage Dissent
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky note that adaptive challenges often pit values and perspectives against each other. They advise that you don’t suppress this conflict—instead, openly discuss it so everyone can see all disagreements. You can’t solve an adaptive challenge until all parties involved understand the challenge’s underlying issues.
Openly discussing dissent not only helps get everyone on the same page, but it’s also an important way to surface potential problems: When people name their concerns, they can provide early warning signs about potential problems that others may have overlooked or were reluctant to raise.
(Shortform note: In Thanks for the Feedback, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen write that it’s crucial for both individuals and organizations to listen to feedback, as the ability to succeed is directly tied to the ability to seek, understand, and incorporate feedback. Hearing how you’re doing from others is often the only way you can know how to improve—or what to improve.)
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky discuss a number of ways you can encourage competing parties to discuss their perspectives openly. These include:
- Set up a meeting for the purpose of voicing dissent, and ask everyone to give their opinion on the adaptive challenge. Voice your own concerns and point out areas of conflict—if you model this behavior, others are more likely to follow suit.
- Remind everyone of their shared purpose. Frame the problem in terms of achieving your organization’s overall mission.
- Ask everyone to think about the losses each of the other parties may have to accept.
- Be sure that you yourself remain tolerant of other people’s ideas, even when you disagree greatly. Be careful not to seem judgmental of others’ thoughts.
- Pair various members of the group to consult with each other moving forward.
| Managing Feedback In Thanks for the Feedback, Stone and Heen write that most organizations, when encouraging their team to seek and absorb feedback, train how to give feedback better. However, Stone and Heen argue that they should instead train how to receive feedback better. In any feedback transaction, it’s the receiver who controls whether any piece of feedback is understood, accepted, and adopted, so training people to manage their resistance to negative feedback and to find insight in feedback that feels wrong can significantly enhance a group’s ability to improve. While Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky don’t specifically frame their advice through this lens, their recommendations align with this mindset. The techniques they suggest are largely aimed at encouraging people to listen to the views of others with open minds. By doing things like reminding people of their shared purpose and asking them to consider the losses of others, leaders are encouraging people to step out from their narrow perspectives and see problems from other points of view. Stone and Heen also advise that you get people to step out from their own perspective, noting that instinctively, everyone sees themselves as the main character of their own story, and sees everyone else as supporting characters (or worse, villains). By getting people to understand situations from other viewpoints, we can start to overcome that instinct, which can help us see value in other people’s opinions. Pairing people and giving them a shared goal can help foster wider perspectives as well, as it forces people to work with—not against—others who may hold different opinions on the problem. |
6. Encourage Experimentation
Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky write that you can help your group get past their differences by encouraging them to devise and run experiments for how to deal with the adaptive change. Experimenting is a great way to encourage continued learning and to foster a feeling that employees’ input is valued during your process of change.
The authors offer a few tips on how to run a program of experimentation:
- Encourage employees to run many small experiments rather than fewer, larger ones. Small experiments can yield fast lessons without risking a lot of capital and other resources.
- Encourage risk-taking by adding experimentation goals to employees’ performance reviews.
- Take risks yourself, so as to model the behavior to your subordinates.
- Acknowledge and celebrate experiments whether they were successful or not.
(Shortform note: Robust experimentation also corresponds to advice from Stone and Heen, who recommend that if you encounter resistance to feedback, run small experiments with low stakes. This can also allow people who may not have fully committed to proposed changes to test possible solutions before signing on to major adjustments. An example on a personal level might be: If you’ve been told to exercise but joining a gym is a big commitment, try jogging once a week. In the workplace, a small, low-stakes experiment might be testing new marketing messages before committing to a new product line.)
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- How to deal with unknown solutions that require innovation, experimentation, and adaptation
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- Five tips for launching initiatives to address adaptive challenges
