{"id":46650,"date":"2021-09-05T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-05T13:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=46650"},"modified":"2021-09-07T14:23:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T18:23:17","slug":"what-is-adaptive-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-adaptive-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Adaptive Leadership: Definition &#038; Qualities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is adaptive leadership? What does &#8220;leading adaptively&#8221; entail in practice? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAdaptive leadership\u201d is marshaling people to tackle problems with unknown solutions and thrive while doing so. These problems with unknown solutions are called \u201cadaptive challenges.\u201d The only way to solve them is for the people in organizations to learn and change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, we&#8217;ll take a look at the qualities of adaptive leadership, the key activities inherent in addressing them, and some tips on how to lead adaptively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Qualities of Adaptive Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-3-steps-for-assessing-adaptive-challenges\/\">Adaptive challenges<\/a> have the following qualities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quality #1: They include an <\/strong><strong><em>element <\/em><\/strong><strong>of loss. <\/strong>Like biological adaptation, some things have to be left behind for things to change, but much will still be retained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform biological example: A white moth might evolve into a brown one (the moth loses a color it may have liked), but not into a unicorn (the moth\u2019s core being is retained)).<\/li><li>(Shortform business example: A struggling advertising firm might need to drop some existing clients to free up resources to take on new, more profitable clients. However, the firm doesn\u2019t have to drop <em>all<\/em> its existing clients, change its staff, or change its industry.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quality #2: They include a human element. <\/strong>Problems are created by people, so everyone involved with the challenge will need to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform example: If a call center\u2019s adaptive challenge is customer dissatisfaction because the existing phone system keeps dropping calls, the people who use the phones will have to adapt in order to solve the problem, perhaps by learning to use a new phone system.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quality #3: They generate resistance. <\/strong>Some people will resist any sort of change because they fear the loss that comes with it\u2014even the most seemingly dysfunctional workplace is working for some of the people in it. Others will agree that change is necessary but won\u2019t agree on the best way to tackle the challenge. Even formal authority may not be enough to overcome this resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, if your adaptive challenge is to reduce staff turnover, you might ask a manager to give her desirable clients to up-and-coming salespeople to motivate them and encourage them to stick around. The up-and-coming people likely won\u2019t resist, but the manager might, because she lost her favorite clients and her work is now harder.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quality #4: They require spending time in the \u201cproductive zone of disequilibrium\u201d<\/strong>\u2014a zone in which a problem puts enough stress on people to motivate them to act, but not <em>so<\/em> much stress that they\u2019re overwhelmed and can\u2019t do anything at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform example: If one of your competitors is growing quickly, but to stay ahead you would have to do something you don\u2019t want to\u2014say, scrap a legacy project and develop something new\u2014it will be most comfortable to ignore the threat and do nothing. It will be most chaotic to abandon everything you\u2019re currently doing and start from scratch. The productive zone of disequilibrium is somewhere in between.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quality #5: They take a long time to solve and require experimentation and iteration. <\/strong>Since there\u2019s no known solution, you\u2019re going to have to try different things, and inevitably, not everything you try will work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, at a company experiencing high turnover, a manager might try increasing bonuses to encourage people to stay. However, achieving high bonuses makes employees more attractive to other companies, which could actually increase turnover.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Key Activities of Facing Adaptive Challenges<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three key activities to engage in to understand adaptive challenges: observing, interpreting, and intervening. You\u2019ll need to do all of them multiple times\u2014as you interpret your observations, you may make new observations, and after intervening, you\u2019ll need to observe the results to decide on your next intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity #1: Observation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Observation is assessing the circumstances surrounding the challenge, and the challenge itself, as objectively as possible.<\/strong> To do that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Get as much information as you can from all available sources. <\/strong>Research, talk to people, and pay attention to your surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Get some distance from the challenge.<\/strong> When you\u2019re deeply involved in a situation, it\u2019s difficult to see things that aren\u2019t right in front of you, so step away and try to see the whole picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, in a meeting, you might sit in the back and take notes on what happens rather than participating.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll look at observation in more detail in Part 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity #2: Interpretation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Interpretation is attaching meaning to what you\u2019ve observed<\/strong>\u2014<em>describing<\/em> events rather than simply <em>reciting <\/em>them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your brain will interpret things (such as adaptive problems) unconsciously, and often in a biased way. When you mentally write a story to explain what you\u2019re seeing, you, like most people, will include details and facts that support your favorite interpretation, and leave out ones that don\u2019t. Typically, your favorite interpretation will be one that shows you in a good light and justifies your behavior. As a result, you may misinterpret adaptive problems and your own role in them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, two people might observe the same thing in a meeting\u2014a quiet, African American woman is regularly interrupted while speaking. One person might interpret this as the group being prejudiced and devaluing the woman\u2019s opinion. Another person (perhaps one of the people who interrupted her) might interpret this as her being soft-spoken.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>To regain some control of your brain and its interpreting tendencies and ensure that you interpret situations as objectively as possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Question the accuracy of your interpretation<\/strong>\u2014acknowledge that interpretations are made up of assumptions. When you and others observe the same events, consider their versions of the story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Come up with as many interpretations as possible. <\/strong>The more angles and perspectives you can see a situation from, the more complete your picture of it will be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Try to hold more than one interpretation in your mind simultaneously. <\/strong>This will allow you to stay open to new information: You\u2019ll be open to information about <em>multiple <\/em>interpretations, not just one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019ll look more at interpretation in Part 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity #3: Intervention<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Intervention is coming up with a plan of action to address your challenge, based on your interpretation of its causes and intricacies. <\/strong>We\u2019ll look more at interventions (also called change initiatives) in Part 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Adaptive Leadership Is Dangerous<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Since adaptive problems don\u2019t have known solutions, <strong>you won\u2019t be able to fix them by following pre-existing directions of the people who give you authority. <\/strong>Therefore, adaptive leadership is dangerous\u2014by nature, it involves challenging the expectations of the very people who gave you power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, if a company hired you to run a department, they\u2019ll want you to follow their directions and run the department in the way they expect. They\u2019ll expect you to stay within your scope of authority and defer to them, even if running the company in the way they expect isn\u2019t effective. Thus, changing your leadership style to face an adaptive challenge may upset your superiors.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Practice Adaptive Leadership to Achieve a Purpose<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Since adaptive leadership will make people resist you and potentially jeopardize your job, it\u2019s only worth practicing when it will help you or your organization achieve a compelling purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Purposes are the causes that bring value, happiness, or meaning to you or your organization.<\/strong> You and your organization probably have many purposes, all of which are important, but one of them is most important (called the \u201corienting purpose\u201d). Once you know this purpose, you can use it to guide daily decisions, time and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/resource-allocation-examples\/\">resource allocation<\/a>, and risk assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To determine what your or your organization\u2019s orienting purpose is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Assess actions rather than words.<\/strong> What you do is a better indication of what you most value than what you say. If your words and actions don\u2019t match up, contemplate the dissonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform example: If your organization claims to value the environment but allocates most of its donation budget to human rights charities, the organization probably values human rights most.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Consider what you or your organization are willing to take risks to do.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, Max had a good job on the East Coast, but his girlfriend lived on the West Coast. He took the risk of moving to be with her, which demonstrated that he valued his relationship over his career at that moment.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Ask yourself or your organization what you\u2019re <\/strong><strong><em>ultimately <\/em><\/strong><strong>trying to do.<\/strong> This will give you an abstract, high-level purpose that you work backward from to figure out your more concrete orienting purpose. Whenever you contemplate taking an action, ask yourself if it will further your high-level purpose, and if it does, it\u2019s a clue to what your specific, orienting purpose might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>(Shortform example: If your ultimate goal is to \u201csave the planet,\u201d ask yourself what action you could take to do that\u2014perhaps you might start a company that builds electric cars, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-life-purpose\/\">your purpose<\/a> becomes to sell a lot of electric cars.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Trying to hold multiple orienting purposes or compromise your purposes usually doesn\u2019t work<\/strong>\u2014if you try to achieve too many purposes, you\u2019ll run thin and won\u2019t achieve any of them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, when Marty was the editor of a newspaper, many of the writers wrote critical articles about a real estate developer. The developer was one of Marty\u2019s friends, and he told Marty that he had to shut down the articles or they couldn\u2019t be friends anymore. Instead of choosing between the conflicting purposes of journalistic integrity and friendship, Marty tried editing the articles to make them less critical. He lost face as the editor and his friend dropped him anyway.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Though you and your organization can\u2019t hold multiple orienting purposes at once, your orienting purpose <\/strong><strong><em>can <\/em><\/strong><strong>change. <\/strong>You can also delegate purposes to others temporarily if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>For example, there may be moments when your family requires your attention and you need to focus on them instead of your work.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is adaptive leadership? What does &#8220;leading adaptively&#8221; entail in practice? \u201cAdaptive leadership\u201d is marshaling people to tackle problems with unknown solutions and thrive while doing so. These problems with unknown solutions are called \u201cadaptive challenges.\u201d The only way to solve them is for the people in organizations to learn and change. In this article, we&#8217;ll take a look at the qualities of adaptive leadership, the key activities inherent in addressing them, and some tips on how to lead adaptively.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,29,14],"tags":[468],"class_list":["post-46650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-career","category-management","tag-the-practice-of-adaptive-leadership","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is Adaptive Leadership: Definition &amp; Qualities - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Adaptive leadership is marshaling people to solve problems with unknown solutions and thrive while doing so. Here is what it entails.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-adaptive-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is Adaptive Leadership: Definition &amp; Qualities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Adaptive leadership is marshaling people to solve problems with unknown solutions and thrive while doing so. 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