IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP

Module 4
Readings
1 HR
EXPERIMENTING
A D A P T I V E LY
Congratulations! This is the last module
of the course. So far you’ve learned the
importance of getting on the balcony to
see the leadership “gap,” analyzed factions
to understand “whose work is it?” and
distinguished between adaptive and
technical work so you don’t waste time
and resources solving the wrong problem
perfectly.
Now it’s time to get back on the dance floor
and experiment with a new kind of dancing.
Why experiment?
As you know, adaptive challenges can’t be
“solved” like a technical problem since the
solution is unknown. Fortunately, there’s
a tried and true way to approach this
situation. Experimentation.
Like a scientist, who works toward
discovering unknowns, experimentation
means making a hypothesis, testing it,
updating it and testing again. Adaptive
experiments follow a similar approach—
with a twist.
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Because the “people with the problem
are the problem,” the experimenting on
an adaptive challenges is itself an act of
mobilization. That is, the factions involved
enact the solution through their active
search for one. This is the unique part about
the experiments you will be designing to run
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on the dance floor.
An experiment, whether done by a scientist,
a marketer or yourself in tackling an
adaptive challenge, must start with a
hypothesis. Think of the diagnostic work
you’ve done in the first three modules of this
course as hypotheses you’ve created and are
now going to test on the dance floor.
In this module, you’ll design an experiment
for your own challenge to try out.
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EXPERIMENTING
A D A P T I V E LY

“We are in this particular world right now by chance. Why do we think
that this is a good spot? What happened in the history of education or
medicine that got us to this good place? Why can’t we imagine that
there are much better places? Every time we don’t take steps to make
the world a better place, we are kind of at fault. We are taking the
default option and assuming that what we have right now is somehow

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ok or ordained or the state of the world.

Really, we are just here by some dumb luck. We could have been in
a world without Penicillin just as easily as the world that we are in right
now. So instead of taking the state of the world as a given, we have to
imagine that there are much, much better states to arrive at. I don’t feel
comfortable not testing those other (possible states)... Every time we
don’t do experiments, we’re cheating people a little bit by just giving
them something based on intuition and not based on data. I think
we need to be much more thoughtful about our obligation for future
generations.”

—Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and

behavioral economics at Duke University

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READYING YOURSELF
AND OTHERS

As you get ready to act, you might find yourself Why It Feels Risky and What It Means
having second thoughts. Do I understand the to Modulate the Risk
situation sufficiently? Do I care enough to even You take people out of their comfort
make the time? Can I afford to take a risk? zone and “raise the heat” when you call
More importantly, can I afford not to? attention to tough questions, surface
a deep value contradiction, or draw
Exercising leadership is risky, which is why we people’s sense of responsibility beyond
seldom see it. Readying yourself and others their current norms and job description.

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requires understanding what holds us back
from starting, and what modulating the risk The launch of even a small experiment
looks like once you’ve begun. can introduce disorientation, frustration,
tension or even some conflict as people
What Holds Us Back begin to face an issue they’d rather avoid.
Here are common things that can hold you
back from summoning courage for the work of As you can imagine, in such
leadership: environments where people feel
discomfort and perceive inherit risks, you
+ Loyalties to people who may not need to be present and compassionate to
believe you are doing the right thing. the pain or confusion, taking care that it
The people you depend on and who doesn’t get too high. At the same time, as
depend on you can feel disappointed someone practicing adaptive leadership,
or exposed when you act differently. you need to be aware that without some
level of tension – without some impetus
+ Fear of incompetence. Not having
for change – people will stay stuck in the
an answer can make you feel like a
status quo.
fraud or intellectually vulnerable.

+ Uncertainty about the right path. The delicate balance between having
+ Feeling some loss of a sense of just enough “heat”, but not so much
comfort, security, routine, identity. that things break down is know as the
productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD).
+ Not having the stomach, relentless
Being aware of the concept will help
persistence or patience for the time
you be better prepared to modulate the
and effort required to make change
risk once you begin your experiment on
happen.
the dance floor.
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O R C H E S T R AT I N G
DISEQUILIBRIUM

The Productive Zone of Disequilibrium (PZD)

The PZD is like a pressure cooker: set the temperature and pressure too low, and you stand no
chance of transforming the ingredients in the cooker into a good meal. Set it too high, and the
cover will blow off the cooker’s top, releasing the ingredients of your meal across the room.

The following graphs shows what adaptive work looks like over time.

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Problems within our repertoire - technical problems - generally get resolved quickly with a lower
amount of disequilibrium and a shorter period of time. Problems outside of our repertoire that
require changing hearts and minds - adaptive problems - take more time and require a sustained
disequilibrium.

Orchestrating disequilibrium requires letting in enough “heat” to keep people above their comfort
zone or threshold of change, but not so much that things start to boil over past the limit of
tolerance. On the following page, we’ll discuss more on how people avoid staying in the PZD so
that you will be better prepared to prevent that from happening when you are managing the
“heat” on the dance floor.

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AV O I D I N G
W O R K AV O I D A N C E

Because the productive zone of disequilibrium is the space in which people have to make tough
choices, confront conflict, take risks and interrupt the status quo, there is a natural tendency to
get out of the zone. We call this work avoidance.

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Work Avoidance Form 1: Displace Responsibility
+ Shoot the messenger > Marginalizing the person raising the issue

+ Delegate the adaptive work > To consultants, committees or task forces

+ Attack authority > Compelling them to take the work back prematurely

+ Scapegoat > Blaming others who aren’t in the room

Work Avoidance Form 2: Divert Attention

+ Launch technical fixes, therefore wasting time and resources

+ Defining the problem to fit your own competence, and therefore taking potential,
creative solutions off the table

+ Creating a proxy fight, such as a personal or personality conflict, to avoid the real issue

+ Denying the problem and leaving it unaddressed and unresourced

Understanding these forms of work avoidance and being able to point out when people engage
in this behavior is important when you are trying to manage and control the
“heat” with your faction.
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PZD
WORKSHEET

Think about a moment in your work or personal life when you experienced a productive zone of
disequilibrium (PZD). Perhaps it was a tough conversation with a good friend that you stuck in
longer than you had to. Or feedback from a caring boss that, however accurate, was difficult to
adjust to.

What happened?

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How did you feel? Did you ever get above the “limit of tolerance”? If so, how did you recover?

Did you or anyone involved engage in any work avoidance? What work avoidance behavior do
you tend to default to when faced with a tough choice?

In hindsight, were you able to stay in the PZD long enough to see progress? Or did you
return prematurely below the “threshold for change”? If so, how might you have handled it
differently?

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EXAMPLES: BRINGING
PEOPLE INTO PZD

1: COURAGEOUS CONVERSATION 2: READYING AND RIPENING THE

One practical approach to creating
productive disequilibrium is to have a
courageous conversation with one of the
stakeholders you need to engage.
It’s a technique for surfacing a tension
ADAPTIVE WORK
Before engaging in a courageous
conversation, you might have to ripen the
issue and ready people to take it on. An issue
is ripe when it has people’s attention and
is considered important. An individual or

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inherent in the adaptive challenges while faction is ready when there is a willingness
making sure to preserve your relationship. and capacity to do the adaptive work.

Watch this video featuring a courageous READINESS

conversation Eric facilitated at Acumen. HIGH LOW
(If you have trouble accessing YouTube, try
watching it directly through NovoEd) Crisis is Group looking to
acknowledged authority
As you watch the video, pay attention to
LOW

how technical solutions and work avoidance Take on the issue Need to build
are handled, as well as how the various directly capacity
RIPENESS

stakeholders are illuminated to help

understand the adaptive work.
Group looking Group in denial
for technical
What part of the conversation do you think solution   Build allies and
HIGH

worked well? What part might need to be partners before

Ripen adaptive ripening
revisited another day?
elements

Let’s look at some examples from Invictus

which tells the story of how Nelson Mandela,
newly elected as the first black President
of South Africa, prepared his own people to
take on the (adaptive) work of rebuilding the
nation after the end of apartheid.

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EXAMPLES: BRINGING
PEOPLE INTO PZD

In this first scene, Mandela works through
a clash between his old bodyguards and the
new bodyguards on his security team.
Then, watch this scene in which Mandela is
about to walk into a confrontation.
In both examples, you saw the need to
engage in a gradual process of easing people
into an uncomfortable state of uncertainty,
disorder, tension or conflict at a pace and
level that’s tolerable for all involved.
Now, it’s your turn to imagine how you

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This last scene shows Mandela’s speech
to the committee that has just voted to
disband the Springboks.
What did Mandela do to draw attention
(ripen) the issue of rebuilding the nation?
How did he help ready people?
Tip: He chose a different tactic in each scene
depending on the stakeholder.
would do that to tackle your adaptive
challenge.
Read more about experiments on the next
page and then define your own. This will
be the last assignment that you need to
complete for this course.

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EXPERIMENT AND
TA K E S M A R T R I S K S

Here is an excerpt from ‘The Theory Behind

the Practice” Chapter 2 in The Practice Holding incompatible ideas in your head at the
of Adaptive Leadership on the value of same time is a little like deciding to get married.

experiments. At the moment you decide that this is the person

you want to spend the rest of your life with, you
have to fully embrace your choice; you have
Experiment and Take Smart Risks
to believe wholeheartedly that it is the right
decision. But your practical self also knows that

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“When you are dealing with adaptive challenges,
you probably would have fallen in love with
there is no obvious answer to the question “What
someone else under different circumstances. So
is going on here?” Trying to define the problem
how can your intended be the only “right” one
at hand is a contentious act in itself. Managing
for you? If you treated the decision to marry this
this ambiguity requires courage, tenacity, and an
particular person at this particular moment as
experimental mind-set: you try things out, see
a 51–49 question rather than a 90–10 question,
what happens, and make changes accordingly.
you would never take the leap. The same paradox
applies to adaptive leadership interventions. You
When you adopt an experimental mind-set, you
have to run the experiment with full and hopeful
actively commit to an intervention you have
conviction.
designed while also not letting yourself become
wedded to it. That way, if it misses the mark,
F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that “the test of a
you do not feel compelled to defend it. This
first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two
mind-set also opens you to other, unanticipated
opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still
possibilities. (You are undoubtedly familiar with
retain the ability to function.” In the realm of
the stories about the ways Benjamin Franklin and
adaptive leadership, you have to believe that your
Thomas Edison produced their great inventions
intervention is absolutely the right thing to do at
by accident, while pursuing some other purposes
the moment you commit to it. But at the same
entirely.) Thinking experimentally also opens you
time, you need to remain open to the possibility
to learning: you stay open to the possibility that
that you are dead wrong.”
you might be wrong. Finally, an experimental
mind-set facilitates the iterative nature of
The original excerpt can be found here.
the adaptive leadership process: you make an
intervention based on your interpretation of the
situation, and you see what happens. You use the
results of your experiment to take the next step
or to make a midcourse correction.

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FINAL
THOUGHTS
Congratulations! You have now completed
the last reading on adaptive leadership. Here
are some final thoughts from Eric.
“I hope you’re seeing progress on your “gap”
and learning helpful techniques for leading
adaptive change. At the deepest levels,
however, we don’t need techniques. We need
insight into ourselves and our “work” to help
us learn and let go (i.e. adapt) amidst the
tensions that come from uncertainty and
diversity.
Rather than seeing this tension as a
condition to be relieved, can we embrace it
as an energy to hold in our hearts? Refusing
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to do so reduces our work to the kind of
technical, us vs. them mentality that’s
making headlines these days. Embracing
it and being open to “alien” ideas, values
and loyalties helps our work become more
spacious and generous.
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Democratizing leadership is risky business.
It is a non-stop experiment, unless we blow
up the lab that is ourselves.
Thanks for your work over the last four
weeks to keep the experiment alive!”
Now head to your final team meeting, and
finish up the course!
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