THE PRACTICE OF

ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP:
TOOLS AND TACTICS FOR CHANGING YOUR ORGANIZATION AND THE WORLD
E X E C U T I V E B O O K S U M M A R Y
C O M I L E D B Y : A D E L P A N A H I

KEY
CONCEPTS: A Brief summary
 Get on the balcony to
observe patterns and
diagnose the problem Heifetz, Linsky and Grashow der to provoke change.
in The Practices of Adaptive
 Interpret accurately This interactive book consists
Leadership: Tools and Tactics
through listening for of five sections with twenty-
the “song beneath the for Changing Your Organiza-
three chapters. Each section
words”. tion and the World ask read-
provides many practical steps
ers to act courageously and
 Intervene up to the for practicing adaptive lead-
engage in continued reflec-
“zone of productive ership. Two common ele-
disequilibrium”. tion as they want to become
ments found of this book are
agents of change. The au-
 Change the “On the Balcony” and “In
thors explain leadership as
the Practice Field” features.
 Thrive “the practice of mobilizing
Throughout each section the
people to tackle tough chal-
authors provide these tools
lenges and thrive” (p. 14).
INSIDE THIS to enable readers to provide
ISSUE:
The main message of adap-
recommendations in rela- RONALD HEIFETZ, ALEX-
tive leadership practice is the
Summary 1 tion to their own personal
idea that if a system is bro- ANDER GRASHOW, & MARTY
situations.
ken, it must be diagnosed and LINSKY
Theory behind 2 fixed by taking risks and chal-
practice Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business
lenging the status quo in or- Press (2009) Hardcover, 326
Diagnose the 3 pages
System
ISBN #978-1-4221-5576-4
Interpretation 5

Personalization 6
Adaptive Leadership’s basic assumptions:
Deployment 7  Adaptive leadership is  Organizational change  New adaptations have
about change that ena- happens through experi- the potential of signifi-
bles the capacity to mentation. cantly displacing, re-
Critique 8 thrive. regulating, and rearrang-
 Adaptive leadership re-
ing old structure.
 Adaptive change inter- lies on diversity and val-
ventions build on the past ues divers views  Adaptive change takes
rather than jettison it. time.

The word leader comes from the Indo-European root word leit, the name for the person who carried
the flag in front of an army going into battle and usually died in the first enemy attack. His sacrifice
would alert the rest of the army to the location of the danger ahead (p.26)
 PAGE 2
Part One Theory Behind the Practice
One of the most important
framings of adaptive leadership
is the idea that leadership is
not a job or based on authori-
ty but it is a practice that can
be done by anyone. Leadership
is not based on authority, it is
“radically different from doing
a job really, really well” (p. 23).
Adaptive leadership focuses on
the need for change within
organizations and encourages
Adaptive leadership is
actions that disrupt the status-
not about meeting or quo in order to incite forward
exceeding your author- momentum.
izers’ expectations; it is
about challenging some
Pre-conditions of being an adaptive leader
of those expectations,
finding a way to disap-
point people without
pushing them com- 1. Get rid of the broken sys-
pletely over the edge tem’s illusion.
(p.26) 2. Distinguish technical prob-
lems from adaptive challenges
Adaptive leadership process
Adaptive leadership
is the practice of
Four tips before stepping in to the process
mobilizing people
1. Don’t do it alone, involve
to tackle tough
others and distribute re-
challenges and
sponsibilities.
thrive. (p. 14)
2. The best leadership la-
boratory for learning adap-
tive leadership is life itself.
Adaptive leadership is rooted
in leadership theory but also
has significant links to scien-
tific theory. The focus on
adaptation comes from biolo-
gy and evolution .Views taken
from the study of evolution
shape much of the approach
of the book. The authors
explain that successful adap-
tation requires building on
the past and observing what
is expendable or extraneous
as changes are made while
still recognizing the
3. Differentiate leadership
from authority
4. Learn to live in the produc-
tive zone od disequilibrium
3. Resist the leap of action
and stay reflective like
Mandela, Mother Teresa
and Gandhi
4. Make hard choices and
enjoy it.
“heritage” of an organization.
Moreover, adaptation relies
on experimentation and di-
versity in order to succeed.
Successful adaptation also
recognizes the need for loss
and that such changes require
time. The authors also make
use of biological terminology
in their analogies. They in-
struct readers to
“diagnose” the challenges
before acting and compare
organizations to ecosystems.
5. Observe, interpret, intervene
6. Engage above and below the
neck
7. Connect to purpose
 PAGE 3

Part Two Diagnose the system

* Get on the balcony and * Recognize your organiza-
see how your organiza- tion’s default interpreta-
tion is responding adap- tions and behavior to un- 4 Unique characteris-
tive challenges. derstand its adaptability. tics of adaptive chal-
* Consider three major lenges:
components : Struc- 1.Input & output are not
ture, Culture, Defaults. linear.
* Discover structural 2.Formal authority is in-
implications and find sufficient.
supportive and imped-
3.Different factions each
ing structures for adap-
want different outcomes.
tive leadership.
On the Balcony 4.Previously highly suc-
* Understand the cultural
cessful protocols seem
norms and forces within
antiquated.
“Take some time to get your organization

on the balcony and

Diagnose the Adaptive Challenges

consider your own

organization’s

structures and their

 Separate a problem’s  Look beyond what 2.competing com-
impact.” mitments, 3.speaking
technical elements people are saying
(p. 56) from its adaptive about adaptive chal- the unspeakable,
elements through lenges
looking for two  Distinguish the chal-
characteristic signals: lenge from four arche-
a cycle of failure and types that are: 1.gap
a persistent depend- between espoused
ence on authority values and behavior,

Look for adaptive chal- Identifying a primarily adaptive challenge

lenge indicators either
early on or midstream… Questions and identifying flags that help to diagnose adaptive challenges:
you have to
be on the
balcony, not
in the “field”
to get this
perspective.
 Diagnose the Political Landscape
PAGE 4

Understanding the political relationships in your organization is key to seeing how your organization
works as a system. To think politically, you have to look at your organization as a web of stakeholders.
For each stakeholder, you need to identify her:
 Stake in the adaptive challenge at hand. How will she be affected by resolution of the challenge?
 Desired outcomes. What would she like to see come out of a resolution of the issue?
 Level of engagement. How much does the person care about the issue and the organization?
 Degree of power and influence. What resources does the person control, and who wants those re-
sources?
Equally important, you must identify each stakeholder’s:
 Values. What are the commitments and beliefs guiding the behaviors and decision-making processes?
 Loyalties. What obligations does the person have to people outside his or her immediate group
 Losses at risk. What does the person fear losing if things should change?
The politics of change  Hidden alliances. What shared interests does the person have with people from other major stake-
holder groups that could lead the person to form an alliance that could build influence?

To mobilize stakeholders
Why resistance to change?
to engage with your

change initiative, you Resistance to change stems from a fear _ Money

of losing something important. Identify- _ Power
have to identify their ing the losses is not easy. These are _ Control
some losses that might happen: _ Status
strongest values and
_ Identity _ Resources
think about how _ Competence _ Independence
_ Comfort _ Righteousness
supporting your program _ Security _ Job
_ Reputation _ Life
would enable your
_ Time
stakeholders to serve

those values (p. 92)

Five key characteristics of adaptive Organizations:
 Elephants in the room are named: In a highly adaptive organization, no issue is
too sensitive to be raised at the official meeting, and no questions are off-limits.
 Responsibility for the organization’s future is shared: In an adaptive organization
people share responsibility for the larger organization’s future.
 Independent judgment is expected: An organization will be better equipped to
identify and grapple with adaptive challenges if its people do not expect the CEO
and other senior authorities to always have the answers.
 Leadership capacity is developed: Organizations enhance their ability to handle
adaptive challenges by ensuring a healthy pipeline of talent.
 Reflection and continuous learning are institutionalized: Adaptation requires
learning new ways to interpret what goes on around you and new ways to carry
out work.
 PAGE 5

Part Three In Making Accurate Interpretations:

 Notice when people invite people to ex- in the role of audi-
are moving toward plore how it inhibits tioning your inter-
technical or adaptive their creativity and pretation rather
interpretations: Peo- adaptability. than advocating it
ple gravitate toward  Generate multiple energetically.
interpretations that interpretations: en-  Generate a variety
are technical rather courage people to of interpretations:
than adaptive come up with more Adaptive work in-
 Reframe the group’s than one volves orchestrating
Mobilize the Systam default interpreta-  possible interpreta- multiple and passion-
tions: name the de- tion. ately held points of
fault interpretation view.
 Audition your ideas:
you are seeing, and
think of yourself as

7 Steps of Effective

Interpretation:

1. Get on the balcony Signs of Unproductive Interpretation

2. Determine the ripeness

of the issue

3. Ask “Who am I in this

picture?”

4. Think hard about your

framing

5. Hold steady

6. Analyze the factions that

begin to emerge

7. Keep the work at the

center of people’s attention Other factors of Mobilizing the System

 Act politically through  Orchestrate the con-  Build an adaptive culture
expanding informal au- flict through creating a through nurturing shared
thority, finding allies, stay- holding environment, se- responsibility for the organi-
ing connected to the op- lecting participants, con- zation, encouraging inde-
position, managing author- trolling the temperature pendent judgment, develop-
ity figures, being responsi- and challenges and giving ing leadership capacity and
ble for casualties and en- the work back to the creating a learning organiza-
gaging the voice of dissent people. tion.
 PAGE 6

Part Four To See yourself as a system you should:

Depicting your royalties
 Identify  Know your tuning
your many identi-
ties: You need to
accept that there are
different but authen-
tic selves required for
you to be effective in
 Broaden your band-
each role you play.
 Identify and
prioritize your
loyalties: To better
understand yourself
as a system, examine
your colleagues, com-
munity and ancestors.
 Understand your
through knowing your roles and know your
triggers and paying scope of authority.
attention to your hun-
 Articulate your pur-
gers and others’ expec-
poses and prioritize
tations.
them.
width and discover
your tolerances:
Exercising adaptive
leadership requires
that you be willing and
competent at stepping
into the unknown and
stirring things up.

Personalize the adaptive challenges

“Let yourself be
In order to see yourself as a system and to be a good adaptive leader, you should personalize the
silently drawn adaptive challenges. This table can help you to identify and recognize your unspeakable loyalties.

to the stronger

pull of what

you really love”

Rumi

Exercising adaptive leadership is at its heart about giving meaning to your

life beyond your own ambition (p.224).
 PAGE 7

Five practices to keep your purposes alive while leading adaptive change
Part Five  Negotiate the ethics  Keep purposes alive:  Integrate your ambi-
of leadership and pur- you can help maintain tions and aspira-
pose: calculate your this connection through tions: you can have
intervention's potential physical reminders and both ambitions and
damage to others, assess rituals. aspirations, and you can
the damage to your self-  Negotiate your pur- actively serve both.
image and your espoused poses: you are not  Avoid going blind
values and keep the abandoning your pur- and deaf, becoming
question itself alive in all poses when you take a martyr and being
its forms asking do the an angled step toward the self-appointed
means justify the ends? them rather than move chief purpose officer
Deploy Yourself
along a straight line.

What makes a tough decision?

How can you ease the

constraint presented by

your loyalties?

1. Watch for Gaps between

your words and actions

2. Stay in the present

3. Identify the Loyalties

You Need to Refashion

4. Conduct the Needed

Conversations

5. Create Rituals for

Refashioning Ancestor

Loyalties To inspire people: to put en immovable stake

in the ground.
In leading adaptive change,
ask people to open Run experiments: To run experiments you
their hearts to you
Everything you do in lead- should:
and the purposes
ing adaptive change is an
that you believe you
experiment.  Take more risks
share with them.
When you view leadership  Exceed your authority
inspiring people calls as an experiment, you free
for you to speak yourself to see any change  Take up the heat
from the heart and initiative as an educated  Identify your contribu-
express what you guess, something that you tion to the difficulty
feel. have decided to try but
that does not require you
 Thrive
PAGE 8

Take care of yourself not as an indulgence, but to help ensure that the purposes you join have the
best chance of being achieved, and that you are still around to enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Grow your personal sup- Renew yourself : To thrive

port network: find your
own confidants, satisfy-
ing your hungers out-
side work so your oppo-
nents cannot use them
to take you out of the
game and Involve in
multiple communities.
Create a personal hold-
ing environment by creat-
ing sanctuaries that enable
you to restore yourself.
you need resilience (shock
absorbers to remain steady
over the bumps of the jour-
ney), robust strength (health
and stamina), and renewal.
Renewal is an active process
of removing the plaque of
tough experiences and scars
from the journey and return-
ing to the core of your values
and being. Renewal requires
transformation of the heart
and guts as well as the head.

Critical evaluation of the book

Thriving is much more
than survival; thriving
means growing and
prospering in new and
challenging
Environments (p. 295)
The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the
world has several important strengths. It is intended to be read, understood, and applied.
The authors approach the writing with straightforward language. Their approach is refresh-
ing in this way. The utility of the book is furthered by the incorporation of thoughtful reflec-
tive questions, exercises, charts and other tools to help readers make meaning of the au-
thors’ strategies and recommendations as they relate to specific situations from their own
lives. Although the authors had insisted on distributed form of leadership and emphasized
on engaging people in adaptive leadership, the recommendations and most of practices are
about an individual as a leader. In addition, the concept of “ getting on the balcony” supports
individual leadership rather than distributed form of leadership.
The authors have attempted to make the book as practical as possible that could encourage
participative leadership but the question is that what would happen if several people in
an organization want to use this book and follow its recommendations and practices
simultaneously. It seems that there would be a conflict between adaptive leaders be-
cause the book does not tell anything about the division of roles in such cases and
keeps focusing on a single person who can play the role of adaptive leader.

Discussion Questions:
1. Is it possible to apply adaptive leadership in changing policies rather
than changing organizations? What are the policy implications of adap-
tive leadership?
2. How ethical is the adaptive leadership?
3. In what ways does the adaptive leadership build trust in an organization?