Technical and adaptive problems
Ronald A. Heifetz of the Harvard Kennedy School (Leadership Without Easy Answers, 1994) distinguished two kinds of challenges:
| Technical challenges | Adaptive challenges | |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | clearly defined | hard to define |
| Solution | known, provided by an expert | unknown, requires learning |
| Who does the work | authority, specialist | the people with the problem |
| Example | fixing the church sound system | declining engagement of young people in a community |
Leaders' most common mistake is treating adaptive challenges as technical: looking for a quick fix, a reorganisation or a new programme when in fact people need to change habits, priorities or ways of thinking.
Principles of adaptive leadership
Heifetz, Linsky and Grashow describe, among others:
- getting on the balcony - looking at the situation from a distance, not only from the “dance floor”;
- identifying the adaptive challenge and naming it;
- regulating distress - keeping people in a “productive zone of disequilibrium”: enough to change, not so much that they flee;
- maintaining disciplined attention on hard issues instead of allowing avoidance;
- giving the work back to the people - the leader does not solve the problem for them;
- protecting voices from below, which often point to the real problem.
Leadership without authority
Heifetz stresses the difference between authority (formal position) and leadership (an activity). One can have authority without leading, and lead without authority. Adaptive leadership is risky because it means disappointing people who expect ready answers from the leader.
In a community
Many of the challenges named in the White Book preamble - leader overload, weakened trust, succession difficulties - are adaptive. No single procedure will solve them; shared discernment and leading change are needed.
Sources
R. A. Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers, Harvard University Press 1994 R. A. Heifetz, D. L. Laurie, The Work of Leadership, Harvard Business Review 1997 R. A. Heifetz, M. Linsky, Leadership on the Line, Harvard Business School Press 2002 R. Heifetz, A. Grashow, M. Linsky, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Harvard Business Press 2009