Get experimental!

This blog is about my journey through a text called ‘The Practice of Adaptive Leadership’, (Heifetz, Grashow, Linsky, 2009). 

Heifetz and Linsky point out that everything you do in leading adaptive change is an experiment. Framing it this way offers you space to try new strategies, ask questions and discover what’s essential, what’s expendable and what workable innovation is. Framing this way also allows some protection when you fail in your educated guesses.

We’ve had quite a bit of discussion around this already.. run multiple experiments to increase innovation, make midcourse corrections, audition ideas and so on. It seems to me this is a central theme and critical component to Heifetz and Linksy’s adaptive leadership. Certainly I have shared examples of how it has been applied in my current organisation and how it could have benefited previous organisations to take this stance.

What is different in this chapter in reference to experiments is Heifetz and Linsky clarify how you might need to communicate the fact you are running experiments. They point out that you may have to manage expectations through your communication according to the situation, disabusing people of the certainty they may need at a rate they can absorb. It may be necessary to express confidence in a ‘solution’ and explain later!

Taking an experimental mindset will mean taking greater risks than you are used to taking which takes courage. I read recently of five factors John Cleese believes you need to make your life more creative not as a ‘talent’ but as a way of operating, one of which was confidence; “Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.” Being creative and experimental may also mean you need to exceed you authority which Heifetz and Linsky recommend you do ‘thoughtfully’. You do not want to be viewed as subversive, but real, deep change will not occur if authorities keep you in the box they want you to stay in – they can thus be the architects of the status quo.

Most people don’t want to be a trouble maker, but that’s the risk you run as you turn up the heat to achieve a productive level of disequilibrium where change from the status quo can occur.

An important step in the process is to ‘name your piece of the mess’. This is identifying your contribution to the difficulty creating the need for adaptive work. Doing this and demonstrating your willingness to make sacrifices will help bring people on board, take ownership and contribute.

A similar concept, in that it is probably hard for ‘traditional’ leaders to do, is to display your incompetence. Why do this? Because no one learns anything by repressing their ignorance or incompetence. It is also necessary to step into incompetence to resolve adaptive challenges facing them – after all if they were within our level of competence, we would have already solved them! Making this first move fosters a necessary culture of learning.

This blog is about my journey through a text called ‘The Practice of Adaptive Leadership’, (Heifetz, Grashow, Linsky, 2009). This is the seminal text in the Leaders Institute of SA’s flagship program the Governor’s Leadership Foundation (GLF). As Director of Programs my role is to develop programs and evolve the GLF to meet our mission of creating wiser leaders.’