CIFF ALP - Systems Leadership

systems leadership essentials

Achieving positive systemic impact involves addressing these key questions:

• What System(s) am I working in?

  • Workshop slides: Mapping System Layers;

  • Worksheet Exercise: Build a System Map

• Where is the Heat?

  • Workshop slides: The Heat of Systemic Challenges;

  • Worksheet Exercise: Map the Heat on Your Challenge

• What is Technical, What is Adaptive?

  • Workshop slides: Distinguishing Technical and Adaptive Work;

  • Worksheet Exercise: Parse Technical and Adaptive Elements

• What are the Perspectives at Play, and What Losses are at Stake?

  • Workshop slides: Faction-Mapping and the Role of Loss;

  • Worksheet Exercises: (1) Diagnose Losses; (2) Map Stakeholders and Factions

• How Can I Mobilize Systemic Learning?

  • Workshop slides: Strategies for Leadership;

  • Worksheet Exercise: Define Progress and Brainstorm Challenges and Supports

• What Resources and Constraints Do I have to Influence Others?

  • Workshop slides: Authority and Leadership;

  • Worksheet Exercise: Map Your Own Authority

how to learn more

• Stay in Touch as You Experiment - Feel free to reach out to our team (Josh & Caroline) with any questions or to talk through these ideas.

• Dive Deeper - Check out the readings below to learn more about adaptive leadership:

  • “The Work of Leadership” - Harvard Business Review (Heifetz & Laurie, 2001)

  • “The Theory Behind the Practice” - Chapter 2 of The Practice of Adaptive Leadership (Grashow, Heifetz, and Linskey, 2009)

• Connect with New Ideas in Leadership - Subscribe to KONU’s LinkedIn Page and our On the Balcony Podcast, which features interviews with leadership practitioners