NPS Pacific West Region - Introduction to Adaptive Leadership

Kick-off workshop - november 15, 2022

Key Questions to Ask in Breaking Down a Leadership Challenge:

1. Where is the Heat? - Determine who is in the Panic, Learning, or Comfort Zones, to start to understand how they view the problem.

   • Worksheet: Map the Heat on Your Challenge; Refresher slides: The Role of Heat in Confronting Challenges

2. What's Technical and What's Adaptive? - Identify the parts of your problem that can be solved with time and money, vs. the parts that involve hearts & minds and require people (including you!) to learn new ways of thinking or behaving

   • Worksheet: Parse Technical and Adaptive Elements; Refresher Slides: Distinguishing Technical and Adaptive Work

3. How Do People Understand the Problem, and What Losses are at Stake? - Determine the different perspectives stakeholders have on the issue, and consider the losses that people might be resisting as they confront the challenge.

   • Worksheet: Map Perspectives and Dig Deeper; Refresher Slides: Perspective-Taking and the Role of Loss

4. What Can I Do to Mobilize Learning? - Develop your leadership strategy: where do you need to learn more? What can you do to bring people into the learning zone?

   • Refresher slides: Leadership Strategies (Get on the Balcony, Raise/Lower the Heat, Manage Loss, Cross Boundaries)

How to Learn More

• Stay in Touch as You Experiment - Feel free to reach out to our team (Josh & Ariana) 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