When our organizations are faced with uncertainty, crisis, and pressures to change quickly, executives are often looked to for the answers – to define the vision and guide how to get there. But this can trap our organizations in a vicious cycle: people demand certainty from authorities when no certainty can truly exist; under pressure, we risk falling back on over-promising and providing simplistic solutions and in the end, people’s expectations might actually stay unmet. This can generate a sense of distrust, yet, people often collude in this cycle by rewarding authorities who sell them what they want to hear, even when it’s snake oil.

The process of creating more trustworthy authorities is a collective process, one that starts with distinguishing between the “activity” of leadership and the role of authority (Heifetz 1994). We then can see new options at our disposal to practice leadership, whether we have authority or not. We can also find new ways to guide people through uncertainty, crisis, and the heat of change, without defaulting to empty promises, false certainties, and simplistic strategies.

In this workshop, we will explore the activity of leadership, drawing on the Adaptive Leadership framework developed at Harvard University. You will:

• Learn to differentiate between leadership and authority

• Identify common authority dynamics that can detract from making real progress in uncertain times

• Explore different leadership strategies that can be used to generate progress when you have authority and when you don’t

• Apply these concepts to build your capacity to exercise leadership

• Meet like-minded practitioners

This workshop is suitable for:

• Executives and team leads who are interested in mobilizing learning, creativity, and change in their teams and organizations

• For executives and managers feeling trapped by the unrealistic pressures on them to provide stability and answers while in ever-changing and unpredictable contexts

• People & learning professionals, who are curious around new ways to think about leadership and management programs for distributed leadership at multiple levels of their organization

• Change agents or activists engaged in the dual work of exercising leadership on their causes – and managing their teams

This workshop takes places on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 10.00-11.30 am ET / 16.00-17.30 CET.

The workshop fee is $119. You will receive an email with payment link after registration. If you have a discount code, please enter it in the registration form.