
In
organisations there are any number of things that might trip us up
when we are leading a co-ordinated change. There may be the politics
of agreeing what the problem is, let alone what the solutions might
be or there is the challenge of co-ordinating and sustaining effort
with people who are all still doing a day job too. There is also the
challenge that the goal posts may keep changing as the external
environment throws curve balls. And these three examples are just
some of the obvious ones!
What
is often less obvious, is that by simply naming something as ‘a
change’, creates a problem.
It
assumes that change is a ‘thing’, a project to be landed,
something with a beginning, middle and an end. Even saying that we
know change is constant (all other such phrases) still doesn’t get
to the heart of what is going on. The complexity and ambiguity that
is inherent in modern organisational life requires leaders to think
differently, but also to build their capacity to cope with the
discomfort of uncertainty, and to tolerate the discomfort of others
with compassion and focused resolve. Not an easy combination.
What
we are talking about here is ‘Adaptive Leadership’ (Heiftz,
2001), which given the term was originally coined in 2001, isn’t a
new idea. The basic premise is that most of the changes organisations
struggle with are what Heiftz calls ‘Adaptive problems’, as
opposed to ‘Technical problems’. However, most leaders keep
focused on trying to find a technical solution (i.e. smarter, better,
more adept application of the tools we already have) rather than an
Adaptive one. In practice there are often adaptive and technical
aspects to most changes, but confusing the two is at best unhelpful,
at worst destructive.
A
typical example might help to illustrate this.
Many
organisations have an eye on productivity and a lot of change efforts
tend to be focused on streamlining systems, removing bureaucracy,
incentivising performance and the like. These things may well help
and of course should be tried, but the likelihood is that they will
only get you so far. As a leader you have to take a wider perspective
and see the patterns of behaviour that are getting in the way. If
senior leaders are focused on productivity because there is a
potential takeover or merger on the horizon, there may well be a huge
tension in the workforce between being seen to be productive so
bettering an individual’s chances of being retained in a merger,
and not wanting the organisation to look too much like an attractive
proposition because who knows if we’d keep our jobs anyway?
In
this type of scenario, a leader’s job is not about keep trying to
increase productivity with ever greater technical innovations, but to
influence senior colleagues to communicate more with staff about
possible outcomes. They must listen to the fears and concerns of
staff and coach them to stay focused and resilient, developing a
compelling but realistic sense of direction and helping colleagues
throughout the organisation feel that they can speak up and
contribute to making any change a success.change in their own ways. So why, when adapting to shifting
circumstances in either a planned or an emergent way, does ‘change’
at work seem so difficult?
In
organisations there are any number of things that might trip us up
when we are leading a co-ordinated change. There may be the politics
of agreeing what the problem is, let alone what the solutions might
be or there is the challenge of co-ordinating and sustaining effort
with people who are all still doing a day job too. There is also the
challenge that the goal posts may keep changing as the external
environment throws curve balls. And these three examples are just
some of the obvious ones!
What
is often less obvious, is that by simply naming something as ‘a
change’, creates a problem.
It
assumes that change is a ‘thing’, a project to be landed,
something with a beginning, middle and an end. Even saying that we
know change is constant (all other such phrases) still doesn’t get
to the heart of what is going on. The complexity and ambiguity that
is inherent in modern organisational life requires leaders to think
differently, but also to build their capacity to cope with the
discomfort of uncertainty, and to tolerate the discomfort of others
with compassion and focused resolve. Not an easy combination.
What
we are talking about here is ‘Adaptive Leadership’ (Heiftz,
2001), which given the term was originally coined in 2001, isn’t a
new idea. The basic premise is that most of the changes organisations
struggle with are what Heiftz calls ‘Adaptive problems’, as
opposed to ‘Technical problems’. However, most leaders keep
focused on trying to find a technical solution (i.e. smarter, better,
more adept application of the tools we already have) rather than an
Adaptive one. In practice there are often adaptive and technical
aspects to most changes, but confusing the two is at best unhelpful,
at worst destructive.
A
typical example might help to illustrate this.
Many
organisations have an eye on productivity and a lot of change efforts
tend to be focused on streamlining systems, removing bureaucracy,
incentivising performance and the like. These things may well help
and of course should be tried, but the likelihood is that they will
only get you so far. As a leader you have to take a wider perspective
and see the patterns of behaviour that are getting in the way. If
senior leaders are focused on productivity because there is a
potential takeover or merger on the horizon, there may well be a huge
tension in the workforce between being seen to be productive so
bettering an individual’s chances of being retained in a merger,
and not wanting the organisation to look too much like an attractive
proposition because who knows if we’d keep our jobs anyway?
In
this type of scenario, a leader’s job is not about keep trying to
increase productivity with ever greater technical innovations, but to
influence senior colleagues to communicate more with staff about
possible outcomes. They must listen to the fears and concerns of
staff and coach them to stay focused and resilient, developing a
compelling but realistic sense of direction and helping colleagues
throughout the organisation feel that they can speak up and
contribute to making any change a success.
Sue Binks
Roffey Park Leadership Institute
Roffey Park Leadership Institute