Adaptive Leadership and Cultures

Nick Petrie shares the 7 most important things he has learned about vertical development.

1. Leaders find it helpful on many levels

2. It is just a model: it is not ‘the answer’ or the only way of understanding humans.

3. Hold the stages lightly

4. You are too complex for any assessment to capture

5. You are not at a stage

6. Higher stages are not ‘better’

7. There are heroes at all stages

Still processing this article. Lots to think about and notes to follow...

In these three videos, Sue Borchardt with Michael Muthukrishna explore cultural evolution and how we can build the capacity to respond to the (adaptive) challenges of our time:

• Part One - Competition, cooperation and the human tendency to copy others without knowing it! Limits of competition as a driver of performance. The value of cooperation. Cultural evolution researchers seek to understand emergence resulting from our evolving biology. Social learning as a key enabler of collective intelligence. Genetic evolution through transmission of genes. Cultural evolution via transmission of tools and know how - copying others (to fit in, successful others). 
• Part Two - Game Theory and the Illusion of Explanatory Depth. Game theory puts the tensions of competition and cooperation into context. Zero vs. Positive Sum (mutually beneficial) Games. Influence of scarcity or abundance - perception, trust and reality influencing levels of cooperation/competition. The illusion of explanatory depth = tendency to overestimate our understanding of the world. Our desire to make things concrete. Copying creates taboos/traditions (application without understanding)
• Part Three - Entangled layers of organization and implications. Genes and culture evolve slowly over time via transmission, variation and selection. Convergent and divergent features, mechanisms and systems. Understanding this meta pattern might help us understand how to respond to adaptive challenges. Self organising hierarchies as 'tangled layered networks' - the messy reality. Lower levels of organising can negatively impact higher levels (i.e. cancer cells impacting a human, or corruption impacting an institution). healthy aspects of lower levels/stages must be embedded for higher stages to emerge. Disruption drives innovation and new possibilities. To flourish, we must invite others in - shared problems, diverse perspectives to open up possibilities. Sharing constantly invites rapid evolution and the solution to our biggest challenges....

This article is a fantastic exploration of organisational culture, including how culture often gets blamed and how large scale reform programs offer a visible (marketable), but largely superficial response. 

The article explores the opportunity for smaller and more localised interventions. I particularly enjoyed the exploration of :

network analysis and structural aspects of culture (buildings/infrastructure, policies, procedures) that support underlying power structures. These highlight the importance of social and structural levers for evolving culture, in addition to the Individual Transformation lever, which includes values, behaviours and competencies and is often the soul focus..  

Our Real Work, Wendell Berry

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

'A key question inherent in any systems innovation initiative is how to scale to a level where we are affecting the whole system. Our world is populated with many small initiatives but as yet we have not realized meaningful large-scale systems change in many areas where it is most needed. The question of how we go from a system-changing idea to the re-organizing of a whole system is still unanswered. This guide is designed to help you think about scaling system changing ideas through a nonlinear approach that leverages the power of connectivity, feedback loops, and network effects to work with complexity; to scale faster and farther while remaining agile'.

I was invited by Ali Juma to present on the 'Inner Game of Change' podcast.  During this 45 minute podcast, we discuss a range of topics around culture, including capacity building, cultural evolution and considerations for leaders and practitioners. 

A great overview of the Subject/Object Interview process. If you want to read further, I suggest purchasing Jennifer's fantastic book, 'Changing on the Job' or if you want to develop your leadership/coaching practice, consider joining the Growth Edge Coaching program.

This draft chapter explores the intricacies of the Subject-Object Interview, the measure of Robert Kegan’s theory of adult development and thus one of the primary means of assessing self-authorship. The author focuses on using the interview as an intervention to assist adults in moving toward self-authorship and the dilemmas involved in doing so.

A series of articles (links to article 2 and 3 below) exploring systems thinking by Roland Flemm:

1. What is Systems Thinking and why should I care

2. Complex Adaptive Systems (dcme.nu)

3. Mental Models 

The world is complex. If we don't seek to understand the system as a whole, and focus instead on optimising the parts, our results will be limited at best. We will also be ineffective at responding to complex problems (adaptive challenges). When we look at the whole system, we find and can harness connections and improve the whole system. 

In this White paper, Nick Petrie explores the concept of vertical development and some of the insights he has gained from his experiences supporting leaders to build their capacity to lead through complexity.

A key idea for me is the situational approach, with great leaders having range; being able to flex between developmental stages, so they can respond to the needs of the role/task. 

Nick also talks about what can occur if their is misalignment between organisational stage of cultural evolution, role complexity and the individual's stage of development. 

A brief overview of the three conditions that enable vertical development.

I've been fortunate over the last two years to have worked closely with a leadership team. When the team formed, the Executive GM reinforced that the primary responsibility of team members was their role on the leadership team. Their job title (technical role) was secondary to the work they would do on the leadership team, being to build the capacity of the function to deliver, adapt and grow. This was a powerful platform.

Rather than a separate leadership program, we have used the work of the team, as the foundation for vertical development. Learning as part of Working. I introduced the concept of heat and the team came up with the idea of 'hard chats' as a simple way to open up tough conversations to enable/support productive discomfort and encourage multiple perspectives. I have used a range of adaptive facilitation techniques as well - Case in Point, Balcony and Dancefloor (or for the Australian/NZ context, Coach's Box and Playing Field), Immunity To Change and in the moment reflection (i.e. what did we observe in that discussion).

We certainly haven't nailed it, but it has been rewarding to see development really be the work of the team, rather than something separate/extra; developing and implementing strategy, responding to business challenges, diagnosing the culture and implementing a plan for building capacity (evolving culture). There has been a significant shift in the way the team operates.

I have also had to be conscious of how I need to show up, if, when and how to intervene and to hold the work lightly. This process has been as much about my development as it has been the team's.   

Two case studies exploring how Tennis Australia and Aurecon have used adult (vertical) development to support leadership development

Many constructive developmental theorists have argued that resolution of the adaptive challenges now faced by organisations, communities and globally, requires leadership from people who
have reached Loevinger’s post-conventional stages of adult psychological development.

This paper by Nicola Caroline (Niki) Vincent explores three studies that contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of the factors that may facilitate or inhibit consciousness development (particularly to post-conventional stages). Implications for the design of, and selection of participants for, leadership programs to promote such development are discussed, and future research directions are indicated.

An incredible resource to support vertical leadership development.

This 2min video provides a wonderful introduction to the Cynefin Framework. I love the 3D aspects and how they really give a strong sense of the cliff of chaos and the ecosystems of complexity.

This article explores the difference between sense and meaning making. From the article:

Meaning-making and sense-making are often used synonymously, but they are different. Sense-making is about making sense of the external world, while meaning-making is about relating it to our inner world. Asking the question: “What does this situation mean to me?”

A simple way of looking at it is as follows. If sense-making asks, “What is going on?”, meaning-making asks, “What are the implications of what’s going on for me (or my family or my organization)?”

20 open-source guides for learning about Systems Innovation

An organisational culture case study exploring organisational aspiration (espoused values) vs. lived behaviours (patterns). McHale walks through the process of diagnosing the culture and also provides an overview of her MAPP for understanding and evolving culture:

Mental Maps - What people Think and Feel. World views and meaning making

• Values, assumptions, expectations, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, needs, purpose

Actions - What people do. Behaviours

• Conduct, decisions, stories, symbols, messages, language, rituals

Processes - Reinforcing mechanisms. Ways that work gets controlled and rewarded

• Systems, structures, goals, rewards, processes, procedures, physical environment

Patterns - Ways of relating. Unwritten rules of engagement

• Agreements between the parts, co-created dynamics, mutual interactions

Overview of a leadership development program, that includes Immunity To Change and the Leadership Circle profile, to respond to adaptive challenges and support vertical development

Across these three articles, Jennifer Garvey-Berger shares her explorations of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging. JGB is open about the reality of the challenges of confronting bias, limiting beliefs and assumptions - the inner work required for inclusive leaders to create the conditions for people to fiercely care for one another.

'Pat Wadors, the CHRO of ServiceNow, is credited with adding “belonging” to the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) space. As she says, “D&I may capture your head, but belonging captures your heart'.

'Diversity is about having a wide mix of people in the room. Inclusion is about being sure that everyone there gets treated in ways that are helpful for them, no matter what their particular sets of needs might be. Belonging is the feeling that arises if a place actually has a culture that creates genuine space and care for differences'.

Second and third articles in the series.