Adaptive Leadership and Cultures

This wonderful case study explores how the Siemens Energy Services business developed and implemented a targeted roadmap for evolving its culture and enabling their transformation agenda. 

The team used the Adaptive Cultures methodology to create a shared understanding of the aspirational culture required to deliver on their strategy and to create a roadmap to bring the aspirational culture to life. 

I like the way a highly technical team were able to do and embrace real culture work. I think a strength of the Adaptive Cultures framework is that it creates a tangible connection between purpose, strategy and culture (as the capacity to deliver adapt and grow). It also drives the creation of practical solutions that can be owned by leaders. Importantly, it opens up the inner work required to build the capacity of leaders.

You can learn more about the Adaptive Cultures Framework here - https://adaptivecultures.co/about/framework/

You can also join the global community - https://adaptivecultures.co/community/

'The best managers are those who help their teams succeed'.

Google identified the key beahviours of its best leaders. Then Google began asking team members to answer 13 questions, only one of which, relates to technical (hard) skills. 

An interesting exploration of Donald Trump through the lens of adult development. 

'Growth is possible only when we can see ourselves not as right or wrong, good or bad, strong or weak, but as all of who we are. We won’t change Trump, and he won’t change himself, but we can grow ourselves. The more we see and acknowledge — our best, our worst and all the shades in between — the less we feel compelled to defend our own value, and the more value we can add in the world'.

Empathy vs. sympathy

Empathy is feeling with people; a choice to:

- take the perspective of another/recognise it as their truth,

- stay out of judgment,

- recognise emotion in others and communicate that.

It isn't trying to put on a silver lining or provide a solution.

'Rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection'.

'Too often, organisational purpose statements end up being marketing speak or catch-phrases describing how the organisation is going to save the world, whilst also being a successful business. Instead organisations should search for a balanced view of the role they play in society and provide a narrative which gives meaning to the many things that the organisation and its people do. Some questions to ask your customers and people on your way to an organisational purpose:

1. What important role does our industry or product play for society?
2. What do we add that is different or unique relative to the other players in the industry?
3. Who are we important to and what do they expect of us?
4. What would these people lose or miss out on if we didn’t exist?
5. How can we describe this complex combination without setting unrealistic expectations?'

'If we began to see ourselves as highly adaptive, and looked at the number of ways we have successfully adapted to change in our personal and professional lives, we might start seeing our ability to adapt in a new light. We might realize that we do this all the time. And it might help us ask better questions when we resist. Like:

• Why am I resisting this challenge when I easily adapt to others?
• What is interfering with our organization’s ability to adapt?
• What if we celebrated how well we adapt instead of focusing on what we are struggling with?'

A  study by employee engagement company Achievers indicates that 91 percent of employees did not see leaders as very committed to improving company culture. 38 percent have either "never heard senior leadership talk about culture" or say "they talk about it, but there's no action to back it up."

In this white paper, Nick Petrie explores the difference between pressure and stress and four steps for mental resilience.

'You can’t always change the circumstances you find yourself in, such as a global pandemic, but you can learn methods and mindsets that help you to feel resilient and confident rather than stressed and anxious' Nick Petrie. 

The Adaptive Cultures community have created this important guide for leaders who are grappling with emergence from crisis and navigating the complexity that will inevitably unfold through this journey. The guide takes us through these various stages, exploring the following key themes:

1. Making sense of our emerging world
• How do we best make sense of the emerging world?
• How can we build insight and capability to continue to evolve our businesses, organisations and institutions in the face of current and emerging challenges?

2. Enabling deeper learning
• How can we balance the focus on business and organisational continuity with organisational reinvention, regeneration, adaptation and evolution?
• What new community and customer needs may emerge and how can we be at the forefront to co-create new ideas and solutions?

3. Embracing disruption
• How can we lean into disruption as an opportunity for evolution and co-creation, letting go of things that no longer serve us?
• What (authentic) acts of caring and service to our clients and community and support for our suppliers at this time may generate deeper trust and more strategic partnerships into the future?

4. Evolving new patterns of leadership
• What new kind of leadership is the world calling for? What new levels of thinking and being are necessary? How has the crisis amplified this calling?
• After the crisis has peaked, how can we continue to lead from a higher level of consciousness, rather than reverting to old ways?

5. Leading from purpose
• How can we amplify our sense of purpose and use it as a guiding light?
• How could sensing into our emerging world and possible futures illuminate a more expansive purpose?

6. Overcome forces of reversion
• How can we establish new adaptive practices and processes that enable us to continually evolve?
• How can we pay attention to the forces of reversion, and recalibrate towards ongoing progress and evolution?

Siobhan McHale shares her MAPP model for understanding and evolving workplace culture:

M - Mental Models

A - Actions

P - Processes

P - Patterns

What are you trying to achieve when you listen? Take a moment to think about recent interactions. Where do you see yourself spending most of your time:
1. Listening to WIN (ARGUE, DEFEAT, SHUT DOWN)
2. Listening to FIX (SOLVE)
3. Listening to LEARN (UNDERSTAND)?

What do you notice from people you engage with? How do they listen and what is the impact? You can use this video or open up a discussion about the three types of listening and challenge people to be more open to listening to learn.

How might you develop your listening skills, so you can better diagnose systems/issues, understand other people's perspectives and open up possibilities...

Over the last couple of years I've noticed a shift. In the past, most of my listening was to FIX, helping people (as an expert) to respond/solve their problems. More and more I now find myself helping people 'make sense' of their situation/environment, most often in areas where I have no specific expertise. I'm getting better at listening to understand and using curiosity to help people make make sense and identify possibilities or the next step.

The biggest challenge I've faced (and still face) is accepting that this type of support is valuable. I know it is valuable to the people I'm supporting/coaching, but I struggle to recognise and value it myself. I've traditionally measured myself against delivery of tangible outcomes, so the shift to 'intangible' value is one I'm still making. A work in progress...

This paper seeks to outline the current dominant approach to the
performance management of social interventions: Outcome-Based Performance Management (OBPM). It then explores the meaning of complexity approaches, and attempts to articulate what is meant by a complex system. It then explores the way in which thinking of social interventions as existing within complex systems challenges OBPM. Finally, it identifies potential elements of a complexity-friendly approach to the PM of social interventions.

This video explores the exponential changes occurring in the world and threats/opportunities for humans. It could be useful as part of setting the scene with a group of people/leaders as part of building awareness about the need to evolve organisational culture and build capacity

'The reality is that the “truth” about your organization might not be a conversation that many of your C-Suite executives are willing – or able – to have. And, not surprisingly, it is often at times of utmost crisis that the truth inevitably comes out'.