Adaptive Leadership

PNP Mission
 The PNP shall enforce the law, prevent and control crimes, maintain peace and order, and ensure
public safety and internal security with the active support of the community.

PNP Vision
 Imploring the aid of the Almighty, by 2030, We shall be a highly capable, effective and credible police
service working in partnership with a responsive community towards the attainment of a safer place to
live, work and do business.

What is Adaptive Leadership?

 Adaptive Leadership is a practical leadership framework that helps individuals and organisations adapt
and thrive in challenging environments and make progress on daunting or stuck, complex challenges. A
diagnostic tool originally developed by Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky from Harvard Business School,
the Adaptive Leadership model supports those trying to exercise leadership to understand their terrain,
the nature of the challenge, appreciate the predictable responses to change and re-conceive a different
leadership role which doesn‘t perpetuate the status quo. It is about being able, both individually and
collectively, to take on the gradual but meaningful process of change. It is about diagnosing the
essential from the expendable and bringing about real change. Through the Adaptive Leadership
approach individuals and
 organisations are re-energised and prepared for the challenges they face now and in the future.

There Are Four Core Concepts In The Adaptive Leadership Model

1. Technical vs Adaptive Challenges.
This model highlights the importance of correctly diagnosing the type of challenge we are facing and
want to take action on. Most day-to-day challenges are Technical. They can be relatively easily understood
and responses are known or knowable. This is the domain of traditional authority and hierarchies. It restores a
system back to status quo and provides predictability and consistency. For example, a broken arm in a health
system calls forth a straightforward diagnosis and a known response. Adaptive challenges are the ones where
the problem definition is not clear and/or where the solutions cannot simply be generated from within existing
knowledge and processes. These are challenges which may continue to continue even when we mistakenly
applying technical solutions to them. They are characterized by being social (where people have different
beliefs & values), dynamic (cause & effect are far away in time and space) and generative (there is uncertainty
about impacts). Adaptive challenges require a whole system to learn – including those in roles of authority. In a
health system, an adaptive challenge might be a mental health issue: there are no easy technical solutions.

2. Authority vs. Leadership.

Authority represents the formal or informal power within a system, entrusted by one party to another in
exchange for a service. It usually has a title. Eg. Manager, Coach, etc. The important services, or social
functions, provided by authority are: 1) direction; 2) protection; and 3) order. While authority is at the core of
both Technical and Adaptive work, it is most comfortable and rewarded to resolve technical problems.
Leadership on the other hand is about mobilizing a system to tackle adaptive challenges. It is something that is
exercised rather than something we have (unlike the role ofAuthority). Leadership is more orientated to
disrupting the status quo in order to make progress, rather than the stabilizing functions of traditional Authority.
Leadership can be exercised with or without formal Authority but does require some kind of power.

3. Work Avoidance

Diagnosing and intervening on Adaptive challenges will challenge the status quo as it requires learning
and losses. Work avoidance is the conscious or unconscious patterns in a system that distracts people‘s
attention or displaces responsibility in order to restore the status quo. It can take many forms: denial (―we
don‘t really have a problem‖), scapegoating (―its Marketing‘s fault‖), seduction or attack of the person trying to
call attention to the challenge, or reverting to Technical solutions which can temporarily make systems feel
something is being done. Work avoidance doesn‘t mean people are doing nothing – it is usually very busy.
Work avoidance is a natural signal that the system is starting to do some work – the point of exercising
leadership.
4. Holding Environment

Adaptive work generates division and a desire to depart (physically or figuratively). A holding
environment is the (created) properties of system that keep people working together in spite of the divisive
forces generated by adaptive work. They may include rules, procedures, and norms; shared purposes and
common values; and most importantly the role of authority. Holding environments contain the conflict, chaos,
and confusion often produced when struggling with complex problematic realities

Core to adaptive work are three activities:

1. Observing events and patterns, taking in this information as data without forming judgements or making
assumptions about the data's meaning;

2.Tentatively interpreting observations by developing multiple hypotheses about what is really going on, and at
the same time, recognising that hypotheses are simply that - hypotheses; and

3. Designing interventions based on your observations and interpretations in the service of making progress on
the adaptive challenge.

Dimensions of Adaptive Leadership

Adaptive leadership can be distinguished from more traditional models in at least four dimensions, as the
exhibit illustrates.

 Adaptive leaders must embrace uncertainty and adopt new approaches if they are to chart a course
amid today‘s turbulent conditions.
 Ø Manage the context in which actors interact, not the instruction set. In an uncertain world, rigid rules
are counterproductive. The best solution will arise through learning and adapting to change over time.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings advises in his firm‘s
 ―Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture‖: ―Avoid chaos as you grow with ever
more highly performing people, not with rules.‖
 Ø Cultivate a diversity of perspectives to generate a multiplicity of options. Whereas traditional models
of leadership may emphasize alignment, some adaptive leaders make dissenting opinion compulsory.
Perhaps the most famous example of embracing opposing views comes from Abraham Lincoln, who
deliberately named his rivals to his cabinet. Leaders are more likely to find a diversity of perspectives at
lower levels in the organization, where employees confront external realities directly and are likely to
raise critical questions. For this reason, adaptive leadership deemphasizes hierarchy.
 Ø Allow leadership to be shared and to emerge from the given context. In a volatile world, no single
person can lead at all times and in all situations. The role of leader therefore should be assumed by the
person or group best positioned to guide a specific decision. An executive at W.L. Gore & Associates,
the global technology manufacturer, was quoted in The Future of Management as saying: ―We vote
with our feet. If you call a meeting, and people show up, you‘re a leader.‖
 Ø Constantly question the world around you. Adaptive leaders are always looking outward and
realigning their organizations with a shifting environment. They read between the lines to intuitively
grasp patterns that may be masked by complexity. They test their own assumptions by running thought
experiments. An example is highlighted in the biography of former Intel president Andy Grove, who
asked the then CEO: ―If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he
would do?‖
Leading with Empathy. Adaptive leaders create a shared sense of purpose and manage through
influence rather than command and control.

 Ø See the world through the eyes of others. By understanding alternative perspectives, adaptive
leaders cultivate and embrace the cognitive diversity that underpins adaptive organizations. Their ability
to empathize with colleagues, competitors, and other stakeholders enables them to exert influence
across functional and corporate boundaries. By seeing the world through the eyes of others, they also
extend their ability to see patterns in a complex environment. In an interview at strategy-business.com,
Herb Kelleher, cofounder and former president and CEO of Southwest Airlines, advised, ―Treat your
people well and they‘ll treat you well… It has to come from the heart, not the head.‖

 Create a shared sense of purpose. In an era that has become infamous for rewarding profit making
above all else, employees are understandably skeptical when leaders talk about values. And it seems
that the more that mission statements are circulated, the more skeptical they become. Yet because a
complex and dynamic environment requires people to act autonomously and intuitively—often without
explicit instructions or rules—a strong sense of shared purpose and values is more important than ever.
Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, has spoken frequently of performance with purpose. As
she pointed out in a recent interview, ―The most important part of performance with purpose is the use
of the word with. It's performance with purpose, not performance and purpose, or performance or
purpose. Unless you focus on purpose, you cannot deliver performance. And unless you deliver
performance, you can't fund purpose.‖

 Ø Reward accomplishment with autonomy. Adaptive leaders reward people for what they accomplish,
rather than tracking hours or tasks. And instead of relying solely on financial incentives, they motivate
employees by giving them time to pursue individual passions—from a few hours of slack time a week to
year-long fellowships. Adaptive leaders understand that real commitment comes from individual
opportunities for autonomy, mastery, collaboration, and recognition. As Marissa Mayer, formerly of
Google and currently CEO of Yahoo!, explained in a speech titled ―Nine Lessons Learned about
Creativity at Google,‖ ―It is that license to do whatever they want that really ultimately fuels a huge
amount of creativity and a huge amount of innovation.

 ‖Learning Through Self-Correction. Adaptive leaders encourage—indeed insist on—

experimentation. Of course some experiments will fail, but that is how adaptive organizations learn.

 Ø Enable individuals and teams to learn through experimentation. Randy Pond, executive vice
president of operations, processes, and systems at Cisco Systems, tells his organization on his blog at
the company‘s site, ―We‘ll continue to evolve as we learn what works, and as importantly, what
doesn‘t.‖ Leaders need to develop platforms that enable experimentation and learning, including
opportunities to reflect on successes and failures. Leaders should also align rewards with
experimentation in a way that doesn‘t punish failure.

 Ø Develop your organization’s “signal advantage.” In a changing environment, organizations have to

detect, filter, and decode signals in order to anticipate and respond to what‘s coming next. Leaders
should ensure that their organizations are constantly looking outward and staying close to their
customers. As Sir Terry Leahy, the former CEO of Tesco, advised, ―The best place to find the truth is
to listen to your customers. They‘ll tell you what‘s good about your business and what‘s wrong. And if
you keep listening, they‘ll give you a strategy.‖

 Ø Increase the agility with which the organization is able to correct itself. Adaptive leaders allow
decisions to be made at lower levels in the organization, and—to reduce the time between stimulus and
response—they minimize the number of layers between the field and the CEO. As retired general
Stanley McChrystal told the Atlantic, ―Any complex task is best approached by flattening hierarchies. It
gets everybody feeling like they‘re in the inner circle, so that they develop a sense of ownership.

 ‖Creating Win-Win Solutions. Adaptive leaders focus on sustainable success for both the company
as well as its external network of stakeholders.

 Ø Build platforms for collaboration. In many industries, the success of a company depends upon the
engagement of its extended ecosystem of suppliers and collaborators. Technology now makes it
possible for large groups to collaborate on complex tasks, such as product innovation, across functional
and corporate boundaries. As Cristóbal Conde, former president and CEO of SunGard, the global
software and services company, told the New York Times, ―A CEO needs to focus more on the
platform that enables collaboration, because employees already have all the data.‖
  Ø Deploy leadership influence beyond the boundaries of the firm. In the absence of formal authority,
leaders looking to mobilize a company‘s extended ecosystem must structure the game for win-win
outcomes and also use ―soft power‖ such as vision, charisma, networking, and collaboration to exert
influence. In an interview, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst told BCG‘s Martin Reeves that the success of
the open-source technology company comes from the fact that it was able ―to bring a huge ecosystem
to bear that has been difficult for others to duplicate.‖

 Ø Align the business model with its broader social and ecological context to create “social advantage”
and strengthen the business’s sustainability. Leaders must do more than maximize profitability. They
must ensure the sustainability of their companies‘ business models and look for opportunities to align
economic and social vectors for advantage. As John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, recently told
Darden School of Business professor R. Edward Freeman (in an interview posted on Whole Foods‘
site), ―The leadership‘s job is to manage the business in such a way as to create value simultaneously
for all of these interdependent stakeholders. It is a better strategy for maximizing long-term profits.‖

Adaptive leaders help others by:

 Mobilizing them
 Motivating them
 Organizing them
 Orienting them
 Focusing their attention to what is important

Leonard Wong, in his monograph entitled Developing Adaptive Leaders: “The Crucible Experience of
Operation Iraqi Freedom”, cites the work of Warren Bennis, a prominent leadership researcher, who defines
Adaptive leadership as “The critical quality of a leader that determine how that leader will fare in a crucible
experiences is adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity allows leaders to responds quickly and seize opportunities.
It allows leaders to act and then evaluate results instead of attempting to collect and analyze all the data before
acting.”

Adaptive leadership is an approach to command based on the situation and factors such as mission, soldier
capabilities, geography, weaponry, and more. (http:/www4.army.mil/ocpa/print.php?story)

Adaptive Leadership in Practice

 Company Merger: A midsize family-owned company mergers with another company. The merger
creates tensions between the employees regarding job title and studies, pay scales, overtime, and
vacation pay. The new owners muist must bring the employees together to have new company function
successfully.
 Merit Pay: In an established engineering company, a small group of young, high-achieving engineers
wants to change the way merit pay is given by removing seniority and years of service as part of the
criteria. Long-time employees must find a way to address this issue without alienating either group.

Four Different Viewpoints/Perspectives

1. Systems Perspective. Problem are complex with interconnected parts
2. Biological Perspective. People develop and develop and evolve by having to adapt to internal cues
and external environment
3. Service Orientation. Leadership serves people by diagnosing the problems and prescribing possible
solutions
4. Psychotherapy Perspective. People dapt successfully when they face problems directly, distinguish
between fantasy and reality, resolve internal conflicts, and earn new attitudes and behaviors.

Subset of Complexity Leadership Theory

 21st century organizations have knowledge and information as core commodities rather than production
of goods
 Theory includes administrative, adaptive, and enabling leadership
 Focuses on strategies that encourage learning, creativity, and adaptation in complex organizations.
When is Adaptive Leadership Relevant?
Situation Challenges

1. Technical Problems.

Problems that are clearly defined with known solutions that can be implemented through existing
organizational procedures.

Example: Some new software at accounting firm are not working. If the accountant has authority to address the
problem (e.g. contract the solfware company and gave program modified to meet the company’s

No need for adaptive leadership

2. Technical and Adaptive Challenges

Challenges that are clearly defined but do not have straightforward solutions. Leader and followers both tackle
problem

Example: Hospital wants to change from traditional approach to a patient cantered culture.
Administration can offer training on how it involve patients in their own care. Medical staff. Patients, and
families need to accept the change and learn how to implement it.
Need for adaption by many different people.

3. Adaptive Challenges

Problems that are not clearly defined or problems that are not to identify, and which do not have clear
solution.

Example: A hospital wants to begin a hospice care for terminally ill patients. The patients and families will face
immense uncertainty about how and when the patient will die. The staff, patients, and families will face
many issues about the dying process. What the loss means, how to prepare for coping with is.

The challenges facing the organization are not clearly defined nor are the solutions. These challenges require
adaptive leadership.
 Adaptive Challenges are Value-laden and stir up people’s emotion
 Technical Challenges can be fixed with leader’s own expertise and authority
 Effective leaders use adaptive leadership behaviors for adaptive challenges and technical leadership
for technical challenges.
Characteristics of Adaptive Leaders
 According to Wong and others who study leadership theory and traits, to be an adaptive leader you first
need to:
 Be mentally flexible and agile. You must cultivate strong conceptual skills along with speed and
precision in your decision making. You must become technically and proficient and model this behavior
for your subordinates.
 Exhibit poise under pressure and are able to operate autonomously under the general framework of the
superior officer’s intent
 Employ a broad-based leadership style, considering diverse and conflicting views in your situational
assessments.

Six Adaptive Leadership Behavior

(no specific order of importance)

1. Get on the balcony

under the big picture and all that is involved in the situation. Don’t get swept in the field of play. Move back and
forth between action and balcony. (Get a whole some view)

2. Identify Adaptive Challenges

Distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges

Four Types of Adaptive Leadership

 1. A gap between espoused values and behavior
 2. Competing commitments/goals (quality vs cost)
 3. Elephants in the room
 4. People avoid work

3. Regulate Distress

Help others recognize the need for change but not be overwhelmed by it. The
Leader must….
1. Created a holding environment (safe atmosphere to discuss everything)
2. Provide direction. Protection, orientation, conflict management, Productive norms
3. Regulate his/her own personal distress and the distress levels keeping. It in the productive range
4. Maintain Discipline Attention Encouraging people to focus on the tough work they need to do
5. Give the work back to the people
 Avoid micro-managing, support people
 Encourage risk taking
 People should know that they can work out their own solution
6. Protect Leadership Voices from Below
Consider the ideas of people who may be at the fringe, marginalized, or may
Even deviant in the group or organization. Protect whistle blowers

Adaptive Leadership Behaviors (add on)

 Creating a holding environment
 Regulating stress
 Providing direction
 Keeping people focused on important issues
 Empowering people
 Giving voice to marginalized and unrecognized

Adaptive Work
 What adaptive leaders what to see happen
 Adaptive work grows out of the communication between leaders and followers but is primarily the work
done by followers
 Holding environment is essential
 Example: A fitness instructor is running a class for a group of individuals
 Who have heart problems and struggle with being overweight
How does Adaptive Leadership Work
A complex process of multiple dimensions includes situational challenges, leadership behaviors and adaptive
work.

Mobilizing individuals in doing adaptive work

1. Leaders steps back from a challenging situation for a view from balcony
2. Determine if the change creates technical or adaptive challenges
3. If the challenges are adaptive, the leader engages in several specific leaders behavior to move the
adaptive process forward

Strengths of Adaptive Leadership Theory

 In contrast to other leadership theories, adaptive leadership:
 Takes a process approach. Leadership is a complex transaction between leaders and followers
 Is followers deal with conflicting values that emerge in changing work environments
 Prescribes useful leadership behaviors
 Introduces the concept of a “holding environment” as an integral parts of the leadership process

Criticisms on Adaptive Leadership Theory

 Very little empirical research has been conducted to test the claims of the theory
 Complex process are difficult to test and measure
 Too wide ranging and abstract

Application of Adaptive Leadership

 For the leaders,
 It provides a conceptual framework that helps determine what types of challenges are faced and the
strategies needed for managing them
 Is applicable in wide variety of settings
 For organizations,
 It can be used as a model to meet a variety of challenges including change and growth
 Is of special interest to people in non-profit, faith-based, and health care organizations
SWOT Analysis

Strength Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

Areas of Concern
(Internal) (Internal) (External) (External)