Addressing Complicated Challenges

Source: THE PRACTICE OF ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP, Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky, HBR, 2009

1Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

Without expertise, the boss alone

can not solve an adaptive

challenge.

3

Kind of challenge Problem definition

Technical with full expertise available

Technical and adaptive (full expertise not available to solve)

Adaptive challenges with no expertise available

Clearly defined and know what to do

Clearly defined and know what to do

Requires learning to identify and clarify the problem

Requires learning to find solution as how to do it is unknown

Final Solution

Clearly defined and know how to do it

Requires learning in process to solution as how to do it is unknown

Authority or specialist on problem

Authority and stakeholders

Central positions to address challenge

All stakeholders (with something to gain or lose)

Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

Customers Shareholders

EmployeesSuppliers

Community near

organization

Local, national

and foreign governments

Other

creditors

Senior

lendersFamily

members

The organization


Authority to act Desire to act

Authority’s limited influence

Some problems can only be

solved through discussion.

5

Formal authority

Informal authority, expert on issue

Adaptive leadership

What people unofficially expect of you (or you expect of others) because of your reputation, trustworthiness, experience, skills, expertise, etc.

Adaptive leader facilitates decision-making on issues that have no specialist or expert that all people can rely on.

What you officially can be asked and to do (or can ask others to do)


Answer each question, using a scale from 1 to 7, where 1=strongly disagree;

4=neutral; and 7=strongly agree, and then total your digital capacity score.

Member name: Score

Formal authority: Has a position to influence a proposal to an adaptive challenge.

Informal authority: Has high respect, skills and expertise among all stakeholders and others surrounding the adaptive challenge. He can unofficially influence opinions.

Stakeholder: Key group representatives or individuals participating in resolving an adaptive challenge. They are directly influenced by it.

TOTAL SCORE

Scoring: Over 16: Has very strong influence over all the stakeholders in selecting which

is the best solution to the adaptive problem; 7-16 has some degree of influence among

the stakeholders but must ask a lot of questions, get more information to be influential;

less than 7: is in a weak position to influence the outcome but can play some role.

6

A person with a great deal of formal authority, but little informal authority, may have the ability to stop a viable solution. But he has little ability to address the adaptive challenge and execute on his own.


Adaptive challenge with no clear

answer develops.

It is addressed by all people involved.

The best solution is achieved.

People become authorities on that

problem.

The problem becomes technical

problem at that time.

Situation changes and the known

technical solution is not correct.

If the situation does not change, the technical solution is fine until

there is a change.

“Are we all in agreement?”

This is how

organizations

develop skills.


Adaptive Challenge

Incentives in the

company

Company atmosphere

Official procedures

in the company

Fun incentives

Activeenvironment

Does the

organization

have the right

environment?

8

Procedures


Organizational Behavior

Folklore

•What are people talking about?

Rituals

•What acceptable habits are there?

Group norms

•How do groups behave?

Meeting protocols

•What are the procedures of meetings?

“Our history is having loyal customers.”

“Please read the agenda.”


Situation or problem occurs

Common habitual response and

reaction

Don’t think, just do.

These automatic responses have to be

reviewed for any adaptive challenge


Field decision,

doing experiments

Management

decision


Standardized

for efficiencyCustomize

for customer


Notice what he is not saying?

He is avoiding the main

problem again!

How easy is it to be open with difficult

problems in your organization?

13

1. Write down what was said in a meeting.

“The sales people are not selling enough.”

“We have to get our sales people more active.”

There are no new products. It is avoided?

2. Write down your response to what was said.

3. Last, explore what you think was not said.

His customers like him.

What was said What was thought

He doesn’t find new customers.

Exercises to explore openness


STAKE IN THE

CHALLENGE

• How will it affect them?

DESIRED OUTCOME

• What outcome is best for them?

LEVEL OF ENGAGEMENT

• How much does he care?

INFLUENCE

• What resources does he control?

All have interest

in the outcome

STAKEHOLDER & CHALLENGE

What are your

stakeholders thinking?


STAKE HOLDER

CHARACTER

VALUES

•Commitments & beliefs that guide him

LOYALTIES

•Obligations outside of direct group (customers and suppliers)

LOSSES AT RISK

•Fear of loss if things change

HIDDEN ALLIANCES

•Shared interests with others behind the scenes

Different colors and strengths

What is important to

your stakeholders?


Do you have the courage to

address these difficult problems?

17Hiding something


No major discussion on action-plan

required

Many conflicting opinions on how to

solve issue

Can be individually addressed by specialist(s)

Must be systematically addressed by stakeholders

Known problem

Problem must be determined

You must move from left to right (red to green) to handle adaptive challenges as suitable experts are not available.

Discussion

required


Adaption challenge:

Your proposed change initiative:

Stakeholder (individual or group)

Relations to the issue?

Preferredoutcome?

Strongestvalues?

Loyalties?Potential losses?

Stakeholders with interest in the outcome

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You must know all the

stakeholder groups

well and have a feeling

for their concerns.


General

Meeting

Adaptive Problem

Participants representing their groups

Representative-constituents

meetings

Prep-meetings on what to achieve (what to give up) must

be conducted before the general meeting.

Avoid constituents getting in the way of progress?

Get all moving in the same direction

Constituencies represented


Informal discussion

before public meeting

• Small group meetings in hallway discussing the issues to be presented.

Public discussion at

meeting

• The public conversation of the subject to be address. General information presented.

Internal thinking during

meeting

•What each person is actually thinking about while the meeting is going on.

Informal discussion afterpublic meeting

•Discussions about the public meeting afterwards. What really happened and what was not said in the meeting.

Are the feelings in

these meetings

about the same or

extremely different?

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What will happen?

This is what is happening.

Is it really happening?

Do you believe what was said?


20%

30%

50%

Attention and discussion time

Past

Present

Future

Can we stay on the subject of the future?

People will try to avoid the important and difficult subjects by spending all the time reflecting on the past and uncontrollable current issues.

How productive are your

meetings and how much

time do you spend on

controllable issues?


Adaptive criteria Description Rating (1 means “very low”;

10 means “very high”)

Unsaid issues

How long does it take for conversations to get from inside people’s heads to the coffee machine and then to meeting rooms? How quickly are crises identified and bad news discussed? Are there structures, incentives, and support for speaking the unspeakable?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Shared responsibility

To what extent do people in the organization, especially those in senior management, act for the whole organization, as opposed to protecting their individual group?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Independent judgment

To what extent are people, in the organization, valued for their own judgment rather than their capacity to determine the boss’s preferences? When someone takes a reasonable risk in service for the whole, and it doesn’t work our, to what extent is that seen as a learning opportunity rather than a personal failure?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Developleadership

To what extent do people know where they stand in the organization and their potential for growth? Do they have an agreed-on plan for how they are going develop? To what extent are senior managers expected to identify and mentor their successors?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Continuous learning

Does the organization create time for individual and collective reflection and learning from experience? To what extent does the organization allocate time and other resources to get diverse perspectives on how work could be done better?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10


The need to reassess organizational structure and project planning

is often overlooked. For new adaptive challenges that greatly

differ from the ongoing operation, this is a major error and the

chance of failure increases greatly.

Put adaptive solution into

actionStrategy

Organization and plan

Execute planStrategy

Organization, discussions and

plan

Change to address adaptive challenge

Ongoing operation (current activities)


1. New organization chart

2. New business cards

3. Detailed job descriptions to address adaptive challenge

4. Physically separated location away from ongoing operation

5. Make a Gantt chart of activities, assignments and schedule

Organization, discussions

and plan

Adaptive challenge project

StrategyPut adaptive solution into

action

Buildproject team like a start-

up company


Improve an

operation

or

process

Operations

&

processing

Outbound

items &

services

Marketing

&

sales

After

sales

support

Inbound

items &

services

(Processing) (Shipping) (Service)(Receiving) (Marketing)


Operations & processing

shared staffDedicated team

Operations

&

processing

Outbound

items &

services

Marketing

&

sales

After

sales

support

Inbound

items &

services

Adaptive Change

Project Team

The dedicated team could be from internal employee transfers or hired from

the outside, dependent on the skills, desires and talent required and who is

available in the company. Usually, the project members should be represented

by both. All should be stakeholders in what is achieved.27Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

Shared staff Dedicated team

Adaptive

Challenge

Project Team

Ongoing

business

leader

Adaptive

challenge

leader

Challenge #1Competition with ongoing business for

scarce resources

Challenge #2Divided time, energy and attention of shared staff

Challenge #3Disharmony in

partnership

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To make the new organization productive there

are some problems that must be addressed.


Ongoing

business

leader

Adaptive

challenge

leader

Challenge #1Competition with

ongoing business for scarce resources

Conflict resolution1. Make a formal, documented allocation of funds for the challenge.

2. Make a formal, documented allocation of shared personnel’s time.

3. Confirm a balance between short-term (mostly ongoing related) and long-

term (mostly adaptive challenge project) gains.

4. If the use of resources for challenge impacts in any way on ongoing

business, the adaptive challenge project budget should cover the losses.

5. Leaders should discuss all contingency plans in advance of concern.

The conflict1. If the needs of the adaptive challenge project grows, the leader might have to

promote the priority of the project.

2. He might have to request a higher budget.

3. On the other hand, the ongoing business leader might promote his own

ongoing, core business to increase direct profits.

¥


Shared staffChallenge #2

Divided time, energy and attention of shared staff

The resolution1. The value of the adaptive challenge project must be understood and believed in by members in the

ongoing business operation. This concept should be repeatedly promoted at the top level, mid-

management level and operational level.

2. All senior executives should be adaptive challenge project advocates when there is stress in time,

energy and attention.

3. Furthermore, the adaptive challenge project leader must be flexible when the ongoing business

becomes overloaded, as they are the profit-center of the organization that funds all projects.

4. At the departmental level, the ongoing operation could charge the adaptive challenge project for

excess work provided.

5. A special bonus could be given to shared staff that work over a certain amount.

The concern1. The shared staff may consider the adaptive challenge project a distraction to his work.

2. The shared staff might be under short-term time pressure.

3. The shared staff might not consider the adaptive challenge important.

4. The shared staff might have stronger loyalties and formal ties to the ongoing business operation.

5. The shared staff might feel the adaptive challenge project will damage the ongoing business

operation (weaken brand, customer/supplier loyalties – cannibalize current business).


Shared staff Dedicated teamProject Team

Challenge #3Disharmony in

partnership

The resolution1. Make the division of responsibility as clear as possible.

2. Reinforce common values for both groups.

3. Add more internal staff (less outside hires) on the project team to support cooperation,

as they have established relationships.

4. Locate key staff near the dedicated team for face-to-face interaction.

The concern1. The differences are important to gain value, but it could cause rivalry.

2. Common conflict can involve perceived skill level of individuals.

3. Conflict could result if management gives too much praise to one side (either ongoing

business or adaptive challenge project).

4. Conflict could results from differing opinions on performance assessments.

5. Conflict on compensation could occur.

6. Conflict on decision authority could occur.


Co

mfo

rt le

vels

wh

en d

iscu

ssin

g an

un

com

fort

able

to

pic

Low

High

Time

Technical problem comfortably solved by specialist in short period of time

Work avoidance by ignoring the adaptive problem and the problem remains

Adaptive challenge addressed, possible solutions introduced and action plan executed to bring down discomfort

Uncomfortable, indecisive, probing, exploring and discussing zone….. the productivity zone.

Best solution decided

32

Technical problem with expertise available

Adaptive problem

Stress level too low and not addressing the problem anymore.The group must be stimulated.

Stress level too high leading to fighting and attaching….not productive stress level.The group must be calmed down.


Dis

com

fort

le

vels

Low

High

Time

INCREASING HEAT WHEN TOO LOW

•Draw attention to the tough questions

•Give people more responsibility by asking direct questions

•Bring conflict to surface

•Highlight avoiding responsibility,

•Highlight people blaming others

•Highlight people giving quick fix measures that will fail

DECREASING HEAT WHEN TOO HIGH

•Address easy problems first to get successes

•Explain every concern in a positive way

•Ask members to explain their counterpart’s concern•Break down problem into easy tasks

•Postpone tough questions temporarily

•Slow down opinions and ask for confirmed data

•Provide breaks, tell joke, tell story or do physical exercise to cool down the group Stress level too high

Stress level too low

Cool down

Heat up

Stress too high

Most productive stress level

Stress level too low

In no way is

this easy, but

it must be

done to keep

things moving

forward.


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In an urgent environment: “Here is what I think is the solution. What do you think?”

In a non-urgent environment: “I would like run an experiment and learn from it. Here

it is. What do you think?”

In an urgent situation, it is best to present

the change suggestion as the solution that

might require modification. Announcing it

as an experiment weakens a leader’s

clarity.

In a non-urgent situation, present the

change suggestion as an experiment for

learning and developing.

To make changes that address new,

challenging adaptive challenges, a

great deal of trial-and-error

experimenting is required. This leads

to learning and the best solution.


Task #1

Activity #1

Activity #2

Task #2

Activity #1

Activity #2

Task #3

Task #4

Activity #1

Activity #2

Activity #1

Activity #2

Adaptive Challenge Solution

(all agree)

Generally, the overall adaptive challenge is easy to decide on. The task and activities become more difficult and discussion and agreement are required.


Give suggestion and ask for concerns

First, modification

requested

Based on first modification request

new suggestion offered

Armed with previous suggestions, new

modification requested

Agreement on what to do is

achieved

First suggestion for action plan given (budget, timing,

assignments)

Keep the discussion going

Note: The best group size is four to nine people with each fully representing sub-groups.

The best

ideas usually

come after

several

modifications

.

36

But sometimes you

must be very

patient to wait for

these suggestions

to be thought of.


Adaption challenge and suggested solution:

Who might be your allies?

Why might they be allies?

What is their main objective? (Support you, the initiative itself or the organization?

How can this ally best help you successfully implement your proposal?

1-Allies: Those who will support

you outwardly

Supporters



Who might be your opponents?

Why might they be opponents? What do they want to achieve?

What do they stand to lose if your initiative succeeds?

How might you neutralize their opposition or get them on your side?

2 – Opponents: Those who will

fight your proposalCompetitors



Who, with influence, aremost important to your proposal’s success?

Why are they important?

What signals are they giving about how the organization perceives your proposal?

What might you say or do to secure their support during proposal implementation?

3 – Influencers: Those who can

influence others

Authorities with influence



Who will be casualties of your proposal?

What will they lose?

What new skills would help them survive the change and thrive with your proposal?

Which casualties will need to leave the organization?

How could you help them elsewhere?

4 – Casualties: Those that stand to lose something

Those taking loses



Who will voice radical, unmentionable, undoable proposals?

What ideas are they bringing forth that might be valuable for your proposal?

How might you enable their ideas to at least have a hearing?

How can you protect them from being marginalized or silenced?

5 – Dissenters: Those that offer

differing opinions

Different perspectives


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Front line discussions & representation

Regional discussions & representation

National discussions & representation

Global discussions & representation

All discussion participants

will be directly influenced by

the decision, particularly at

the front line members.

The best group size is four to

nine people with each fully

representing sub-groups.

Front line representative

Regional representative

National representative

Global representative


Exploring, experimenting

discussing, and discovery






discussing, and discovery Exploring,

experimenting

discussing, and

discovery



Issue #1

Issue #2

Issue #3Issue #4

Issue #5

Final Issue43Ron McFarland, Tokyo, Japan

It can be done if you have the

desire to address the issues?


Source: THE PRACTICE OF ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP, Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, Marty Linsky, HBR, 2009

Reaching agreement and putting in a successful action-plan


Addressing Complicated Challenges

Leadership & Management

Transcript of Addressing Complicated Challenges