ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
Leading When There Are No Easy Answers
Lead adaptive challenges through theatre pedagogy—distinguishing technical from adaptive work, regulating distress from the balcony, and orchestrating collective learning—driving cultural shifts, resilient change, and breakthrough results every leader needs.
What This Programme Is
Adaptive Leadership develops capacity to lead when expertise isn't enough and authority won't fix it—when challenges require people to change beliefs, shift priorities, and work in fundamentally new ways. Grounded in Ronald Heifetz's proven framework distinguishing technical problems (known solutions exist) from adaptive challenges (solutions require learning), this program builds the distinctive practices of adaptive leadership: "getting on the balcony" while engaged on the dance floor, regulating distress to maintain productive disequilibrium, giving the work back to the people who must do it, and orchestrating conflict as resource for learning.
Who This Is For
Senior leaders facing challenges where traditional solutions aren't working
Change leaders navigating transformation requiring cultural shift
Mid-level leaders caught between pressure to solve and need to develop others
OD practitioners supporting adaptive change processes
Executive teams working on challenges that divide rather than unite
Anyone asked to solve problems that actually require collective learning
Format
Highly experiential. 80% embodied practice, 20% conceptual framing. Wear comfortable clothes and bring real organizational challenges. Includes physical balcony/dance floor work, hot-seat pressure practice, faction mapping, and intervention rehearsals.
What You'll Develop
Core Capabilities:
Distinguish technical from adaptive challenges with precision
"Get on the balcony" while staying engaged on the dance floor
Diagnose system to understand competing values and losses
Regulate distress: maintain productive disequilibrium without overwhelming
Give work back to people with appropriate authority support
Manage yourself as instrument in adaptive work
Orchestrate conflict as resource for learning
Protect dissenting and marginalized voices
Key Competencies:
Diagnostic capacity (technical vs. adaptive)
Systems observation from the balcony
Distress regulation and pacing
Authority with and without formal power
Orchestration of learning processes
Personal resilience under pressure
