Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County on 3/11/13:
The Kansas Leadership Center has many great tools for you to use. One such tool is the KLC Playbook. I commend it to you when you have a leadership challenge that you’re working through. One of the first exercises they have under “Diagnose Situation” relates to distinguishing between technical and adaptive work. Here’s how they helpfully describe it: “Your issue is complex. So don’t make the mistake of treating an adaptive challenge as if it were solely a technical problem.
“Most leadership challenges have adaptive and technical elements.
“Technical problems are usually clearly defined and have ready solutions that can be implemented by authority figures or experts. Adaptive challenges are dramatically different. They require us to learn new ways of operating. Progress is made when stakeholders, not simply authority figures, take action. Adaptive challenges almost always involve some sort of loss.
This is followed up with some activity:
Observations, Activities, Possible Experiments:
Answer the question, what kind of work is it?
Technical Elements
· Expertise or Information Needed
· How might we get this done? Who could help?
· What challenges might we face?
Adaptive Elements
· What do we need to learn or change?
· How might we work together? What process should we use?
· What challenges might we face?
(KLC Playbook, pp.5-9)
I think for me a great takeaway came in that middle statement: “Most leadership challenges have adaptive and technical elements.” In our leadership dilemmas or those areas we’re really trying to make a difference in, there will be elements of both the technical and adaptive. Working to distinguish these is an act of leadership. So, diagnose away and see if it doesn’t help us make progress toward our goals.