3. Recognize when ‘just work harder’ is not the answer
In all these 4 cases, the default response is often ‘we just need to work harder’ or ‘we need more commitment’. As we’ll explore in the next section, whilst hard work might be a necessary short-term solution to help us buy time for the deeper adaptive work, it is seldomly the right answer in the long-term.
Finally, in addition to taking regular time outs on the balcony and encouraging people to challenge the status quo, there are several indicators we can use to alert us to the likelihood that we’re facing an adaptive challenge. These include: 1. A persistent gap between desired and current level of performance, or repeated cycles of failure 2. A once trusted strategy no longer works, or we need to work progressively harder to achieve the same results. There is nothing more frustrating than watching your favourite sports team continue to persist with a tactic which is clearly not working!
3. Trusted authorities/experts are unable to solve the problem
4. A growing sense of frustration and negativity in the team.*
* It’s worth noting this final indicator is actually very useful, provided we recognize it for what it is: people are calling out for change .
‘Just work harder’ : is not the answer for this running rodent. (There’s an adaptive challenge presented by the AI generated wheel that cannot turn!)
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Adaptive Leadership : Building your capacity to thrive in a disruptive environment
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