{"id":31431,"date":"2023-02-28T05:52:28","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T13:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31431"},"modified":"2023-02-28T05:52:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T13:52:28","slug":"the-book-tod-bolsinger-wants-leaders-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-book-tod-bolsinger-wants-leaders-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"The Book Tod Bolsinger Wants Leaders to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, a book hits the zeitgeist at just the right time with the right words. Over the last several years, Tod Bolsinger\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Canoeing the Mountain<\/span><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Tempered Resilience<\/span><\/em>\u00a0have been those books for church leaders. But if you talk to Tod, which I have on two occasions for the CBF Conversations Podcast (<\/span>first interview<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>second interview<\/span><\/a>), he\u2019d tell you that he\u2019s trying to channel the wisdom of Ronald Heifetz. If that\u2019s not evident enough, check how often Heifetz is cited in both of Bolsinger\u2019s popular books.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heifetz, the founder of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School, has authored numerous books on leadership. However, his magnum opus is\u00a0<\/span>The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World<\/span><\/em>. The book focuses on helping leaders understand the nature of change and how to prepare to lead through it. \u201cAdaptive leadership is an approach to making progress on the most important challenges you face in your piece and part of the world, presumably in your professional life but perhaps in your personal life as well,\u201d noted Heifetz.<\/span>\u00a0[1]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Heifetz breaks down understanding and adapting to change with a two-by-two diagnosis matrix: Diagnosis\/system, Diagnosis\/self, Action\/system, Action, self.<\/span>\u00a0[2]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0What the scholar is trying to convey is the importance of differentiating between an individual and the organizational system. As we see from Freidman, \u201cThe struggle between individuality and togetherness exists in every relationship system, and is a far more basic issue for compatibility in relationships than any other (social science) difference.\u201d<\/span>[3]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0At the same time, in diagnosing change correctly, one must also understand how an organization works and functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding the difference between technical problems and adaptive challenges is critical to the adaptive leadership system. \u201cThe most common cause of failure in leadership is produced by treating adaptive challenges as if they were technical problems,\u201d Heifetz argued.\u00a0<\/span>[4]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Technical problems have known solutions implemented by current know-how, while adaptive challenges \u201ccan only be addressed through changes in people\u2019s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties.\u201d<\/span>[5]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Another critical aspect of leading an organization through adaptive challenges is assessing the layered complexity of stakeholders, individuals connected to the challenges, and solutions that have an investment in the matter. Heifetz conveyed that stakeholders have critical values (commitments and beliefs), loyalties (to customers or other members of the organization), hold losses of risk (potential loss of status, resources, and a positive self-image), and hidden alliances (other major stakeholder groups).<\/span>\u00a0[6]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Whether or not a leader is comfortable with it, leadership must require a political savvy with the ability to listen, see, and speak with people, especially people that stand in the way of change.<\/span><\/p>\n

Adaptive challenges require change, inevitably bringing about a certain degree of loss, resistance, and discomfort. However, adaptive leaders navigate these matters by helping the organization stay connected to their purpose. Healthy organizations have an apparent purpose, while many challenged organizations have many underlying purposes espoused by different members of the organization.<\/span>\u00a0[7]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The role of the leader is to take the time to fully understand those underlying purposes, even negotiating a new purpose if necessary. Therefore, adaptive leadership will require balancing listening and inspiring people, negotiating and being decisive, relational and administrative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heifetz stressed that adaptive leadership is not for the faint of heart. This is difficult work. The leader faces the engrained systems and history of the organization, along with the entrenched values, emotions, and memory of individuals within the organization. \u201cYou do not have to go it alone, and you should not. Without moral support and counsel from others, you become vulnerable to your own weaknesses and to opponents who are challenged by your perspective,\u201d urged Heifetz, adding that resilience some from inner adaptability and sustaining relationships.<\/span>\u00a0[8]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

As an advocate for congregations, clergy, and partner colleges and seminaries, I have accessed just how ill-prepared most clergy and congregational leaders are for adaptive leadership. This is no fault of their own but the failure of institutional education systems to adapt their curriculum to address the inevitability of change. For far too long, seminaries were preparing ministers for yesterday’s church rather than today’s church. The COVID-19 pandemic awakened this reality for everyone. So how will they adapt to prepare leaders for what is next? Luckily, in my role as a denominational leader, we are beginning to ask this question with our partner educators and work together to find new solutions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is theoretical and practice book for understanding organization psychology. Heifetz balances providing deep insight into responses to organizational change while supplying practical stories and exercises for the leader to rehearse.<\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Ronald Heifetz,\u00a0<\/span>The Practice of Adaptive Leadership<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2009), 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid., 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Edwin Friedman,\u00a0<\/span>A Failure of Nerve<\/span><\/em>\u00a0(New York, Church Publishing, 1999), 172.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Heifetz,\u00a0<\/span>The Practice of Adaptive Leadership<\/span><\/em>, 19.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid., 19.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Ibid., 91.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[7] Ibid., 239.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[8] Ibid., 289.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, a book hits the zeitgeist at just the right time with the right words. Over the last several years, Tod Bolsinger\u2019s\u00a0Canoeing the Mountain\u00a0and\u00a0Tempered Resilience\u00a0have been those books for church leaders. But if you talk to Tod, which I have on two occasions for the CBF Conversations Podcast (first interview\u00a0and\u00a0second interview), he\u2019d tell you that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2260,2654],"class_list":["post-31431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adaptive-leadership","tag-heifetz","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31433,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31431\/revisions\/31433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}