By Oga Chan, Founder of North AdaptiveWhy it happens
Most of us reach for technical solutions. Traffic is bad, so we build more roads, and the new roads just attract more cars. A company keeps bringing in new collaboration tools, but none of them stick. You fixed a problem yesterday, and today it's back in a new form. It's like Groundhog Day.
Some problems really can be fixed by an expert or a new process. Those are technical problems. Others can't, because solving them means the people involved have to change how they think and work. Those are adaptive challenges. They usually involve many people, and they keep coming back because we keep treating them as technical.
Leaders reach for technical fixes because they're clearer and more comfortable. But to lead when everything keeps changing, you need a different lens. Adaptive leadership, developed by Ronald Heifetz at Harvard Kennedy School, is a practical framework that helps people, teams and organisations work through complex, unfamiliar challenges.
A story from my work
Sarah* runs an award-winning engineering business. To keep up with competitors, she brought in new software so her team could collaborate faster. Tim*, one of her managers, had been with her for ten years, and he refused to use it. His team grew frustrated as work slowed down.
Sarah didn't want to give up on Tim. But every conversation worked like a sticking plaster. Two weeks later, Tim would be back to the old way.
Through coaching, Sarah stepped back and watched how the wider team worked with Tim. She asked Rose*, a peer he trusted, to have informal chats with him about what worried him, and to learn the new tools alongside him. It wasn't easy and various team members played a part in helping Tim shift. After two months, Tim was using the software and encouraging others to keep learning too.
Tim isn't perfect, and he still slips back sometimes. The difference is that Tim now approaches work with a new mindset. And Sarah is no longer the only person holding him to account, even now that Rose has moved to another department.
*Names and some details changed.
Breaking it down
The initial problem: technology moves fast. Businesses that adopt new tools stay competitive, and those that don't fall behind.
| Technical | Adaptive | |
|---|---|---|
| The challenge | The team doesn't have the right software. | People have to change how they work, and for someone like Tim, that means letting go of habits that have served him well for ten years. |
| The solution | Buy and install it. | There's no off the shelf fix. It takes stepping back to see the whole picture, understanding what each person fears losing, bringing several people into the work, and having courageous conversations. It's slower, but the change sticks. |
What to try this week
List the three problems taking up most of your time right now.
- Next to each, write “technical” or “adaptive”. For any you've marked adaptive, name the people who need to do some of the learning, not just you.
- Then have one conversation this week with someone on that list, simply to hear how they see the problem. Don't try to fix it yet.
Hint: one problem can be both, like Sarah's. Buying the software was technical. Getting Tim to use it was adaptive.
How I can help
Adaptive leadership is usually reserved for prestigious schools and fellowship programmes. I want to bring it to the established businesses across the North of Scotland that need it most.
In one-to-one coaching, I help you get clear on your adaptive challenge and separate the technical parts from the adaptive ones. Then we diagnose what's really going on and test strategies, safely but courageously.
If you'd like to involve your whole team, I run sessions where your team learns to spot adaptive challenges and work through them with you, so the change doesn't rest on your shoulders alone.
I work with business owners and leadership teams across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, the Highlands and Islands, in-person or online.