START SMALL, BUT START

The foundational value of my work is Insight + Action = Transformation. Insight gives the illusion of transformation, and the only way to combat this illusion is with action. The last few weeks, I have posted about the challenges of our time, the discontinuous change, the need for adaptive leadership, and the proper perspective for adaptive leaders. Now, it is time to act out of all that insight.

We need to start small but start. Another word for starting small is prototyping. It is time to take what we have learned about our “New Normal” and start experimenting. In the Praxis Article, “Strategies for Winter,” the authors encourage, “it is a time to prototype everything (programs, products, services, pricing, delivery modes, partnerships, team structures, messages) that both help you now and provide real data and direction for initiatives that have considerable long-term value for those you partner with and serve.”

The process of prototyping is adaptive leadership. The approach to adaptive leadership is a cycle of learning and doing (insight and action). Because it is a cycle, it is never finished or completed, but is continual.

Adaptive leadership is iterative. Each step builds on the next and continues to refine and improve the process. Heifetz and Linksy explain:

• Observing events and patterns around you.
• Interpreting what you are observing—developing multiple hypotheses about what is really going on.
• Designing interventions based on the observations and interpretations to address the adaptive challenge you have identified.

Adaptive leaders understand adaptive challenges cannot be solved quickly. They also know there will be more than one right way to solve the challenges, so they value learning through the process. This is why it is so important to start and to start small. The process of starting allows us to test and learn and iterate our ideas into more and more effective interventions.

Are you ready to start? Are you ready to move into the action phase? I am here to help. Moving from ideas to action is always an important aspect of coaching, I would love to support you through the process.