Adaptive Challenges and Holding Environments

October 2010

Calev Ben Dor

Solution: Clear Solution: Requires Learning

Problem: Technical Problem: Adaptive

Closing the Gap: Adaptive Work

Leadership is an activity to mobilize adaptation

(Ron Heifetz)

Responsibility: Authority Figure Responsibility: Constituency

Work AvoidancePeople fail to adapt because of the stress provoked by the problems and the changes it demands. They resist the pain, anxiety or conflict that accompanies a sustained interaction with its situation.

Holding on to past assumptions, blaming authority, scapegoating, externalizing the enemy, denying the problem, jumping to conclusions or finding a distracting issue may restore stability and feel less stressful than facing and taking responsibility for a complex challenge.

These patterns of response to disequilibrium are called “work avoidance mechanism.”

To orchestrate conflict effectively think of yourself as having your

hand on the thermostat and always watching for signals that you need

to raise or lower the temperature in the room.

Your goal is to keep the temperature – that is, the intensity

of the disequilibrium created by discussion of the conflict – high

enough to motivate people to arrive at creative next steps and

potentially useful solutions, but not so high that it drives them away or

makes it impossible for them to function.

Orchestrating Conflict

The harder the adaptive work, stronger holding environment must be to contain divisive forces

Draw attention to tough questions

Give people more responsibility than they're comfortable with

Bring conflicts to surface

Tolerate provocative comments

Use dynamics in the room to illustrate some issues facing the

group

Address aspects of the conflict that have most obvious and technical solutions

Provide structure by breaking problem into parts

Temporarily reclaim responsibility for tough issues

Employ work avoidance mechanisms (taking a break / telling a joke)

Slow down the process of challenging norms and expectations

Raising and Lowering the Temperature