National Symposium on Excellence in TrainingNew Delhi, April 2015

Agenda

• Strengths

• Leading in challenging times

• Best Practice

1. Strengths of Best Practice Institutions

Strengths in “Institutions of Excellence”

• Leadership• Innovation• Confidence• Emotional intelligence• Adaptive leadership

Leader v. Manager

Leader v. Manager

Source: salesstrategypitstop.com

Think outside the box

ObservationResilienceAwareness

Confidence: something you can develop

• Self-knowledge• Values, strengths, growth, source of strengths

• Self-esteem• I can cope, I am competent

• Self-efficacy• Work hard, master skills, persistence

• Self-mastery• Personal vision, creative tension, personal power

Emotional Intelligence

• Listening• Seeing through the other’s eyes, finding common

ground

• Observing• Seeing the big picture, the whole system

• Being yourself• Working with conflict to move through it

• Building relationships• Trust, honesty, conflict, repair, collaboration

2. Leading in Challenging Times

• “Knowledge is exploding so fast in all walks of life”

• “We have limited resources and capacity is hard to build”

• “How do we foresee and assess changing circumstances?”

Complex Challenges

• We don’t know the answers

• Need to involve people to solve the problems

• Requires change of values, beliefs, relationships

• Solutions require experiments,pilots, prototypes

See Annex for more complete list

Leading in complex times

A B

Observe

Reflect

Experiment

See Annex for more detail

Adaptive Leadership

• With increasing complexity and change, institutions of excellence learn how to constantly adapt• Adaptive Leadership

http://www.cambridge-leadership.com

• Paticipative methodologieshttps://www.presencing.com

http://www.theworldcafe.com

http://www.openspaceworld.org

• Appreciative Inquiryhttps://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu

How to shift behaviours? Shift culture.

Source: Ed Schein,Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Institutions of Excellence:Response to Complexity

• Shared visiono Aligned action

• Networkedo Internal and external partnerships

• Participative & Adaptiveo Figure out solutions together

• Learning Organizationo Continuously transform themselves

3. Best Practices

MIT + India: Transforming Health

Best Practice

• MIT + UNICEF, Unilever – India: Engaged stakeholders to transform the health system• Networked, deep engagement with citizens and all stakeholders• MIT’s Presencing Institute has developed a process to engage

stakeholders (including citizens) as a way to develop training and organizational interventions that increase effectiveness and better meet stakeholder needs.

• https://www.presencing.com/ulab/master-practitioner-groups/transforming-indian-health-system

• The example above is a project they did in India with the Ministry of Health. There are other examples on the same website highlighting their work with government and NGOs – as well as their MOOC attended by 25,000 worldwide: https://www.edx.org/course/u-lab-transforming-business-society-self-mitx-15-s23x

Best Practices

• Stanford GSB, USA: Emotional Intelligence• Learning community of facilitators

• Mexico: Values-based leadership• Model values, adapt approach to level in organization

• MIT + India: Transforming Health• Networked, deep engagement with stakeholders

• CapGemini, UK• Behaviour score card, culture change

Best Practices

• UNTN: Leading from the middle• Staff-based initiative, learning projects

• Northwest Executive Education, India• Global expertise through partnerships

• California Department of Education• Broad engagement – staff, experts, innovation pods

• UNDP: Creating learning networks• Innovation, action & learning networks

Best Practices: Learnings

• Model the values, skills, behaviours• Transform along with others

• Shift individuals & organizations• Shift culture

• Change takes time• Patience, 6-9 months for individuals to change (at

least)

• Build healthy partnerships, teams• Find common ground

THANK YOU !

patrick.mcnamara (at) transformkonsult.com

Technical v. Complex Challenges

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS VS. ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES

The single biggest failure of leadership is to treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.

TECHNICAL PROBLEMS1. Easy to identify 2. Often lend themselves to quick and easy

(cut-and-dried) solutions 3. Often can be solved by an authority or

expert 4. Require change in just one or a few

places; often contained within organizational boundaries

5. People are generally receptive to technical solutions

6. Solutions can often be implemented quickly—even by edict

ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES 7. Difficult to identify (easy to deny)

8. Require changes in values, beliefs, roles, relationships, & approaches to work

9. People with the problem do the work of solving it

10. Require change in numerous places; usually cross organizational boundaries

11. People often resist even acknowledging adaptive challenges.

12. “Solutions” require experiments and new discoveries; they can take a long time to implement and cannot be implemented by edict

Source: Groupsmith, adaptive from the Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Heifitz et. al., 2009

Solving Management Problems

ActionIntentionA B

Linear Approach

MIT: Leadership Excellence

ActionIntention:What do you want to create?

A B

Leading Innovation and Change

Observe,observe,observe

Resistance

Reflect

Prototype

Aligned Action

IntentionA B