Leadership Creativity Danger

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Leadership Creativity Danger

• Hugh ODoherty
• Center for Public Leadership, Kennedy School of
  Government Harvard University

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4 Confusions of Leadership

• Leadership authority
• Leadership personality
• Leadership knowledge
• Leadership value-free

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Authority

• A Contract for Services
• Formal or Informal
• Power Entrusted for Service
• Power
• Trust
• Service

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Trust

• Predictability
• Values
• Competence

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The Services of Authority

• Direction
• Protection
• Order
• Orientation to Roles
• Control of Conflict
• Norm Maintenance

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Technical and Adaptive Work
Primary Locus of Responsibility for the Work
Problem Definition
Solutions and Implementation
Kind of Work
Technical
Clear
Clear
Authority
Technical Adaptive
Clear
Requires Learning
Authority Stakeholder
Adaptive
Requires Learning
Requires Learning
Stakeholder gtAuthority
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The Productive Range
Disequilibrium
Adaptive Challenge
Limit of Tolerance
Productive Range of Distress
Threshold of Learning
Work Avoidance
Technical Problem
Time
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Work Avoidance Mechanisms

• Common Pathway
• Diversion of Responsibility or Attention
• Common Function
• Restore Equilibrium and Hold onto the Past

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Work Avoidance Mechanisms

• Displacing Responsibility
• Externalizing the enemy
• Attacking authority
• Killing the Messenger
• Scapegoating

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Work Avoidance Mechanisms

• Distracting Attention
• Fake Remedies
• Define the problem to fit your competence
• Structural adjustments
• Consultants, Committees and Task forces
• Denial
• Sterile conflict Proxy fights No curiosity or
  creative engagement

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Leadership With Authority
Area of Focus
Technical
Adaptive
Identify the Adaptive Challenge Frame
Key Questions Issues
Provide Problem Definition and Solution
Direction
Protect From External Threats
Discloses External Threats
Protection
Disorients Current Roles Resists Orienting
People To New Roles Too Quickly
Order Orientation
Orients People to Current Roles
Exposes Conflict or Lets It Emerge
Restores Order
Conflict
Challenges Norms or Lets Them Be Challenged
Maintains Norms
Norms
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Leadership

• Mobilizing Adaptive Work
• Leadership is an Activity
• With or Without Authority
• Not Defined by Personality Traits, Power,
  Influence, or Position

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The Paradox of Trust

• People will often trust you when you fulfill
  their expectations for service
• So what happens when you
• Raise questions or deliver information that
  conflicts with those expectations?
• When you tell them what they may need to hear,
  but not what they want to hear?

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The Heart of Danger

• The Perils of Adaptive Change
• Going Beyond Your Authority
• At the Heart of Danger is Loss

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The Faces of Danger

• Marginalization
• Diversion
• Attack
• Seduction

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Leadership Tasks

• Identify the Adaptive Challenge
• Discipline Attention
• Develop Responsibility
• Regulate Disequilibrium
• Infuse the Work with Meaning

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Leadership Strategy

• Get on the Balcony
• Think Politically
• Orchestrate the Conflict
• Give the Work Back
• Hold Steady

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Get on the Balcony

• Distinguish Technical from Adaptive Work
• Find Out Where People Are At
• Listen to the Song Beneath the Words
• Read the Authority Figure for Clues

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The Politics of Leadership
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Think Politically

• Find Partners
• Keep the Opposition Close
• Accept Responsibility for Your Piece of the Mess
• Acknowledge Their Loss
• Model the Behavior
• Accept Casualties

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Orchestrate the Conflict

• Create a Holding Environment
• Control the Temperature
• Pace the Work
• Show Them the Future

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Give the Work Back

• Take the Work Off Your Shoulders
• Place the Work Where It Belongs
• Make Your Interventions Short and Simple

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Hold Steady

• Take the Heat
• Let the Issues Ripen
• Focus Attention on the Issues

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Manage Your Hungers

• Power and Control
• Affirmation and Importance
• Intimacy and Delight

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Anchor Yourself

• Distinguish Role From Self
• Dont Confuse Allies With Confidants
• Keep a Sanctuary

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Typology of Problems
Primary Locus of Responsibility for the Work
Problem Definition
Solutions and Implementation
Type 1
Clear
Clear
Technical
Type 2
Clear
Requires Learning
Technical Adaptive
Type 3
Requires Learning
Requires Learning
Adaptive