Talking Adaptive Strategy vs Actually Doing It
Ever since Peter Senge published The Fifth Discipline in 1990, how leaders think about strategy has never been the same. Few still believe a five-year strategic plan will hold in a volatile world. Around the same time, “adaptive” entered the mainstream lexicon thanks to the work of Ron Heifetz and Harvard Kennedy School on Adaptive […]
Leading Meetings that Matter
Most of us have been in meetings where the energy dips, conflict flares or the conversation goes nowhere. Conventional facilitation techniques often aim to smooth things out, keep people comfortable and move the agenda forward. That can be useful, but it often leaves the real work untouched. Adaptive leadership offers a different way. Instead of […]
Saying Yes: The Courage to Let Go and Receive
Leadership is often framed as knowing what to do, charting the path and mobilizing others to follow. But the deepest leadership moments rarely begin with certainty. They begin with saying yes – an act that is at once brave, humbling and transformative. Saying yes is not just consent or ‘going along to get along’. It […]
Innovation in a Time of Volatility
The traditional drivers of development and innovation are shifting. That is not necessarily a bad thing. For decades, a daunting adaptive challenge facing emerging market institutions and leaders was donor dependency and donor-driven agendas, a well-known power dynamic in the philanthropic world more broadly. While the influence of actors like USAID is still relevant, it […]
Seeking Truth in Leadership
In times of uncertainty, leadership isn’t just about having answers — it’s about learning to live with the unknown. This essay explores an alternative approach to leadership rooted in curiosity, complexity, and the power of mystery. Drawing insights from a retreat with leading quantum physicists, it challenges the traditional model of fast solutions and absolute clarity. Instead, it invites leaders to embrace adaptive thinking, deepen their attention, and stay present long enough for new insights to emerge. When we lead with humility and imagination, mystery becomes not a threat — but a teacher.
When Democracy Falters, Ordinary People Lead
Thank you to our friends at People Power Health for bringing me back to On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, by historian Timothy Snyder — a book I drew on when writing Your Leadership Moment: Democratizing Leadership in an Age of Authoritarianism. Snyder, a historian specializing in 20th-century Europe, particularly the rise of fascism and communism, offers […]
Seeing What Others Miss: Adaptive Leadership for Emerging Leaders
What struck me in that moment was that I did not see that man. I was walking in London’s Hyde Park with Vimal Kumar, an Acumen Fellow and close colleague. Vimal was born a “sweeper,” the lowest caste in India’s hierarchy, historically consigned to cleaning toilets and sewers by hand. He has since gone on […]