National Symposium on Excellence in Training New 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

Source: salesstrategypitstop.com

Think outside the box Observation Resilience Awareness

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 Paticipative methodologies Appreciative Inquiry

How to shift behaviours? Shift culture. Source: Ed Schein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Institutions of Excellence: Response to Complexity Shared vision o Aligned action Networked o Internal and external partnerships Participative & Adaptive o Figure out solutions together Learning Organization o 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. 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:

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 !

Technical v. Complex Challenges TECHNICAL PROBLEMS VS. ADAPTIVE CHALLENGES The single biggest failure of leadership is to treat adaptive challenges like technical problems. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS 1.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 1.Difficult to identify (easy to deny) 2.Require changes in values, beliefs, roles, relationships, & approaches to work 3.People with the problem do the work of solving it 4.Require change in numerous places; usually cross organizational boundaries 5.People often resist even acknowledging adaptive challenges. 6.“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 Action Intention A B Linear Approach

MIT: Leadership Excellence Action Intention: What do you want to create? A B

Leading Innovation and Change Observe, observe, observe Resistance Reflect Prototype Aligned Action Intention A B