1. The Being and Doing of reflective Leadership
Chrissie Godfrey and Paul Birch

2. Single, double and triple loop learning
Are we doing things right?
Here's what to do
Procedures or rules
Are we doing the right things?
Here's why this works
Insights and patterns
How do we decide what is right?
Here's why we want to be doing this
Principles

3. Self patterning

4. Think slower Beta 14 - 28 cycles per second Alpha
Theta
3 - 7 cycles per second
Delta
0 - 3 cycles per second
Beta - normal waking thought. Can move up into intense pressure - Adrian Nicholas - if in doubt, breathe out
Alpha - day-dreaming and relaxed, unfocussed playful thinking
Theta - REM sleep
Delta - deep, undreaming sleep (all the way down to comatose)
Alpha is where creative ideas happen.. Beta is where they are made real.
Guy Claxton - Hare Brain Tortoise Mind.
Big wires and thin wires.
The bigger the pressure, the higher the charge, the bigger the wires that need to be used
Drugs - adrenaline - gets you ready for action
- endorphins, almost immediately after the threat - drugs you ready for pain but also stops the brain working at full efficiency
1 Sec

5. Cultivate your inner observer

6. Lumina

7. Lumina

8. Facet 5

9. Silhouettes

10. Characteristics of your world

11. Stacey’s “Edge of Chaos”
CHAOTIC
agreement
Far from
COMPLEX
COMPLICATED
agreement
Close to
SIMPLE
COMPLICATED
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

12. Simple agreement Far from Clear cause and effect Consistent events
Right answer exists
Known knows
agreement
Close to
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

13. Complicated agreement Far from More than one right answer
Expert diagnosis required
Known unknowns
agreement
Close to
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

14. Complex agreement Far from
A need for creative and innovative approaches
Flux and unpredictability
Unknown unknowns
No right answer
agreement
Close to
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

15. Chaotic agreement Far from Immediate action to re-establish order
No point looking for right answers
High turbulence
Unknowables
agreement
Close to
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

16. The Context’s Characteristics
agreement
Far from
Immediate action to re-establish order
No point looking for right answers
High turbulence
Unknowables
A need for creative and innovative approaches
Flux and unpredictability
Unknown unknowns
No right answer
More than one right answer
Expert diagnosis required
Known unknowns
Clear cause and effect
Consistent events
Right answer exists
Known knows
agreement
Close to
Close to
certainty
Far from
certainty

17. Snowden and Boone - Complicated
The Context’s
Characteristics
The Leader’s Job
Danger Signals
Response To Danger Signals
Expert diagnosis required
Cause-and-effect relationships discoverable but not immediately apparent to everyone; more than one right answer possible
Known unknowns
Fact-based management
Sense, analyze, respond
Create panels of experts
Listen to conflicting advice
Experts over confident in their own solutions or in the efficacy of past solutions
Analysis paralysis
Expert panels
Viewpoints of nonexperts excluded
Encourage external and internal stakeholders to challenge expert opinions to combat entrained thinking
Use experiments and games to force people to think outside the familiar
Complicated

18. Snowden and Boone - Complex
The Context’s
Characteristics
The Leader’s Job
Danger Signals
Response To Danger Signals
Flux and unpredictability
No right answers; emergent instructive patterns
Unknown unknowns
Many competing ideas
A need for creative and innovative approaches
Pattern-based leadership
Probe, sense, respond
Create environments and experiments that allow patterns to emerge
Increase levels of interaction and communication
Use methods that can help generate ideas: Open up discussion (as through large group methods); set barriers; stimulate attractors; encourage dissent and diversity; and manage starting conditions and monitor for emergence
Temptation to fall back into habitual, command-and-control mode
Temptation to look for facts rather than allowing patterns to emerge
Desire for accelerated resolution of problems or exploitation of opportunities
Be patient and allow time for reflection
Use approaches that encourage interaction so patterns can emerge
Complex

19. Snowden and Boone - Chaotic
The Context’s
Characteristics
The Leader’s Job
Danger Signals
Response To Danger Signals
High turbulence
No clear cause-and-effect relationships, so no point in looking for right answers
Unknowables
Many decisions to make and no time to think
High tension
Pattern-based leadership
Act, sense, respond
Look for what works instead of seeking right answers
Take immediate action to reestablish order (command and control)
Provide clear, direct communication
Applying a command-and-control approach longer than needed
Missed opportunity for innovation
Chaos unabated
“Cult of the leader”
Set up mechanisms (such as parallel teams) to take advantage of opportunities afforded by a chaotic environment
Encourage advisers to challenge your point of view once the crisis has abated
Work to shift the context from chaotic to complex
Chaotic

20. Creating the environments for emergence
Having a strong overall sense of purpose and direction
Having the capacity to flex and change in quick response to changing environments
Having strong internal and external networks that recognise their interdependence
Having effective communication systems that stay current
Having the ability to innovate and pilot new ways of working
Enabling new directions and ideas to emerge from any part of the organisation
Having the capacity to circumvent bottlenecks
Having the capacity to make “not knowing” a strength rather than a weakness
Being able to let go of old paradigms if they no longer serve
Being alert to the present

21. Spheres of Influence
Control
Influence
Concern

22. The Being and Doing of reflective Leadership
Chrissie Godfrey and Paul Birch