Originally posted in our December 2021 Top of Mind Newsletter.
To close out 2021’s Top of Mind series, we thought we would highlight another system grappling with change: organizational leadership. From the largest organization to the smallest grassroots non-profit, we see a need for dynamic and adaptive leadership. Unfortunately, industrial models of schooling and working have not kept pace with the shifting markets.
Top-down, bureaucratic methods of leading have a place, but they traditionally do not leave space for adaptability and complexity. As we discussed last month, a new theory has emerged, called Complexity Leadership Theory, that can enable organizations to harness the innovative potential of their people without negating the systems of efficiency that have kept them successful previously. In the context of embracing change, CLT asks us to examine our assumptions as individuals in an organization. Then, we can work collaboratively towards new horizons.
Dig into a theory that embraces adaptive stability and gives us a path forward when the only thing that’s certain is change is going to come.