Decolonizing Dialog for Leaders: Toward a Framework for Describing the Adaptive Capacity of Leadership Teams

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Complexity Theories in Education: Roundtable (Table 14)

Abstract

In an unsteady state world, organizations must adapt (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). We must mitigate organizational inertia and social pathologies like racism. These "vexing" (Howard, 2023) problems defy linear either/or solutions (Cabrera & Cabrera, 2018; Smith & Lewis, 2022). “A good way” for leading decolonized education systems is to focus more on relationality and collectives (Wane et al., 2023) where adaptable agents in complex ecosystems are better prepared to work in complex organizations (Author 2, 2021). Another vexing problem is knowing the potential or adaptive capacity of a team. Here we propose a method/tool for describing complex organizations (teams) as a function of its proactivity and adaptability features presented as the “Leadership Team Adaptive Capacity” matrix or typology.

Authors

• Richard Douglas Fossey, University of Calgary

• Eugene G. Kowch, University of Calgary