From Crisis to the New Normal: Leadership Learning in an Era of Permanent Whitewater

• In Event: Working at the Top: Corporate Culture, Disruption, and Transformation

Short Description

A CEO of a rapidly growing $120 million company will share lessons learned about effectively leading an organization experiencing rapid change, disruption, and uncertainty. Her consultants/coaches will join the discussion on rethinking, refining, and expanding the idea of leadership in order to shift the organization’s culture to focus more on learning, collaboration, and adaptive leadership.

Detailed Abstract

"In its most basic sense, leadership is about mobilizing a group of people to jump into a better future." (Kotter, 2014, p. 60).

In his book Managing as a Performing Art (1989) Peter Vaill introduces the metaphor of permanent white water to characterize the new reality of organizational life. Vaill’s prescient metaphor has never been more apt and helps us understand that for leadership to be effective, it cannot only be oriented to the placid waters of a lake, but must anticipate the turbulent waters of a rushing river. The metaphor was employed to have us look beyond crisis leadership, which is about getting us through the unusual chaos of the rapids and back to calmer waters. Instead, the idea of permanent white water calls us to help people learn to navigate the turbulent waters, our new norm. This then invites a shift in mindset and sharing of leadership, when turbulence is not a crisis to overcome but a new frame for leadership and possibilities.

In this presentation and paper, a CEO of a rapidly growing healthcare company describes her journey and the lessons she is learning in leading a $120 million organization in an era of permanent whitewater (Vaill, 1989). Practicing leadership in a fast-changing and adaptive context (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002), the CEO and her two leadership consultants explain how they began working together and what such a leadership journey means for the initiating leader and organizational stakeholders, while addressing the required day-to-day business. Drawing upon this journey, key lessons for effective and adaptive leadership in turbulent times are offered, including but not limited to:

• How leaders can rethink their role, re-prioritize, and define their work;

• How to create safe and generative spaces for communication to explore new ideas and models of sustainable leadership, such as co-leadership. “Organizations and companies that encourage [deep] communications have an unlimited capacity for growth and development. They have that capacity because they create an organizational culture that values not only the content of what one says, but feelings about the content. Such organizations foster a climate of trust and collaboration” (Francisco, 1999, pp. 35-36);

• How to modulate the rate of change so it is at a pace people can absorb—including themselves;

• How to identify and acquire necessary types of support throughout the organization;

• How to recognize the needs of others and provide them with the right kinds of resources and skills to help them thrive in turbulent times;

• How to build an collaborative executive team to support the organization’s vision and work;

• How this work is not for everyone. Shifting culture is difficult. “Habits are hard to give up because they give stability” (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002, p. 20);

• How work avoidance became a signal that adaptive challenges were at hand. “Collective and individual disequilibrium is a byproduct generated when you call attention to tough questions and draw people’s sense of responsibility beyond current norms and job descriptions” (Heifetz, Grashow & Linsky, 2009, p. 29);

• How to practice critical and creative self-reflection in the midst of everyday action;

• How the practice of action research (Reason & Bradbury, 2006) helped provide a container for the adaptive leadership work;

• How to find, deliver and learn from honest and authentic feedback;

• The crucial role of self-care when undertaking such an adaptive challenge;

• How to recognize the effects of disruptive change on people as whole persons, and to help people through it; and

• How to be more of the change you want to see in others.

While the point of the presentation and paper is to share the lessons learned, the point of the lessons is to effectively lead organizations undergoing rapid change, disruption and uncertainty. The presentation also includes describing how these leadership lessons were employed to cultivate a new culture of leadership in response to significant disruption and transformation occurring both internally and externally to the organization. The session includes how the work of the CEO provided a catalyst for innovation, adaptability and collaboration in an industry more rooted in stability, technical expertise, and traditional leader-centric practices. The CEO also shares the frustrations and breakthroughs of such a leadership journey, and offers realistic caution for what it means to shift an organization’s culture of leadership. In the end, the CEO shared how the collaborative work had reminded them that “there are no perfect leaders or perfect leadership systems out there to be imitated and, to quote an old Hopi Indian saying, ‘We are the ones we have been waiting for’” (Grint, 2011, p. 14).

Participants

• Susan Armiger, Easter Seals Bay Area

• Ken Otter, Saint Mary's College of California

• Doug E. Paxton, St. Mary's College of California