5 practices for adaptive leadership

The speaker at our chaplains' conference writes on adaptive leadership, an idea that Heifitz has developed, to make our leadership less personality oriented and technical, and more responsive to complex problems of organizations. Parks presented her concept of 5 practices to put into motion leadership when we are faced with complexity:

1. The practice of acknowlegement--seeing what is, and what we might become, getting out of cultural comfort zone to include more students/faculty/administrators and diverse opinions and contexts in our campus ministry.

2. The practice of discernment--helping students and young adults to use critical thought processes to ponder: what is; what is needed; what should be shed; what we need to atune ourselves to; exploring possibilities; incorporating new patterns; then embodying our new knowlege.

3. The practice of the hearth--incorporating both motion and stability, Sabbath in time and space; contemplation and action in renovating ourselves and our organizations.

4, The practice of the table--based on the fact that we become a group when someone brings food; sharing at the table, both receiving and giving (Benedictine type of hospitality).

5. The practice of the commons--helping our students to connect to the fabric of life through service in community, helping their initiation into suffering and wonder.

As you can tell these are fascinating topics and I have not been able to flesh them out very well in this short blog. Sharon Daloz Parks is a Quaker who is very spiritually grounded in her concepts of learning and leadership. It was wonderful to have her presentations at his conference. She reminds me of my therapist in Lexington--centered and wise. Her book Leadership Can Be Taught, I highly recommend. She has a couple of others that are good as well.