What is the connection between leadership approach and negotiation? Part 2: The Adaptive Leader

Last week we began our exploration of leadership approaches and their connection to negotiation by looking at the servant leadership approach. This week we continue that line of inquiry by analyzing an approach to leadership called Adaptive Leadership. This concept was first crystallized in 1998 by Harvard University Professor Ronald Heifetz in his book Leadership Without Easy Answers.

Heifetz began presenting the adaptive leadership approach by clarifying two important types of problems leaders face -- technical and adaptive problems. Technical problems can be solved by expertise and good management, while adaptive problems, such as the societal problems of racial tension and poverty, require innovation, adaptation, and learning. Much of leadership theory to that point had been focused on technical approaches. However, many of the types of problems leaders were encountering were not technical and could not be adequately addressed from seeing them through that lens. Put differently, traditional leadership strategies had proven useful in dealing with technical problems, but when more complex situations existed, where beliefs and values came into play, these technical approaches often exacerbated the problem -- not addressed it.

The adaptive leadership approach follows five strategic principles. First, leaders must diagnose the situation in light of the values and other underlying issues involved and then break the issues down into manageable pieces. Second, a leader must keep the level of anxiety people are feeling within acceptable limits -- in Heifetz's words, "keep the heat up without blowing up the vessel". Third, leaders have to work hard to counteract problems of denial, scapegoating, or focusing on the problem as if it is technical. Fourth, leaders must encourage and allow people involved to take responsibility for the problem, but in a manner they can handle. Fifth, the adaptive leader has to protect those who raise hard questions, generate discord, and challenge people to rethink the issues at stake. Without these contrarians nothing changes, but they are at risk of being ostracized from the group.

This theory has proven to be extremely valuable for an entire class of problems that previously were befuddling. Given all of this, what is the connection between adaptive leadership and negotiation? I see at least three important connections, which are as follows:

1. The first step in the adaptive approach is to adequately diagnose the problem.  It is not uncommon for negotiators to skip this step and assume they know what they are negotiating about. Without clarifying what the negotiation is about, negotiators are like ships passing in the night -- talking about different issues without even realizing it.
2. Negotiators often mistake adaptive problems for technical ones and deploy a technical approach that is bound to fail.  When negotiators apply a technical approach to an adaptive challenge they more often than not end up with an inefficient compromise -- one that does not really solve the problem.
3. An adaptive mindset -- one based in exploration and creativity without drawing quick conclusions -- is the mark of a successful negotiator. The best negotiators have spent time planning so they are prepared, but also enter the process and expect the unexpected to emerge at some point. When one enters a negotiation in that manner they are much more likely to succeed and not miss key possibilities that naturally arise as part of the process.

What connections do you see?