Canoeing the Mountains

In their book Leadership on the Line, Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky describe adaptive challenges as the work confronting a leader when there is no known fix to a problem. It’s when “best practices” are irrelevant, when there is no “expertise” at hand, no personal experience to draw on that is relevant to the challenge of the moment.

When a leader and an organization are facing a sudden disruption, a completely unforeseen “black swan” event, or uncharted territory, a different kind of leadership is needed. It’s like when Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacagawea, and the expert…