The Uncertainty Advantage:
Leadership without a Roadmap
Moving your team effectively into the unknown
“I really enjoyed it and saw great value in its application to my current role.”
Our world is becoming increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA). Leaders need to be prepared for such turbulence and upheaval. To pick a path through the fog, they must have the ability to proactively adapt to VUCA environments and drive the adaptation of teams into the unknown (Schoenmaker et al., 2018, p 15).
In such environments, followers will look to their leaders for direction, protection and order to move forward effectively. This program considers a VUCA environment and effective behaviours in the face of it. This includes embracing negative capability (the confidence and ability to think before acting), applying the Cynefin framework to approach complexity, and mobilisation techniques to inspire adaptation.
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As a resulting of attending this program, participants will:
Consider the impact of VUCA environments on people
Effectively address simple and complex problems as well as chaos
Understand resistance to change in others and effectively address it
Respond effectively and resiliently to change
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Adaptation and thriving
Addressing resistance
Resilience
Approaching complexity
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1 day face-to-face or abridged virtual workshop
Facilitator-led knowledge transfer
Small group and large group discussion
Practical application in addressing resistance
Who should attend?
This program is designed for those who are encountering great uncertainty in their environment and are looking to support others in picking a path through the fog.
Suitable for participants at all levels.
Driving Change
What got us here won’t get us there
Adaptive Leadership Core Program
When organisations become stuck in a status quo that no longer promotes growth and progress, leaders must step in to mobilise others to change and disrupt the status quo.
Such disruption results in resistance and discomfort from those who benefit from the status quo and become entrenched in ‘the way things have always been done’.
Leaders must wield their influence to break out of this complacency and move people forward to continue meeting the needs of their organisation and stakeholders.
Tackling adaptive challenges is a difficult endeavour as it requires people to change. Such challenges are typically grounded in complexities of values, beliefs and loyalties rather than technical complexity and invite intense emotions rather than dispassionate analysis – it is about the people experiencing the problem rather than the problem itself.
Breaking out of the status quo requires leaders to diagnose the underlying causes of problems rather than merely treating the symptoms, and then mobilising people to change the way they do things.
Adaptive leadership goes beyond traditional hierarchical leadership styles and embraces an approach that asks people to acknowledge their ‘part of the mess’ and reevaluate their relationship with the status quo.
This program focuses on leveraging discomfort to drive change, diagnosing the root problem rather than treating the symptoms, engaging in difficult conversations, and mobilising individuals to take ownership and responsibility for the sake of progress.
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As a result of this learning module, participants will:
Mobilise others to change
Embrace discomfort to drive progress
Manage conflict effectively and engage in difficult conversations
Diagnose root causes of problems rather than the symptoms
Take a balcony perspective of organisational change
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Authority and Leadership
Diagnosing complexity
Resilience
Influence
Communication
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1-day face-to-face or virtual workshop
Facilitator-led knowledge transfer
Case-in-point methodology
Small and large group discussion
Who should attend?
This program is rank agnostic and ideal for anyone who is passionate about change or finding themselves in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment.
“Max went above and beyond in caring about each of us and always being open and approachable.
I’m so grateful for your willingness to witness me and to be a support as I came face to face with my shadow and worked out how to be the best leader I can be.
It was way more than I expected and you’re amazing.
Thank you for being you.”
-Assistant Director, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
Beyond your Leadership Edge: Intervening Skilfully
Advanced Adaptive Leadership
Extension/Advanced Program (Prerequisite: Driving Change)
A leadership edge is a self-imposed constraint to demonstrating leadership. People feel comfortable, authorised, competent and potentially complacent within their leadership edge.
Going beyond this edge means going beyond what you are authorised to do; it means being proactive and showing initiative. However the ’dance’ with your leadership edge will invite discomfort. It is essential to manage your level of discomfort as you make the move into leadership territory.
Leadership development is an adaptive challenge which invites you to engage with loss – what do you risk losing should you adapt your leadership behaviours? As a result, it is integral you manage yourself effectively as your experiment and lean into discomfort.
This program is for advanced participants and is an extension of Driving Change.
Its focus is on how to intervene skilfully in your team as you mobilise others to tackle tough challenges. However, leadership begins with you: how can you start with yourself to begin impacting outwards?
We discuss the importance of creating a psychologically safe holding environment where people can experience the confidence and support of others to change effectively. We consider what it means to communicate adaptively and make tough interpretations about the dynamics of our problem.
Fundamentally, this is a program about how to interact more effectively with others as you make the tough progress towards re-negotiating your status quo.
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As a result of this learning module, participants will:
Intervene skilfully in their system to create change
Mobilise others to tackle tough challenges
Identify ‘leadership edge’ and consider experiments to overcome it
Ascend the ‘balcony’ to observe data effectively
Make tough interpretations to generate discussion
Diagnose systems to determine intervention points
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Managing Self
Creating psychological safety
Extending your influence
Experimentation and innovation
Communicating with influence
Making tough interpretations
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1-day face-to-face or virtual workshop
Facilitator-led knowledge transfer
Case-in-point methodology
Small and large group discussion
Who should attend?
This program is rank agnostic and is designed for participants who wish to extend their learning from Driving Change. This program can also be built into Driving Change as an extension to the base program.
Mobilising your System: Working with Factions
Advanced Adaptive Leadership
Extension/Advanced Program (Prerequisite: Driving Change)
Leadership requires not only our awareness of the group dynamic we are part of but our understanding. Core to having political nous is the recognition that we cannot simply thrust ourselves onto systems and make things happen – for systemic change to occur, all elements of the system must change, not just one. Frankly, you need help – you cannot go it alone.
This program is focused on how we work with rather than against our system to make things happen.
While creating a coalition is core to making systemic change, at the end of the day: Allies are cheap. Making progress on tough challenges means working with people who you disagree with, don’t share values with, and potentially don’t even like. However, it is these very people you will need to mobilise.
This program focuses not only on how to create and engage with your allies, but also on how to mobilise people with whom you disagree.
To work effectively with factions means to understand who all the players are. With this understanding comes influence. This program focuses on how to engage your political nous and mobilise opposing factions to make progress on tough problems.
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As a result of this learning module, participants will:
Identify and work with (rather than against) resistance
Diagnose the political landscape of your adaptive challenges
Surface and orchestrate productive conflict
Act politically to mobilise change
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Political nous
SCARF model
Orchestrating conflict
Coalition forming
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1-day face-to-face or virtual workshop
Facilitator-led knowledge transfer
Case-in-point methodology
Small and large group discussion
Who should attend?
This program is rank agnostic and is designed for participants who wish to extend their learning from Driving Change. This program can also be built into Driving Change as an extension to the base program.
“Without a doubt the most beneficial component of the program was Max.
He provided the perfect balance of theory, application and all reinforced with stories.
Max's engaging style was the standout.”
Leading Innovation
Public Sector Entrepreneurialism
“Very relevant, real and interesting.“
Entrepreneurialism, traditionally embraced solely by the private sector, is now a necessary practice of the public sector leader who must lead their teams in a volatile and uncertain environment where stakeholder needs are rapidly evolving. To meet these needs, public sector leaders must lead innovative and proactive approaches to tackle new and complex challenges.
Leaders must not only innovate themselves but lead others to engage in innovative and creative practices to bring about necessary change. This involves creating an environment where their teams can work collaboratively and take proactive risks that result in learning.
This program will adopt a strategic lens that allows leaders to examine innovation opportunities they can spearhead as well as their role in leading others to innovate and take necessary risks.
This includes building a culture of innovation where team members have ‘permission to fail’ and then build on their experiments quickly to create value for stakeholders.
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As a result of this learning module, participants will:
Seize innovation opportunities
Create a culture of innovation
Develop innovations that increase value for stakeholders
Communicate to increase uptake of innovations
Embrace reflective action
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Moore’s Strategic Triangle
Dynamic capabilities and learning agility
Reflection action
Social mastery: leading group processes, service orientation, interpersonal savvy
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1-day face-to-face or abridged virtual workshop
Facilitator-led knowledge transfer
Small group and large group discussion
Practical application
Who should attend?
This program is suitable for participants of all levels.
Communicating Change
Making Change Make Sense
‘Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction’
-Kenichi Ohmae, organisational theorist
Middle managers often find themselves as the meat in the strategy sandwich. They have one foot in developing strategy and another in making it happen. This is the job: middle managers connect vision to tactics.
However, this role is notoriously difficult and managing the tension between strategy and tactics requires a nuanced communication approach. How can you effectively communicate a new strategic direction that your team members have not necessarily been consulted on and may not agree with? And even when teams fundamentally agree with the change, how can the manager ensure team members are rowing hard in the right direction?
Managing relationships as the boat shifts into a direction is a fundamental part of being a manager teams can rely on. This program focuses on how managers can communicate more effectively to:
Orient team members towards the new strategic direction
Provide protected space for difficult conversations to surface productive conflict
Provide a road map for team members to follow as they make progress towards the new vision
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As a result of this learning module, participants will:
Create clarity by connecting organisational strategy to team level outcomes and individual behaviours
Address fears and concerns proactively and with empathy
Effectively address the ‘elephant in the room’ and sustain difficult but productive conversations
Use effective influence to create conditions where stakeholders feel buy-in to the change rather than mere compliance
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Strategy and the strategic triangle
Adaptation and resilience
Psychosocial safety
Trust and mutuality
Resistance and force-field analysis
Horizon planning and Vision
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1-day face-to-face or virtual workshop
Case-in-point
Small and large group discussion
Self-reflection
Learning transfer: Functional strategic planning
Who should attend?
Managers who need to communicate a complex, challenging or unpopular change to a team.
You and your Team Leaders are one step away from breaking new ground in Team Performance, Culture and Authenticity.
Join us for a Navigating Change workshop.
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Get to know the team who deliver the Rixe Group Leadership programs.
