Adaptive Leadership Development

Program Overview

Polykala’s Adaptive Leadership Development is designed to challenge the notion of leadership, generate insight and offer tools to catalyse change. It is delivered with an emphasis on experiential learning modes. You won’t be asked to sit through hours of theory and there won’t be a single powerpoint. Instead you’ll be on your feet, learning in real-time through creative and reflective activities, as you gain tools and awareness to tackle tough challenges, navigate complexity and thrive in uncertainty.

Fundamental to the training is the view that a person’s leadership effectiveness is tied directly to their reflective skill. A sequence of structured exercises are presented to elicit predictable ‘automatic’ behaviours so that participants can observe themselves and explore alternative ways of responding that might enhance their leadership capacity.

We explore four key ideas/actions from the adaptive leadership framework and apply them to your context:

Distinguishing leadership and authority
Diagnosing technical and adaptive challenges/opportunities
Unpacking the emotional and social qualities of systemic adaptation: ‘what do we keep, let go and, grow?’
Learn and apply the peer-consultation method to gain practical insights on your adaptive leadership challenges.

Key Components

1. Learn the core Adaptive Leadership framework.
2. Apply the framework to the change dynamics at play in your context.
3. Distinguish between technical and adaptive challenges.
3. Practise the Harvard case-consultation method to make progress on present challenges.

Download training information (PDF)

Topics Covered

Leadership & authority

Technical & adaptive challenges

Harvard peer consultation methodology

Cultural adaptation and loss aversion

"“Overwhelmingly the feedback from the participants (all who are senior leaders) was that this was one of the best developmental experiences they’d undertaken. Since the sessions with Polykala, there has been consistent language that has been introduced into the organisation and a collective understanding of diagnosing problems (and opportunities) through multiple lenses creating stronger internal efficiencies.”"

Joanna Giannes - Organisational Development Specialist, City of Mitcham (South Australia)