Adaptive Leadership: How Great School Principals Lead for Change

The only thing constant is change—and when it comes to education, that adage is spot-on. If change is truly constant, why is it often so tough to move through it, and bring others along on the journey?

A big reason is our brain chemistry. Humans are the most adaptable species on the planet—and yet, our brains have also evolved to appreciate certainty. 

Of course, there are those moments of change that leave us no choice but to respond immediately. We can all agree that the pandemic was one of those times. A lasting lesson from the pandemic is that both educators and students are resilient, and when needed, we can meet change swiftly—and with a large dose of innovation and flexibility that fuels positive school culture and student achievement.

Knowing that change is inevitable—and that as school leaders, we also have the opportunity to do things differently in the future and not return to the status quo—how do we get better at proactively planning and leading through it?

One quality of effective educational leaders is that they embrace an adaptive leadership approach—a leadership style that embraces critical thinking among everyone in your school and teaches them to be adaptable problem-solvers themselves. Here’s what adaptive leadership practices look like, and how you and your team can cultivate them.

Knowing that change is inevitable—and that as leaders, we also have the opportunity to do things differently in the future and not return to the status quo—how do we get better at proactively planning and leading through it? 

The definition of adaptive leadership

Adaptive leadership is a model that embraces change, challenging the status quote in favor of experimentation and innovation. Great school leaders are adaptive in their decision-making because they see change as an opportunity for capacity-building in order to solve problems, manage change, and thrive. 

When considering adaptive leadership actions, these are a few that come to mind: 

• Having the ability to anticipate when adaptive problems might be coming and being able to adjust your strategy as needed
• Listening to a diverse group of stakeholders—your teachers, staff, parents, community members, and students—to gain a variety of perspectives and dig into a situation from all sides
• Creating or adopting new strategies to address issues or changes
• Mobilizing the individuals and groups that make up your school’s ecosystem to initiate change by working together toward collective goals

Being an adaptive leader requires a specific mindset. It’s about acknowledging that change and unpredictability are a part of the day-to-day life of a school, and that these challenges are opportunities for growth, innovation, and equity. Adaptive leadership requires curiosity, and the ability to approach change in our educational system with a sense of resilience rather than resignation.

Being an adaptive leader requires a specific mindset. It’s about acknowledging that change and predictability are part of the day-to-day life of a school, and that these challenges are opportunities for growth, innovation, and equity.

In addition to mindset, adaptive leadership is also a series of practices and leadership actions that need to work in tandem to address organizational challenges. We’ve outlined a few of the most important ones here:

Understand the difference between technical and adaptive challenges

No two challenges are alike, but there are different types of challenges when we talk about organizational change management: technical challenges and adaptive challenges:

• Technical challenges are those that can be solved with expert knowledge. These are situations where the problem, the solution, and how the solution needs to be implemented is clear and obvious. A technical challenge might be you purchasing a set of chairs for your kitchen table which require some assembly. The chair pieces come with a detailed set of instructions, and a customer service number in case you get stuck. The chairs are a challenge to put together, but you have the tools and solution at your disposal.

• Adaptive challenges are those that require innovation and a high-level change in mindset. They’re a complex challenge based on complex interdependencies—groups of people working together, leadership being distributed, and everyone being able to get behind a vision of what could be. Keeping with our chair example, an adaptive challenge would be if you were required to create a new set of kitchen chairs from scratch that satisfies the needs of your entire family.

The problem, solution, and implementation require you to gain insight from a diverse set of voices who have specific goals and needs when it comes to their sitting comfort. There’s a dependency on others, both inside and outside your family, to help you design and build the chairs in a way that is not a one-size-fits-all solution. 

Adaptive challenges are those that require innovation and a high-level change in mindset. They’re based on complex interdependencies—groups of people working together, leadership being distributed, and everyone being able to get behind a vision of what could be. 

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Lead from both above—and in—the fray

It can be easy to observe what’s happening in our schools through the lens of a particular situation or group, and then react based on that information. Adaptive leadership requires school leaders to observe actions—and reactions—throughout the entire school, doing what’s called “getting on the balcony.”

When you’re able to observe the change or challenge at hand from a higher vantage point, the patterns in our actions and communications become more apparent, and how they’re playing out through the systems, structures, and groups within our schools becomes more apparent. Being able to see from a higher plane can also help leaders understand the relationships that are formed—and the interdependencies that occur—as schools embrace adaptive change

As much as we need to pay attention to the balcony view, adaptive leaders also need to “get out on the dance floor,” as adaptive leadership expert and author Ronald Heifetz says. Heifetz says that great leaders are able to “simultaneously play the game and observe it as a whole.” He goes on to say, “Leadership is an improvisational art. You may be guided by an overarching vision, clear values, and a strategic plan, but what you actually do moment to moment cannot be scripted. You must respond as events unfold…moving back and forth from the balcony to the dance floor, over and over again.”

Heifetz’s words are a good reminder that leadership is always shifting depending on the understanding that we have. While today’s plans might make sense now, tomorrow you’ll discover the effects of today’s actions—and will need to adjust and adapt. And that cycle will repeat, over and over. 

While today’s plans might make sense now, tomorrow you’ll discover the effects of today’s actions—and will need to adjust and adapt. And that cycle will repeat, over and over. 

Strike a balance between the pace—and tension—of change

Change is tough—and the most challenging part of change management is having a high level of empathy and compassion for those dealing with the change, and still being able to move forward in the face of those emotions. When working through an adaptive leadership lens, it’s important to not push people forward faster than they’re ready to be pushed, but to still keep the tension string taut so the stimulus to change remains. 

When working through an adaptive leadership lens, it’s important to not push people forward faster than they’re ready to be pushed, but to still keep the tension string taut so the stimulus to change remains.

One way to do this is to pay close attention to what you’re observing “on the balcony.” Maybe you’ve seen that work has stalled, or there’s a conflict that’s made the work counterproductive. There might be some technical challenges that need to be attended to before the adaptive work can move forward. Fixing these challenges can cause the fear and anxiety about the change to decrease—paving the way for the work on the larger challenges while helping your school community strengthen their own “change muscles.”

It’s also critical to consider your school community’s collective experiences, values, beliefs, and habits. These differences are opportunities to learn from one another and innovate, but differences can also lead to conflict. As an adaptive leader, having the courage and tenacity to bring these to the forefront is essential, as it helps the collective become more comfortable with conflict. And, as adaptive leadership is closely linked to distributed leadership, it’s actually helpful to allow your team to feel the anxiety around the change at hand and enable them to make data-informed decisions and voice their opinions around the effort. 

Adaptive leadership is a mindset and a practice

The most effective school leaders are change agents. It’s a quality they embrace. You have the responsibility—and opportunity—to create the conditions for transformative change. Adaptive leadership is about shifting your mindset to see change as a constant—coupled with practices that ensure the members of your school community feel heard, supported, and ready to step into their own roles as changemakers. 

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