OUR WHOLE SYSTEMS APPROACH
The Leadership System consists of five major components, each reinforcing and adding to the others
THE LEADERSHIP SYSTEM FOUNDATION
OUR WHOLE SYSTEMS APPROACH
In their book, The Whole Systems Approach, Bill and Cindy Adams detail six interlocking systems that must be tended to during major organizational change. Ensuring that these six systems are aligned and functioning well is the responsibility of the organization’s leadership, which is itself a system to be continually improved.
The Leadership System™ is, at its essence, a leadership development system, designed to increase our clients’ individual and collective leadership effectiveness. And, while doing so, help them to increase the effectiveness of the other five systems.
BUILT ON ADULT LEARNING THEORY
Underlying the design of the Leadership System™ is solid adult learning theory. David Kolb, in his landmark work, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, positioned that four linked styles of learning were necessary for adults to truly learn and change. See below:
CONCRETE EXPERIENCE
Adults utilize experiences as anchors for learning. We like to learn from the stuff of work and life. Therefore, our Leadership System™ connects directly with the real challenges and objectives of our client leaders at every turn, and in every conversation.
REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION
We learn as we reflect on our experiences to make meaning from them. As an experience is filtered through our consciousness, or structure of mind, a narrative is created that gives the experience unique meaning for us. In the best learning experiences, we reflect on the experience from a variety of angles, giving us a broader perspective in which to hold it. The Leader to Leader™ cohorts help provide that valuable perspective for each of their members as they seek to make meaning out of their leadership experiences.
ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALIZATION
As an experience is reflected on from a variety of angles, a generalizable theory, principle, or concept often emerges. A “rule of thumb” or a conclusion about what to do in certain types of leadership situations begins to gel for a leader.
ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION
In this step of the learning process, the leader takes the new lesson learned and puts it into practice in a series of behavioral experiments. For example, if the lesson concerns the skill of having authentic conversations, particularly the structure for beginning an authentic conversation, the leader will commit to trying it out in several key circumstances, which will create…more concrete experiences! And the cycle begins anew.