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<\/h5>\n<\/h5>\n\u201cIt was in light of this realization that the term \u201cSense-and-Respond\u201d leadership began to take root in my thinking and in the language I was using,\u201d Hamman says. \u201cIt became apparent that the very paradigm shift we were calling for in teams and in organizations, was the same shift that we \u2013 as leaders or coaches \u2013 needed to go through within ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Hamman describes Sense-and-Respond leadership as the leaderful capacity of individuals to sense acutely and to respond gracefully, in the midst of complexity and ambiguity. This should be manifested throughout an organization to create outcomes that are congruent with its deep purpose and mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe word \u2018catalyze\u2019 is key here,\u201d says Hamman. \u201cWhat we\u2019re talking about is a leadership not so much of acting and doing, or of directing and telling, but of sensemaking and relating. It is a leadership which rests on our ability\u2014individually or collectively\u2014to take complex and ambiguous situations which surprise and confuse us, and to make sense of them in ways which help us, and others, navigate that complexity, ambiguity, and confusion. Just as importantly, it is a leadership that rests on our ability to forge relationships and relational activity in which similar sensemaking capacity gets generated collectively.<\/p>\n
Sense-and-Respond leadership, as Hamman articulates it, is built on four grounding principles \u2013 see fact box. Here, it is essential to understand that Sense-and-Respond leadership is an inner capability (cognitive, psychological, emotional) and not merely an attitude\u2014not even a \u2018mindset\u2019!
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We tend to associate leadership with the positioned role of the organizational manager. But it is actually an everywhere phenomenon\u2014a collectively held, systemic one. We are all called upon to lead at some moment and in some way, as the notion of leadership which happens only at the top can\u2019t possibly address the demands of a VUCA world. Therefore, we need to have a way of thinking about leadership that applies to anyone, regardless of position or role in an organization.<\/p>\n
As such, we must grow it from the inside out in order to grow deep and sustainable leadership agility. We must grow it from the level of individual consciousness out and through the level of interpersonal engagement and relationship. And then\u2014and only then\u2014further outward into the organizational territory, more broadly.<\/p>\n
It is not individual behavior or organizational structures. Skillful practice within relationships and within relationship systems is central to effective Agile leadership, and also to broader organizational agility in a more general way.<\/p>\n
Its emergence cannot be directed or strategically managed from above. Instead, this can only happen through the ongoing design of minimal rules, structures, roles, and orienting ideas. These act, all at once, as systemic attractors and stimulators to the emerging organization.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/p>\n
It is no secret that organizations today face unprecedented levels of unpredictability, uncertainty, rapid change, and ambiguity.
\n\u201cActually, what we face is nothing less than a paradigmatic shift in how the world works,\u201d says Hamman. \u201cConsequently, the old mental model we hold of leadership\u2014as the ones \u2018at the top\u2019, the ones who \u2018go first\u2019, the ones who tell and direct others what do to\u2014can\u2019t work within the new world in which we find ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accordingly, our new world calls for a new model of leadership (see table).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to shift how we think about and exercise leadership, This is because the VUCA (volatility, unpredictability, complexity and ambiguity) world of today requires a degree of organizational adaptability that can only be attained when the entire system\u2014not just those at the top\u2014is in a state of readiness,\u201d says Hannan.<\/p>\n
\nA new model of leadership<\/b><\/h1>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n | The old one \u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\nThe new one \u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\u2026 was primarily associated with positional leadership within an organizational system.<\/td>\n | \n | \u2026 arises anywhere and everywhere a moment of leadership is called upon.<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \u2026 was evidenced primarily in terms of what people do, by how they behave and how they act.<\/td>\n | \n | \u2026 is evidenced in terms of who people are able to be<\/i><\/b>\u2014by the cognitive and psychological complexity with which they are able to make sense of the ever-increasingly VUCA situations in which they find themselves, and by the skillfulness they are able to bring to bear within and upon those very situations.<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \u2026 was solely an individual phenomenon<\/td>\n | \n | \u2026 arises as much in relationship as it does individually.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n According to Michael Hamman, Sense-and-Respond leadership begins with an intention for what it wants to see in the world. It bears little attachment, however, to how that intention could be realized or even, ultimately, what it might look like in actuality. \u201cSuch an intention is grounded in a deep sense of purpose\u2014a deep alignment with a desired future\u2014whose realization in actuality is far from certain, though it is a future to which one commits one\u2019s very life,\u201d he says. \u201cStanding in that place of intention and deep purpose, Sense-and-Respond leadership is one which is able to flex and flow with whatever happens, letting go of any attachment to how things should be. At the same time, it is acting at every moment in ways which align it with that intention and with the deeper purpose by which that intention is informed\u2014and from which it gets its spiritual energy!\u201d<\/p>\n In this way, a Sense-and-Respond leadership adapts to whatever happens while at the same time holding to its intention. This ability to both adapt and to hold an intention requires a different order of mind.<\/p>\n \u201cFor this reason, a key force in the growing of Sense-and-Respond leadership is a commitment to one\u2019s own inner growth and development\u2014a commitment to ongoingly realize one\u2019s own inner limits and to grow beyond those limits,\u201d Hamman says. \u201cIn this regard, one\u2019s relationship to one\u2019s intention is one which sees reality and intention as co-emerging together. It is a shift in how to relate to a future: from that which is already known (and hence, to some degree at least, fixed) to one which itself is ever-emergent.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Switching to Agile Leadership \u2014 a three step process<\/strong><\/h2>\nYou cannot \u201cchange\u201d an organization to become more agile; nor can you \u201cchange\u201d a leadership culture to one that is more agile. \u201cChange\u201d\u2014of anything\u2014pertains to complicated things, like automobiles and computers, not to complex things, like human systems. What you can do is to catalyze transformation. \u201cTransformation\u201d refers to a kind of change that applies to whole systems. It recognizes that human systems are inherently complex\u2014not complicated\u2014and that you can\u2019t really change one or two things in a complex system without affecting an unknown number of other things in that system. Consequently, you can never predict in advance exactly what you will get when you change any aspect of a human system. But you can know if you are moving in the right direction, if you–and others–are clear about, and aligned around, your purpose and intention.<\/p>\n Such an approach to organizational change calls for a different approach from managers: from managing by coordinating, telling, mandating or even motivating\u2014to designing environments which serve to cultivate the emergence of new capabilities.<\/p>\n 2. Educate yourself<\/strong><\/h3>\nFind a coach or mentor who will challenge you to look at yourself more deeply, to pay attention to the ways in which you make meaning of challenging situations, and how you might grow the complexity of that meaning-making in order to more capably meet those challenges. Create for yourself a deliberately developmental relationship system\u2014which could be your leadership team, for instance\u2014whose members are committed to their own inner development as well as that of the others around them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Michael Hamman<\/strong> is a coach and mentor in the Agile space, was a Principal with Agile Coaching Institute, and is co-founder of the Agile Leadership Institute. For the past 16+ years, he has helped individuals and companies upgrade their inner capacity to meet the ever-increasing complexity of today\u2019s world. Clients have included Capital One, Dell Computer, General Electric, Capital Group, and Bank of America.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n |
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