System Addict

Improv and Systems Leadership

Have you heard of Systems Leadership? It is a bit of a buzzphrase, especially in the public sector, but I think it applies to any endeavour where you have to work with human beings. Certainly, the larger the organisation and the more complex its processes, the more you have to engage with people outside your immediate sphere of influence.

This recent article https://systemsleadership.wordpress.com/2022/04/19/whats-the-use-of-systems-leadership/ is by Belinda Weir, with whom I have worked on several occasions.

The improv mindset, which I learned for (and from) performing onstage, is about listening and being open to ideas that may not be what we expect. We train ourselves not to think too far ahead. We don’t want to choke off possibilities by having too fixed a mindset. We try to be in the moment. Is that possible? I believe it is, while also knowing, in the back of our mind, that a story is more satisfying if (symbolically, at least) the treasure is found, the dragon is defeated or the princess and prince end up together. We also know that a story is not just a sequence of unconnected events. It involves jeopardy, choice, setbacks, dilemma, sacrifice and compromise, mentors, alliances, taking action without knowing everything, unintended consequences and learning through experience.

I am often asked to bring this ethos to leadership courses. It seems a liberation to leaders to point out that sometimes they may not know the answer, and to share the creativity of not knowing. Paradoxically, I also have to point out to them that they may well know the answer, so why keep it to yourself?

It all depends on the ‘question’. As usual, someone much cleverer than me has defined this apparent ambiguity. Harvard’s Ronald A. Heifetz and his gang talk about ‘Adaptive Leadership’, based on thirty years of research.

An organisation faces two kinds of problems:-

With a known solution. You just need to apply existing knowledge or processes to solve them.

With an unknown solution. Experimentation, adaptation - and collaboration, perhaps beyond existing structures - are required.

The first is a ‘technical’ challenge. The second is an ‘adaptive’ challenge. If you have lots of experience, you don’t need improv skills to come up with a solution for the former. Why pretend otherwise? But the problem comes when you misdiagnose the issue - thinking it is a technical problem, to which you know the answer. In fact, it is an adaptive challenge and nobody knows the answer. Morever, there may not even be an ‘answer’.

Professor Keith Grint talks about ‘wicked’ problems. No answer is without a downside for at least one party involved. So you need to come up with a partial solution, see how it goes, and adapt and so on http://leadershipforchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Keith-Grint-Wicked-Problems-handout.pdf.

Your ‘clumsy’ solution is a work-in-progress. Improv, if you like. On the stage we know we will never achieve perfection in a dynamic situation which we cannot stop and replay or rewrite (or recast). But much of the joy of improv is the embrace of that shared vulnerability. Performers and audience alike revel in our frailty - because it comes gift-wrapped in colourful collaboration. We don’t know where we are going but we do know we’ve headed somewhere unknown together before and survived. We trust in each other and in the process. The audience goes home happy.

So next time you are struggling with a problem, don’t beat yourself up. Start by talking to someone. And listening.

Here is a hit from 1985. ‘System Addict’ by Five Star.