Adaptive Leadership

We believe that the “lone wolf” vision of leadership is outdated. When a person at the front of the room simply says “follow me,” things don’t tend to end well. We believe in something entirely different, that bringing out the best in everyone is necessary to make progress on highly complex, interdependent challenges. Our leadership training work is inspired by the adaptive framework, an approach that was first developed at the Harvard Kennedy School and now being advanced by a growing community of practitioners and educators around the world. Those who have been through adaptive leadership courses consistently say they are the most influential that they have ever experienced.

Our trainings tap into the power of adaptive leadership ideas in a way that is highly practical and action oriented. Our sessions range from two days to longer-term programs that help you directly apply what you have learned together with a supportive community of peers. After considering key adaptive leadership ideas, participants define an individual or team challenge that they will address during and after the program. One concept builds on the next so that you can gain a greater understanding of the problem from multiple perspectives and generate new insights on barriers and opportunities. We then turn to action, considering interventions you can make to make concrete progress on the challenge over time.

Public Narrative

The uncertainty and scale of COVID-19 as well as the urgent need to address systemic racism have forced us all to adapt to an array of challenges. More than ever, as corporate or non-profit directors, managers or community organizers, we need to learn how to communicate a message of hope instead of fear, of collaboration instead of isolation, and of agency instead of passivity. Public Narrative is the art of telling stories with the purpose of inspiring and motivating people to work collectively toward a shared goal.

During Public Narrative training sessions, participants learn how to develop three stories — The Story of Self, Us, and Now, to understand our shared values and to motivate us to achieve a collective goal. These stories enable us to create a sense of unity and hope to make a difference. 

In the Public Narrative training process, there are multiple levels of impact. Participants learn how to effectively communicate their messages to an audience. Others gain an important new tool to inspire and motivate people to take action. Overall, the training offers the space and time for people to reflect on their values and realign with their purpose. 

Our three-part course on Public Narrative leverages the Story of Self to help speakers connect authentically with their audience, the Story of Us to experience what connects them to each other, and the Story of Now to convey the urgency of why we need to collectively act. An online version of this course is available at Inspire Leadership School or The CoInnovate team can create a customized training that best meets your needs.