Insights

Dear Colleagues,I have been in a state of speechless outrage and despair since the murder of George Floyd by four police officers in Minneapolis nine days ago. But my colleagues on our ALN Board have collaborated for several days to draft this note, and their efforts, along with the demonstrations of people around the world, have compelled me to try to add my thoughts to their words. To organize m

As we approach the 2020 US Presidential Elections, its a good time to look back and see how much we did or did not learn from the 2016 elections!The day after the US Presidential Election in November 2016, Ronald Heifetz explored the challenges ahead in a live interview at the Harvard Kennedy School. Here are excerpts from his opening remarks reflecting on the dynamic of distrust in politics.'Clea

Juan Manuel Santos is the latest alumni of Harvard's Adaptive Leadership curriculum to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The President of Colombia received the honor for his part in brokering peace in Colombia and ending over fifty years of armed conflict.  In his speech, Santos described the difficulty in negotiating with FARC as well as those who demanded retribution instead of amnesty, and reflect

Ron Heifetz elaborated the notion of orchestrating conflict at the 2016 Annual Conference:"Because if you’re orchestrating conflict you’re like a chef working of this big stove with ten or maybe even 100 different pressure cookers all assembled at the same time. And you’re going around testing each one. Do I need to turn the flame up? Do I need to turn it down? Do I have the right ingredients in t

George Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece reflected on adaptive leadership at the 2016 Annual Conference:"These are issues where you have to bring a whole society to understand the adaptive problems we’re facing, the changes in theworld... Its an educative role of leader, rather than one that simply says, these are the problems and I’m the solution."