Navigating Complexity and Uncertainty in Leadership

This post is based on my learnings from the course MLD 201 B: Exercising Leadership: The Politics of Change, taught by Tim O'Brien at the Harvard Kennedy School. Through this course, I am gaining a deeper understanding of leadership in the context of complex challenges. Drawing from foundational texts in adaptive leadership, group dynamics, power, and continuous learning, as well as the insightful readings selected by Tim O'Brien, these ideas are reshaping how I think about leadership, particularly when tackling global challenges such as climate change and energy transitions. These classes often provide an opportunity to reflect on personal leadership challenges, encouraging deeper learning by allowing individuals to 'sit with' the challenges and explore them from a fresh perspective.
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The Shift Toward Adaptive Leadership
In Leadership Without Easy Answers (1994), Ronald Heifetz introduces the concept of adaptive leadership, a model of leadership that recognizes the difference between technical and adaptive challenges. While technical challenges have known solutions, adaptive challenges require shifts in values, beliefs, and behaviors. Heifetz argues that adaptive leadership is about mobilizing people to face difficult realities, confronting deeply held assumptions, and guiding them through a process of learning and growth (Heifetz, 1994).
A central element of Heifetz’s adaptive leadership framework is disequilibrium. Leaders must create a productive level of discomfort to push people out of their comfort zones and challenge their assumptions without overwhelming them (Heifetz, 1994). This productive tension encourages adaptive learning and innovation, which is especially relevant in the field of climate change, where technical solutions alone cannot address the deep-rooted behavioral and societal changes needed for long-term sustainability.
Tim O’Brien’s inclusion of Heifetz’s work in this course has reinforced the importance of adaptive leadership in complex, high-stakes environments. O'Brien highlights that modern leadership requires more than providing solutions—it demands the ability to guide teams through discomfort, enabling them to develop new capacities to solve evolving problems.

Embracing Conflict: Catalyst for Innovation and Growth
David Williams, in Real Leadership (2005), emphasizes that conflict is not something to avoid but to embrace as a catalyst for innovation. Conflict, when managed effectively, can drive collective problem-solving by forcing groups to re-examine assumptions and rethink strategies. Williams argues that leaders must create environments where conflict leads to growth rather than paralysis, particularly in situations where adaptive challenges require new ways of thinking (Williams, 2005).
Similarly, Smith and Berg, in Paradoxes of Group Life (1987), explain that conflict, while often uncomfortable, can ultimately strengthen teams if managed well. Groups that engage in conflict are able to tap into diverse perspectives, allowing for more robust problem-solving. However, groups also experience work avoidance, where they focus on peripheral tasks to avoid confronting more difficult, adaptive challenges (Heifetz, 1994). Leaders must ensure that their teams stay focused on the core issues rather than shying away from uncomfortable conversations.
Tim O’Brien’s course brought these concepts to life by illustrating how conflict, when handled appropriately, can be transformative. He emphasized the importance of diagnosing the root causes of conflict and using it to foster learning and progress within organizations. This insight is crucial in multinational collaborations, such as the Think 20 (T20), a G20 engagement group, task forces I have worked with, where conflicting national priorities, as well as varying individual perspectives, must be navigated to achieve shared goals.

The Power Paradox: Staying Open to Learning
Jerry Useem’s article Power Causes Brain Damage (2017) explores a critical leadership paradox: as individuals gain power, they often lose the very qualities—like empathy and social awareness—that helped them succeed in the first place. Useem points out that power can dampen a leader’s ability to connect with others and understand their perspectives, which can lead to poor decision-making and a lack of responsiveness to the needs of their teams (Useem, 2017).
Tim O’Brien’s focus on the power paradox during this course highlighted the need for leaders to remain self-aware as they rise in influence. Leaders must actively cultivate humility and seek diverse perspectives to counteract the isolating effects of power. One of the solutions discussed in the course is creating psychological safety, as outlined by Amy Edmondson in her work on learning from failure. Leaders who foster psychological safety encourage open dialogue, risk-taking, and the sharing of ideas, which allows teams to learn from their mistakes and innovate continuously (Edmondson, 2011).In my leadership journey, especially in international governance and sustainability, I’ve learned the importance of staying open to feedback and actively seeking diverse perspectives to remain connected to the needs of those I lead. This has been particularly critical in my work with climate policy, where understanding the viewpoints of various stakeholders is essential for creating inclusive, sustainable solutions. In positions of power, even intellectual power where ideas and positions go unchallenged, we risk losing the humility that comes from continuously seeking truth. The 'comfort' of settling into one’s own conclusions often leads to complacency—the very opposite of fostering innovation and offering fresh, forward-thinking ideas.

Continuous Learning: Key to Adaptive Success
In Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (2006), Carol Dweck outlines the difference between a fixed mindset (the belief that abilities are static) and a growth mindset (the belief that abilities can develop through effort). Leaders with a growth mindset are more likely to embrace challenges, learn from their failures, and adapt to changing circumstances. Dweck’s theory is particularly relevant to leadership in today’s complex environments, where continuous learning and adaptability are essential (Dweck, 2006).
Sharon Daloz Parks, in Leadership Can Be Taught (2005), discusses Ronald Heifetz’s case-in-point teaching method, which helps students learn leadership by engaging with real-world tensions. This experiential approach to learning fosters resilience, adaptability, and the ability to lead in complex, uncertain environments (Daloz Parks, 2005). The emphasis on continuous learning in leadership, highlighted by both Dweck and Daloz Parks, is something that must be integrated into one's own leadership style. By fostering a culture of learning in teams, experimentation, risk-taking, and growth are encouraged—qualities that are essential for addressing the adaptive challenges we face.
Tim O’Brien’s course reinforced the idea that leadership is about facilitating learning rather than providing all the answers. By guiding teams through adaptive challenges and fostering a growth mindset, leaders can ensure that their organizations remain resilient and innovative in the face of uncertainty.

Climate Change as an Adaptive Challenge
As I reflect on these readings and their integration into Tim O’Brien’s course, I see clear applications in my own leadership journey, particularly in the fields of climate and energy policy. Adaptive leadership is essential in these areas because the solutions are not merely technical—they require changes in societal behavior and attitudes. Leaders must create the conditions for learning, experimentation, and the constructive management of conflict to drive innovation and long-term success.
For example, in climate negotiations, managing the conflicts that arise between countries with differing national priorities requires both empathy and the ability to guide groups through complex adaptive challenges. At the same time, we must remain aware of the power paradox, ensuring that we stay connected to diverse perspectives and maintain the humility to learn from others.
Tim O’Brien’s course emphasized the importance of fostering a growth mindset in leadership, and to make it a priority to cultivate that mindset in teams. Encouraging risk-taking, learning from failure, and embracing continuous improvement will be crucial as we work to find sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

As I continue to grow in my leadership journey, these insights will be invaluable. By fostering learning, embracing conflict, and staying open to diverse perspectives, I aim to contribute to creating more adaptive, resilient solutions for global challenges, particularly in the fields of climate change and energy transition.

References
Aggarwal-Schifellite, M., & Siliezar, J. (2020). "3 Takes on Dealing with Uncertainty." Harvard Gazette.
Daloz-Parks, S. (2005). Leadership Can Be Taught. Harvard Business Review Press. Chapter 4.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books. Fixed Mindset Vs. Growth Mindset.
Edmondson, A. (2011). "Strategies for Learning from Failure." Harvard Business Review.
Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership Without Easy Answers. Harvard University Press. Introduction and Chapter 1.
McGregor, J. (2017). "Voters Facing Economic Uncertainty."
OpenAI, ChatGPT. (2024, September). Used for conversational assistance, providing summaries and enhancing the style of writing.
O’Brien, J., & Pennock, M. (2002). When Students are the Case Protagonists. Harvard Business School Publishing.
Plato. (1991). The Republic (A. Bloom, Trans.). Chapter 25: Allegory of the Cave, pp. 227-235. Basic Books.
Richardson, K. A., & Tait, A. (2010). "The Death of the Expert?" Emergence: Complexity & Organization, 12(2), 87-97.
Smith, K. K., & Berg, D. N. (1987). Paradoxes of Group Life. Jossey-Bass. Chapter 7, pp. 131-151.
Useem, J. (2017). "Power Causes Brain Damage." The Atlantic.
Williams, D. (2005). Real Leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Introduction and Chapter 1.