Generative Leadership – The New Requirement for Leading through Crisis and Complexity
A Talk by John Ruffin MA and Jill Schnipke
About this Talk
When complexity becomes the norm and crisis the most pressing issue, a new mindset in leadership is required. Traditional leadership has relied on vision and decisiveness as core qualities, and yet times that bring volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and now instability as well (VUCAI), demand a new paradigm. In our present environment, vision changes hourly, emerging problems are singular, and a new construct of leadership is essential; it’s Generative Leadership*.
Generative leadership turns the decision-making paradigm on its head and sets the new frame that maximizes the thinking power in the whole system. Unpredictable variables have rendered traditional leadership lacking with studies showing that top-down initiatives for change, particularly in complex times, have failed more than 70% of the time.
Visionary leaders may state, “I know the answer, follow me,” where generative leaders say, “I know the challenge, and I invite you to lead in the resolution.” More than identifying a problem, this focuses a “purpose” to capture the imagination and engagement of the workforce. Where there is participation there is ownership. Where there is ownership there is commitment. This collective process is also borne by a framework of Inquiry and Questions that are an essential part of the engagement.
This session will outline the foundations of Generative Leadership and essential steps in adding this Generative Mindset to your management and consulting resources. The takeaways from this session will be:
o A toolkit of core principles and practices of Generative Leadership; and when applicable as an alternative to traditional leadership methods.
o A step-by-step model for implementing a Generative Leadership engagement in any type of organization.
o Powerful Questions for managers and consultants to inspire a Generative process in any setting.
o An interactive experience of the Generative Process as an organizational participant would see it.
*Generative Leadership is the product of research and development by the Bushe-Marshak Institute for Dialogic Organization Development (b-m-institute.com) and has been the topic of numerous scholarly papers and journals. References available on request.
About The Speakers
OD Consultant and Executive Coach, Ruffin Associates
John Ruffin has had a career of 35+ years in Organization Development, leading major projects in strategy formulation, system-wide culture change, C-suite coaching, executive team development, process re-design, performance system creation, founder transitions, among numerous others. He has consulted at the highest levels in both the public and private sectors, to include federal government agencies and the Fortune 500. John holds a MA in OD and is completing a Ph.D. in the same field. John's eclectic competence and his signature ability to "listen to the culture" in executive teams and their organizations, have been the defining characteristics of his long term client engagements. His business ethic is "do exceptional work, build lasting relationships, and if there's not a bit of fun in it, don't do it."
Senior Consultant & Coach, Ruffin Associates
Jill brings 18 years of experience coaching teams to improve their performance and organizational effectiveness. Her specialty is developing cross-functional teams including corporate executives and government leaders, to operations managers and line employees. Jill’s exceptional insight and positive energy allow her to transform “herds of cats” into functional, collaborative teams where all participants win.