Many years ago, I was working with a team facing problems with productivity and collaboration. The leader of the group, Mark - who was an extremely accomplished technical leader drew on his experience and implemented a bunch of new tools and workflows in an attempt to optimize efficiency.
Initially, it sort of worked. Over time, unfortunately, it became evident that the real issues—low morale, lack of engagement, and resistance to change—were not being addressed. The team's output continued to fade, and frustration grew. The real problem wasn’t solved because this leader failed to address the actual challenge.
Two Kinds of Problems
Mark made a common mistake. He tried to use his experience in solving deep technical problems to solve an adaptive challenge. I first read about the difference between technical and adaptive challenges in Leadership On The Line by Heifetz et al. In brief, the difference is:
Technical Challenges are problems where the solutions are already (largely) known and accessible through existing knowledge and skills. These solutions can typically be implemented with little to no change in people's values or ways of working. For example, writing a compression algorithm, or configuring cloud infrastructure are technical challenges because they involve straightforward applications of technical skills.
Adaptive Challenges, on the other hand, are issues that cannot be solved with existing knowledge alone. They require people to change their attitudes, values, habits, or ways of working. These challenges are often complex and involve dealing with human emotions and conflicting values. Solving an adaptive challenge typically requires experiments, discovery, and changes to how people think about the problem.
Both types of challenges are difficult - but the solutions are vastly different.
The Problem With People
Jerry Weinberg famously said,
”No matter how it looks at first, it's always a people problem.”
This quote emphasizes that behind most problems, particularly in areas of management or organizational change, human elements - attitudes, expectations, cultural norms, and interpersonal conflicts influence outcomes.
Adaptive challenges almost always require getting humans to change - requiring transition, adjustment, and often - disappointment.
I worked with a leader a few years ago who worked hard to make sure everyone on their team was happy all the time. They did almost anything they could to make sure nobody was ever disappointed. Team morale was high - but unfortunately, productivity and growth were not. The challenge with people leadership - and adaptive challenges especially, is that change almost always comes with some fear and disappointment - and that’s OK. Often, the right thing for leaders to do is to disappoint people - just a little.
Two Kinds of Leaders
Leadership On The Line goes on to explain a variety of approaches to solve adaptive challenges. Rather than summarize the book, I’ll leave further reading up to you. But there’s an important quote from Heifetz that’s worth exploring.
“Indeed the single most common source of leadership failure we’ve been able to identify — in politics, community life, business, or the non-profit sector — is that people, especially those in positions of authority, treat adaptive challenges like technical problems.”
The problem a lot of strong technical leaders make is trying to solve every problem as a technical challenge. I’ve read stories of CEOs managing mergers via spreadsheets mapping system compatibility rather than address how the two organizations will work together. When I was a teacher, I saw administrators push new curriculum without any effort or attention into how teachers needed to shift their approach and mindset in order to effectively teach the new material. Too often, city mayors attempt to reduce crime by installing more cameras and hiring more police officers rather than the more difficult adaptive challenge that may focus on community relations, socio-economic disparities, or public trust in law enforcement.
The most common pattern I’ve seen of solving adaptive challenges poorly in tech organizations is attempting to solve hard, human problems by buying a tool - thinking it will magically solve a people problem. I once was in an organization where a lot of managers weren’t doing a great job giving feedback and growing employees. This is a classic adaptive challenge where mindsets and expectations needed to change. This company’s solution was to buy an expensive tool, tell people to use it, and wait for change to happen.
As you’d expect, it didn’t work, and the tool was retired in a year.
Adaptive Leaders
I’m happy to say that after Mark’s initial failure, he took a step back and realized that he was facing an adaptive challenge, and that he was going to need to change the way people worked. He focused on deep cultural change, talking and listening to his team, and adapting his plan as he learned. Almost exactly as Heifetz described, some folks were disappointed and resistant to change, but over time productivity and morale increased.
In observing Mark's evolution to a leader who could recognize the nature and complexity of adaptive challenges, it became clear to me that effective leadership requires recognizing the nature of problems, and that real and lasting change often requires a shift in culture, behavior, and mindset, not just new tools or processes.
Leadership isn't just about implementing solutions; it's about steering the team through the discomfort of change - and creating and growing a culture where teams can solve any problem they face.
-A 2:2