Steve Wilson is the new vice president for external
relations of The Perry Mason Group, a company which sells legal products and
advises law firms and court systems throughout the United States. He begins on
February 1 and desires to make strong initial positive impressions with his
executive team colleagues, his CEO, and his board of directors. Being a careful
planner, Steve immediately schedules a meeting of his departmental leadership
team- Della Street, Paul Drake, and Hamilton Burger- to plan for the company’s flagship
event, the annual Legal Services Seminar which usually occurs in mid-September.
“I’m glad you called this meeting, Steve!’ opened Della.
(Wilson encouraged informality within his department.) “Last year’s legal services
seminar was very frustrating for me and my unit. Our big problem was the
printed resource order. Our materials did not arrive until the day before our
seminar began because of some confusion with our print vendor. Can you do
something about that?”
“Della, that was indeed a problem,” responded Paul before
Steve could speak to the issue. “But we have a bigger problem with the seminar
than our print order. Steve, we need to schedule the seminar at the right time.
For the past ten years we have held it in mid-September. That is simply too
close to Labor Day as many of our clients are just settling back into their
routines after the summer holidays. Many of the respondents on our surveys have
requested a different time frame for the seminar. I know it is going to take
lots of extra work, but I proposed we have our legal services seminar in
mid-May this year no later than a week before the Memorial Day weekend.”
While Steve was pondering the huge headaches that would be
caused by such an abrupt schedule change Hamilton charged in. “Having our legal
services seminar at the right time of year with a timely materials order is all
well and good. But we have a deeper issue here. For the past five years straight,
we have declining participation in the seminar. Law firms, law schools, and
associated businesses are getting their information elsewhere. Even Jason Bull,
the trial consultant and one of our former keynote speakers, now does his own
seminar which is extremely popular on the East Coast. We need to thoroughly
review why we have our seminar, perhaps we need to change our format or even
consider whether to even have it at all. I know you are new here, Steve, but
how do you feel about that?”
Wow! Steve Wilson thought he was merely having a meeting to
get the seminar planning off to a good start. However, he came face-to-face
with a persistent dilemma for organizational leaders- how to distinguish technical
work from adaptive work and making decisions appropriate for each. According to
Ronald Heifetz, technical and adaptive work are respectively “…different modes
of action required to deal with routine problems in contrast with those that
demand innovation and learning.” (Leadership Without Easy Answers)
This fictional meeting between Steve and his departmental
planning team illustrates in a concrete manner how technical, adaptive, and
technical/adaptive situations arise in the normal course of organizational
life. For Steve, as a prototypical leader, his responses to the questions asked
by Della, Paul, and Hamilton are indeed a test of his leadership. We will
examine each in turn.
Della’s concern clearly involves technical work. There is a problem
that is relatively easy to resolve. The printed materials for the seminar must
be ordered, received, sorted, and distributed in a timely manner. Steve is
confident and relieved that a solution is readily available. He directs Della
to set up deadlines and to appoint someone to be responsible for overseeing the
process.
The calendar problem raised by Paul is also relatively clear
but requires some learning in order to reach a solution. This is a combination
technical/adaptive work that needs a joint decision from Steve and his
leadership team after consultation with the CEO and the other departments of
the Perry Mason Group. Steve will convene a meeting with the vice presidents of
the other departments to discuss the reasons for the previous September dates
and the benefits and challenges of moving the seminar to another time of the
year.
However, Hamilton’s question to Steve concerning both the
format and perhaps even the existence of the Legal Services Seminar is not a
clear problem with a clear solution. This is pure adaptive work that must
include the thoughts and feelings of many in the Perry Mason Group- all the
departments, the CEO, the board of directors, and the group’s clients.
Steve decides on the following actions to address Hamilton’s
concern:
1. Continue
with this year’s seminar in mid-September as usual
2. Prepare
himself and his leadership team for an intensive evaluation process
3. Include
this concern along with his department’s evaluation in the agenda of the
group’s five-year strategic planning process that begins November 1
4. Prepare
and distribute a detailed memo to the CEO, the other vice presidents, and the
board of directors with verbal follow-up sessions
The initial planning meeting for the Legal Services Seminar
finally concludes. The agenda has been full and key decisions have been made
with appropriate actions to implement those decisions. Della, Paul, and
Hamilton are appreciative of Steve and the leadership he has demonstrated to
this issue. As for Steve, he is thankful he knows how to distinguish between
technical and adaptive work as he begins his new job with the Perry Mason
Group,
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