BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 66
Intervention and Leadership
For example, learning groups often engage in ‘process-wars’ over how much
structure is required, how much on or off topic is acceptable or how much
tension or conflict is reasonable to accept or the degree to which participants
defer to or challenge the facilitator as the nominal authority figure. These
conflicts do offer opportunities to observe the politics of groups in action in a
safe environment, and, therefore, to practice intervention and the skills of
leadership. They also are indicators of the favoured forms of work avoidance
and organisational default patterns .The diagnostic framework outlined assists
participants to do this more consciously and with more purpose.
3.3 Leadership Dimension
If leadership is about mobilising groups to face and make progress on their
hardest problems then it is possible to base interventions around four the
diagnostic questions noted earlier which focus on the challenges faced. These
questions also assist the observer define the nature of the adaptive challenge
being faced and the extent to which it relates to one of four fundamental
archetypes (Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky 2009):
Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky (2009)
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