BMA eBook - Manual / Resource - Page 77
Intervention and Leadership
But those exercising leadership are not just provocateurs throwing hand
grenades into a group; they are regulators of the temperature, moderators of
conflict and artfully control the level of distress so that the group in question
can stay optimally functional for as long as possible. The goal is to keep the
intensity of the disequilibrium high enough to motivate people to keep focused
and learning long enough for some progress to be made but not so high that
people become fearful, defensive and unproductive. This “productive range of
disequilibrium” (Heifetz 1994) will vary widely for each group or organisation
and therefore part of the diagnostic task for those preparing to intervene is to
assess the readiness of a group for certain kinds of action. A new group with
little or no experience of “heat” will be less likely to tolerate a provocative
intervention early on let alone the suggestion that they experiment with some
new behaviour or procedure while a more mature group with such experience
has a higher capacity to do so. The table below provides some examples of
intervention that raise or lower the heat and can be used in the design process.
6.2 Timing and Pacing
Perhaps the most difficult skill to develop as an effective intervener is the
judgement about which form of intervention to use and when and with what
intensity. The answer to this question cannot be taught in any linear or routine
way but rather develops through experience and having a “learners”
(experimental) mindset. There are, however, as already mentioned, several
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