Match an organizational change to the action logics leading it
Before leading a deep organizational change, look honestly at whether the people leading it can question their own frame — and bring in someone who can.
Perché funziona
Transforming how an organization works asks its leaders to invite challenge to the very strategy they set, which Torbert associates with the Strategist logic’s mutual inquiry and double-loop change. In his and Rooke’s ten-organization study, the CEOs’ action logic, and even more the combined logic of the CEO and lead consultant, tracked whether the organization transformed. The practical implication is to treat leadership frame as a design factor in a change effort, not an afterthought.
Come farlo
- Write down what kind of change you are attempting: an improvement within the current strategy, or a change in the strategy and culture themselves.
- For a change of the second kind, ask honestly whether the senior leaders regularly invite challenge to their own assumptions, and how they have reacted when it came.
- If that capacity is thin, pair the effort with an adviser or internal partner who reliably practices mutual inquiry, and give them real influence.
- Build regular moments where the leadership group reviews not just progress but its own frame for the change.
Prove scientifiche
In the ten-organization study (Rooke & Torbert, 1998, as reported by Torbert & Livne-Tarandach, 2009 and Torbert, 2013), all five CEOs measured at Strategist led their organizations through at least one transformation; of the five measured earlier, two organizations transformed, both with the one lead consultant measured at Alchemist, two did not change, and the one led by a Diplomat CEO regressed. CEO action logic accounted for 42% of the variance in transformation, and CEO plus consultant for 59%. Organizations ranged from 10 to 1,019 employees. (observational)
Ten organizations, and the four consultants were the researchers themselves, so the people whose action logic was being tested also helped produce and judge the outcomes. The authors themselves caution that the findings may not hold for very large companies.
Fonti
- Torbert, W. R. (2013). Listening into the Dark: An Essay Testing the Validity and Efficacy of Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry for Describing and Encouraging Transformations of Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry. Integral Review, 9(2), 264–299.
- Torbert, W. R., & Livne-Tarandach, R. (2009). Reliability and Validity Tests of the Harthill Leadership Development Profile in the Context of Developmental Action Inquiry Theory, Practice and Method. Integral Review, 5(2), 133–151.
Errore comune
Using the finding to sort leaders into those who can and cannot lead change. Ten cases cannot carry that weight; the useful move is to strengthen the inquiry around a change, not to rank the people in it.
Metti in pratica questo con IX Coach
Altre pratiche per Torbert’s Seven Action Logics of Leadership
- Spot your default action logic under pressure
Notice how you reliably respond when your authority or safety at work is challenged, and compare it with the seven descriptions.
- Get a scored profile instead of self-typing
If you want an estimate of your action logic, take a sentence-completion profile scored by trained raters — and write down your own guess first.
- Review a decision through three loops of feedback
After a decision plays out, ask in turn whether the action was right, whether the strategy was right, and what your attention was doing.
- Ask colleagues for feedback on your frame, not just your results
Invite people you work with to tell you how you tend to see situations, not only how well you performed.
- Try out the next action logic in a real, lower-stakes role
Take on a real responsibility that demands the next logic’s moves, with regular reflection alongside it.
- Use all four parts of speech in hard conversations
In a difficult conversation, check that you are framing, advocating, illustrating and inquiring — not just advocating.
- Name each action logic’s strength before its limit
When you see a colleague’s action logic, start with what it does well, so the map informs collaboration instead of ranking people.
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