Understand Process Challenges

Adaptive challenges are often more about the process than the content. The details of an issue are relevant, but it is people who make the difference. People can make a situation better and they can also derail it. Process challenges are about how people work or don’t work together. Leadership means thinking more about how you are going to engage others authentically than about marshaling the facts and making the best argument.

Questions to Ask Yourself to Understand Process Challenges

• What makes leadership difficult on this issue?
• What processes have you tried?
• What’s worked? What has not? What alternative processes exist? What new process might you experiment with?
• How are people avoiding the problem?
• If you had all the time in the world, how would you ease people into working better together?