Educating America’s children is as challenging as it is critical a proposition. As those at the highest levels of responsibility for public education seek ways to break down tough and entrenched barriers to progress, Adaptive Leadership™ is proving to be an effective tool in clarifying issues and building support networks.

When Ron Heifetz gave a talk at the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2004, Adaptive Leadership resonated with executives across state boundaries. Regardless of where they are located, these men and women and the district superintendents with whom they work are dealing with the same complex set of issues and searching for answers to the same questions.

• How do we close the gap between what we want for our children and the resources available to make that happen?
• How can we better manage a diverse network of stakeholders—parents, legislators, school boards and faculty?
• How do we meet the needs of children across a wide spectrum of needs, from those with significant disabilities to super achievers?
• How can we develop the leadership skills needed to bring people together in solving these problems?

There are, of course, no easy answers, ironic perhaps, as most of these senior educators rose to their positions by being the men and women who had the answers. This identifies yet another challenge facing school system leaders; while adept at solving technical problems, few have had the opportunity to think much about how they negotiate the murky and dangerous waters of adaptive challenges. In one state, superintendents and state system leaders came together to form a steering committee that then developed a pilot program for superintendents across the state. Introductory and follow-up workshops where everyone comes together, are supplemented by small groups of four or five superin- tendents using teleconferences every six weeks to continue to support each other in implementing Adaptive Leadership approaches. Six months into the program, the small groups were reorganized to allow individual groups to focus on specific issues like rationalizing the “no child left behind” mandate with real-world practicalities or planning how to execute a high school reconstruction project that will involve eliminating some programs.

Adaptive Leadership is also being implemented in another state, again with cohorts of superintendents working with each other on individual challenges. Here the leadership has come from the state super- intendents’ association, working closely with the state department of education. In a related program,

CLA is working at the district level, at the bequest of the superintendent, to help the district’s senior leadership team of principals, assistant principals and officials from the various town boards use the concepts and skills of Adaptive Leadership to deal with difficult communication and lack of trust issues.

Progress in all of these programs is being measured in small steps; the adaptive challenges of public education will not be solved overnight. But progress is being made, in personal as well as public ways. For some superintendents, most of whom have traditionally operated in isolation, just talking about substantive issues, sharing their problems and trusting their peers has been a major achievement. Others are finding Adaptive Leadership invaluable in clarifying and making sense of what’s happening in their complex and often politically charged environments. What is most important and most heart- ening is that very tough issues are being addressed, and those charged with finding answers are developing a new ability to better understand, manage and move forward toward viable solutions.