Ronald Heifetz and Donald Laurie, in their Harvard Business Review article, ôThe Work of Leadership,ö provide succinct direction for leadership in todayÆs world of inevitable change. Calling for managers to be managers of change, they offer six guidelines for achieving that goal:
5. Give the work back to the people
6. Protect the voices of leadership from below (131-141).
The interesting thing about their adaptive management concepts is that they not only work in the traditional corporate office environment but anywhere that people must be managed in the midst of change. Dan BaumÆs article ôBattle Lessonsö has some splendid examples of how HeifetzÆs and LaurieÆs leadership concepts have been implemented to creatively resolve problems in the Iraq war. It is doubtful that our men have read the Harvard Business Review article; however, just as though they had read it, they have demonstrated remarkable instances of adaptive management using the principles it puts forth. This illustrates that the breakthrough truths and principles are workable in any environment and universally applicable no matter what the adaptive challenge
One of the most striking examples is the incident where Iraqis are shrieking, enraged, and closing in on the American soldiers in the streets of Baghdad. As a reporter, Dan Baum was watching the scene and thinking that any moment a shot would ring out from somewhere and precipitate a huge massacre. However, that did not happen. An American officer had, so to speak, gotten on the balcony and identified the adaptive challenge. His response was a brilliant effort to regulate distress. In BaumÆs words:
At that moment, an American officer stepped through the crowd holding his rifle high over his head with the barrel pointed to the ground. Against the backdrop of t
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