The Practice of Adaptive Leadership - Book Review

I've been waiting months to write this review, mostly because I must, reluctantly, pan it and I'd rather not. Adaptive leadership is the motherland for me. This book may be a radical step for some and that's great. I did not find it useful.

Here is my Amazon review:

Adaptive leadership is very important. In the few pockets of business and organizational life these days that are untouched by the turbulence around us, business as usual is, it would seem, acceptable. The trouble is that there are so few arenas where that is the case. Finding ways to lead in a way that can adjust to rapid and often unexpected change is critical.

I received a review copy of this book from Harvard Business Press. When it arrived I was very excited to dig in and get jazzed by all the great content. The problem was that the book was about as dull to read as it was to look at (I scrawled this on my cover: "Don't judge a book by its cover. In this case you should. This books cover is really boring"). I was twenty pages in when I felt that they were in trouble. It felt like a Harvard Business Press word container with WalMart content inside. My disappointment was that it lacked any real edge. For people who are deeply immersed in complexity theory and related pursuits that examine how systems change over time, there just wasn't any real insight. For people who don't like that sort of thing, it would, I fear, feel impenetrable.

Reading about next things should be engaging, compelling, shocking even. This book wasn't any of that. I felt genuinely disappointed as I worked my way through out. I just couldn't track with the style or flow. It felt like I was at a really dull meeting that was supposed to be important but somehow wasn't. No Wheatley. No Holling. No Stacey. No Sante Fe Institute. No Kauffman. No cheeky Tom Peters feel. No Dave Snowden deadpan humour. Nothing daring.

There were no expeditions into the heart of real, living organizations where the good, bad and ugly was on display and the authors dared to do battle with their adaptive leadership rocket launchers. No biological modelling, computer simulations, real-time adaptations. After awhile, you just start to feel like the book was off, somehow - like when someone is staring past you. If I was Randy from American Idol, I'd say, "Hey, dog, it's a bit pitchy" or something like that.

In chapter 13 you'll find a six page bit on systems thinking but that's it. An adaptive leadership text that doesn't clearly track through the latest research and insight on what informs adaptive leadership doesn't add up. There was insufficient evidence that they have their finger on the pulsing neck artery of past, current, and emerging forms of adaptive leadership. A great topic area like this needs to evidence an awareness of adaptive practices in the very delivery of the content but that doesn't happen at all.

I'd love to give it a thumbs up - the title is definitely compelling - but I just can't. I'm happy to be convinced otherwise but all I can think is that I'm glad I had a review copy sent and didn't have to pay for it. The authors are probably very knowledgeable, interesting, and capable consultants but it just doesn't come through in the book, sadly. These are big players with long track records and tons of cultural cache who perhaps need a better way to deliver what they know than a vanilla-looking book that induces yawns.

There are many other books that are in line ahead of this one for developing my teams and thinking. It reminds me of a corporate comb-over. So disappointing. Next time involve a few freaky friends in the book development process.