How do you know whether the challenge is primarily technical or primarily adaptive?

You can never be certain, but there are some useful diagnostic clues. Anybody exercising leadership has to tell the difference between technical and adaptive situations because they require different responses.


First, you know you're dealing with something more than a technical issue when people's hearts and minds need to change, and not just their preferences or routine behaviors. In an adaptive challenge, people have to learn new ways and choose between what appear to be contradictory values.

Second, you can distinguish technical problems and adaptive challenges by process of exclusion. If you throw all the technical fixes you can imagine at the problem and the problem persists, it's a pretty clear signal that underlying adaptive challenge still needs to be addressed.

Third, the persistence of conflict usually indicates that people have not yet made the adjustments and accepted the losses that accompany adaptive change.

Fourth, crisis is a good indicator of adaptive issues that have festered. Crises represent danger because the stakes are high, time appears short, and the uncertainties are great.