Complexity leadership theory
Mary Uhl-Bien
b. 1958
Separates the formal administrative system from the adaptive space where new order actually forms — the gap the book calls Orientation Points.
Read alongside: Shape
- Start with
- Complexity Leadership Theory (2007, with Marion and McKelvey)
- Where they resist the book
- The adaptive space is easier to describe than to protect; in practice the formal system usually reclaims it.
Works worth the time
Complexity Leadership Theory · 2007
With Russ Marion and Bill McKelvey. Separates the administrative, adaptive and enabling functions of leadership.
Open archive: University of Nebraska–Lincoln ↗Read further
- Complexity Leadership Theory (Uhl-Bien, Marion & McKelvey, 2007) — open archive ↗
University of Nebraska–Lincoln DigitalCommons
Where Uhl-Bien appears
Authority and orientation are different currencies.
Heifetz distinguishes technical problems, which authority can solve, from adaptive challenges, which it cannot. Uhl-Bien's complexity leadership separates the formal system from the adaptive space where new order actually forms. Both describe the gap the book calls Orientation Points.