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Adaptive Leadership in a Crazy World Masterclass with Professor Dean Williams
Brought to you by Dr Stephen Brown, Managing Director of The Brown Collective, and the Australian Institute of Management WA, this one-day master class with global leadership expert Dean Williams explores how to lead through complexity, resistance and rapid change. Drawing on the renowned adaptive leadership framework from Harvard, you’ll learn practical tools to diagnose challenges, mobilise people and create the conditions for meaningful progress.
1 day
Speaker
Dean Williams is a leading authority on adaptive leadership and the author of Real Leadership and Leadership for a Fractured World. His global experience includes advising governments and corporations, serving as leadership coach to the President of Timor-Leste, and acting as chief adviser to the President of Madagascar.
Dean Williams is an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School whose research and teaching focus on adaptive leadership and change.
Williams has led major change processes and leadership development initiatives for large companies, government organisations, and social institutions throughout the world. He served as Chief Advisor to the President of Madagascar, orchestrating one of the most innovative and comprehensive development reforms in Africa; lead consultant to the government of Queensland, Australia, directing a complete reform of the educational system; and consultant to the government of Brunei, upgrading its civil service.
Williams created and currently leads the popular Social Leadership Singapore program, which trains hundreds of nongovernmental organization (NGO), government, and social leaders in the principles of real leadership and change.
Williams has also advised and consulted with the government of East Timor and, most recently, the government of Nigeria. He has led several long-term change initiatives for companies in Australia, the United States, and Asia, and conducted research on leadership and social change in Japan, Madagascar, and Borneo.
Williams earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard. He is also the author of Leadership for a Fractured World: How to Cross Boundaries, Build Bridges, and Lead Change (Berrett-Koehler, 2015), and Real Leadership: Helping People and Organizations Face Their Toughest Challenges (Berrett-Koehler, 2005).
Workshop Overview
In a rapidly shifting world, leaders are increasingly challenged by complex problems that cannot be solved with traditional approaches. This one-day master class offers a deep dive into the renowned adaptive leadership framework developed by Dean Williams and Ronald Heifetz at the Harvard Kennedy School. You’ll explore how leaders diagnose challenges, mobilise people, generate constructive pressure and guide groups through resistance and breakthrough change.
Led by Dean Williams, an internationally recognised leadership expert who taught at Harvard for 20 years, this workshop provides a comprehensive competency model for adaptive leadership and practical tools to shift values, behaviours and priorities when progress depends on meaningful adaptation.
This master class covers four key domains of adaptive leadership, helping you build confidence and capability to lead in complex, high-stakes environments.
Part 1: A New Framework for the Practice of Leadership
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What adaptive leadership is and why it matters today
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What it means to lead at the frontier
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How authority differs from leadership
Part 2: The Diagnostic Work of Leadership
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Diagnosing adaptive challenges
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Understanding background and foreground forces
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Analysing work avoidance and resistance dynamics
Part 3: Intervention and Mobilisation
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The 5-A mobilisation process
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Harnessing leadership moments
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The boundary work of leadership
Part 4: The Personal Work of Leadership
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Managing the self as an instrument of power
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Keeping personal “hungers” from getting in the way
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Distinguishing self from role
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Thinking like an artist