Strategically Thinking and Planning 

Create a table in which you show how you will use some / all of the following adaptive leadership behaviours to change your organization’s 
current strategic approach, in order to accommodate adaptive complexity: 
Disrupting the status quo and creating  I would look at where there are strengths in  My School Vision: 
disequilibrium  teachers and teams and see how this could be used   
around the school. I would encourage teachers to 
 
move levels to challenge themselves and work in 
different areas of the school. I would try and find  Our Vision is Aimed to Support 
PD that will push and develop teachers and create  Learners to:  
those willing to make a risk.  ❖ Be Critical, creative and Caring 
  thinkers 
“for transformation. . . .  ❖ Be caring, connected 
experiencing new opportunities, new challenges,  contributors 
and new ways to understand the world” 
Kershner, B & McQuillan, P. (2016) 
❖ Make and share connections 
and meaning using all our 
Reframing the vision  ● I would seek feedback from teachers about  senses 
what is working/ not working and look to  ❖ Be organised, onto it and honest 
adapt and modify as we go along. If things  ❖ Be engaged, resilient and 
are working how can we keep and still 
modify?  actively involved 
● Seeking input from community and whanau 
● Following trends in the world - seeing what 
students need for the future, how do we 
develop these skills? 

Using a paradoxical leadership  Understanding that no school day, student or 

approach  teacher is ever the same, being able to quickly 
adapt and be flexible to change. 
 
Managing paradox seeks “both/and” alternatives 
that may foster novelty, creativity, and long-term 
sustainability.   
 
These case studies reveal five paradoxical 
leadership practices that enable strategic agility: 
 
 § Value paradoxes as a vital ingredient of high 
performance. 
 
§ Proactively identify and raise tensions. 
 
§ Avoid traps of anxiety and defensiveness. 
 
§ Consistently communicate a “both/and” vision. 
 
§ Separate efforts to focus on both sides of a 
paradox. 
 
(Lewis, Andriopoulos & Smith, 2014, pp. 59-60). 

Distributing control through  Building relationships with the community the 

decentralised networks  school is involved with - seeking outside expert 
help and support for students. 
“Ultimately, system elements must generate new 
relationships and interconnections; otherwise, the 
status quo endures. Moreover, since adaptive 
systems are active at multiple levels, the need to 
distribute authority and control seem 
unavoidable.” 
Lewis, W., Andriopoulus, C. & Smith, W. (2014) 
 
Kershner, B & McQuillan, P. (2016). Complex Adaptive Schools: Educational Leadership & School Change. Complicity: An International Journal 
of Complexity and Education, 13(1), 4-29.  
 
Lewis, W., Andriopoulus, C. & Smith, W. (2014). Paradoxical Leadership to Enable Strategic Agility. California Management Review, 56(3), 
58-77.