Back to Articles main-page.
The Sloan 4 Capabilities Leadership Framework.
The Sloan 4 Capabilities Leadership Framework is a model that appeals greatly to me. DLM's appeal to me in general because I genuinely believe that organisations, groups, society in general can be much more effective if we all take an interest in leadership. But what I particularly like about the Sloan model is that it is based around capabilities....capabilities that must be present within individuals and within organisations. The thing about capabilities is that there is an understanding that they can be developed, unlike traits, behaviours etc. which are much harder to develop or change.
Developed over a four-year period by Deborah Ancona, Tom Malone, Wanda Orlikowski, and Peter Senge at the MIT Leadership Center, the Sloan 4 Capabilities Leadership Framework is based around 4 capabilities, Sensemaking, Relating, Inventing, and Visioning. The idea is that leadership is made up of these 4 capabilities and that both individuals and organisations must rotate through these elements in order to be effective. This is where the idea of this as a distributed model is so attractive to me...I think it is asking too much that these capabilities are going to be found in sufficient levels within one individual...and so what one person lacks is supplemented by what another person possesses.
The Sloan 4 Capabilities Leadership Framework
I understand totally of this seems a little strange....how can leadership boil down to 4 capabilities, isn't it all about inspiring people, being charismatic and making the big decisions? Hear me out. I think you will like what you hear...all those things are important, well maybe no charisma so much, but we need much more if we are to have effective leadership.
Before we have a look at the 4 capabilities lets first have look at the core assumptions that the framework is based on. I think these are important as they set a context for and help with the understanding of the framework itself.
- Leadership is distributed - we have covered this one but I'll take the change to remind you that leadership is everyones job, not just the CEO's! Peter Senge believes it is an ongoing process involving a set of individuals taking on a variety of tasks and working interdependently. It is not a position or a single person
- Leadership is personal and developmental - there is no one right way to lead. Through-out history people have succeeded in leadership with different styles. The Framework recognises this with the concept of a Change Signature, our characteristic way of creating and leading change, which, like our leadership itself, will develop and change over time. The authors of the model suggest that the best way to lead is to recognise and make best use of the capabilities you do have while developing the others you lack or partnering with people who already have them.
- Leadership is a process to create change - Leadership is essentially about making things happen and one of the ways of doing this is to empower others to lead as well.
- Leadership develops over time - Nobody is born with it...we learn it through practice, reflection, role models, feedback and theory.
Sooooooo....in a nutshell leadership is everyones job, we all have our own unique style (Change Signature), we are leading to change something and we will get better at it the more we practice. Easy peasy! But what does the framework say leadership actually is? Well, they believe it is the application of the 4 key capabilities, either by individuals or within an organisation. With individuals, they must cycle through the 4 capabilities or do so in partnership with others. With organisations, the formal leader must facilitate the development of these capabilities within the organisation AND facilitate the application of the capabilities across organisational boundaries (within departments, between department, between organisational levels etc.)
So what are the 4 capabilities? The first is called Sensemaking, a phrase coined by Karl Weick in 1995. This involves developing a full and meaningful understanding of the situation and environment in which you find yourself. Weick uses a cartographic analogy to suggest that this is about mapping the terrain surrounding us. But he goes further...and this is where is get a little esoteric (which is one of the reasons why I love the concept so much!!)...and suggests that the very process of mapping the terrain is creating new terrain. I'll cover this further another time when I talk more about sensemaking but, in a nutshell, I believe that he is saying that as we seek to understand our environment so we also impact on it. When I ask you a question in order to understand your position on something the very act of doing so may change the circumstances...you might start wondering 'hmmmm, why has he asked that', for example, which may impact on your answer.
I don't want to go any deeper into sensemaking at this point other than to say it is not simple research. In the words of Ian Boudville it is 'a dynamic, on-going, iterative process that requires 'objectivity' aimed at getting to the truth of the matter: what is the reality?'. Or, as he puts it more poetically, it is finding the song behind the words! :-)
The second capability is Relating which recognises that leadership is not an individual activity and that success will depend on developing and maintaining trusting relationships. This is achieved via the ability to engage in inquiry, advocacy and connecting. Inquiry is the ability to listen and understand what others are thinking and feeling. But it goes deeper then that...we are not only trying to understand someone's position but also the data they used, the processes they applied and the interpretations they made in reaching that position. And we are not doing this to give ourselves ammunition with which to shoot their argument down but on the basis that we have suspended our judgement and that their argument could possibly be the right one.
The other side of the coin is advocacy, which involves taking a stand and trying to convince others of the merits of our position, while maintaining an open mind that good inquiry might throw up viable alternatives. And it is much more than bloody-mindedly making an argument...it is about explaining the thought processes, information, biases, interpretations etc. that went into reaching the position you have.
And all this inquiry and advocacy is made possible by good connecting...how you relate to people to build trust, how you develop relationships and build up networks to support collaboration.
Both Sensemaking and Relating are called enabling capabilities. The other two, Visioning and Inventing, are called action capabilities.
Visioning is about creating a compelling vision of the future. If Sensemaking is the map of the present then Visioning is the map of the future. Good visions align people and establish a quid pro quo...if I give you my commitment what can I hope for in return? But visioning is something about which much is said but little is effectively practiced. And possibly the biggest reason behind this is that while people are generally good at explaining a compelling future they are not as good as explaining why the present isn't good enough. To truly engage people in a vision they need to understand both. As Admiral James Stockdale, a US pilot shot down and captured in Vietnam, says when explaining why he survived the POW camps when many other didn't, you have to "Retain faith that you will prevailin the end, regardless of the difficulties and confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." .
The final capability is Inventing. This is about developing new ways of doing things and for people to work together to achieve the goals that have been set. This stage is especially crucial when dealing with adaptive challenges, where current skills and experiences aren't going to solve the problem. We need to find new structures and processes to make our vision a reality.
So that is a whistle-stop tour of the Sloan 4 Capabilities Framework! Add in the Change Signature and there you have it. Hmmm I have probably brushed over that one a bit...as Ancona et al put it...
'The four capabilities, like the compass that they form, are only a tool. It is the change signature that determines how and what the tool is used for. While the capabilities focus on what leaders do,the change signature is about who a leader is. It develops slowly based on experience and skills. It is a key part of the leadership model because it represents who we are as leaders.'
And finally, it is worth making it clear that the 4 capabilities are complementary, a vision without good sensemaking is not likely to be achieved, inventing without a vision is directionless and sensemaking can only be achieved via good relating.
I hope now that you have some idea of how leadership can be defined by 4 capabilities. For me it is about understanding where we are (Sensemaking), identifying where we want to be (Visioning), being able to find the ways to get us there (Inventing) and having the capability to build the trusting, collaborative and functional relationships necessary for it all to happen (Relating). Make sense? :-)
References
Ancona, D., "Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty" 2005., http://mitleadership.mit.edu/pdf/LeadershipinanAgeofUncertainty-researchbrief.pdf