p.20 We should focus on leadership as an activity- the activity of a citizen mobalizing people to do something. Leading is more likely to produce socially useful outcomes by setting goals that meet needs of both leader and follower.

p.21 Defining leadership as formal authority excludes those like Ghandi, and M.L. King, who faced moral doubt and deep regret by defying authority.

p.23 The hardest and most valuable task of leadership may be advancing goals and designing strategy that promotes adaptive work.

p.24 To produce adaptive work, a vision must track the contours of reality; it has to have accuracy, and not simply imagination and appeal.

p.26 Tackling tough problems- problems that often require an evolution of values- is the end of leadership; getting that work done is it’s essence .

We need a governor on our tendencies to be arrogant- To think that we can transform people or an organization can fuel arrogance.

p.49 Having authority not only brings resources to bear, but also serious constraints on the exercise of leadership.

p.57 Authority is conferred power to perform a service.

p.65 When stress is severe, we seem especially willing to grant extraordinary power and give away our freedom.

p.73 Habitually seeking solutions from people of authority is maladaptive. Dangerous for 2 reasons: 1. Because work avoidance often occurs in response to our biggest problems, and 2. It disables some of our most important personal and collective resources to accomplish adaptive work.

p.87 When using authorative provocation as part of strategy, one must be prepared for an eruption of distress in response.

p.91 If we think people are not enlightened to exercise control, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.

p.102 Formal authorization brings with it the powers of office, but informal authorization brings subtle yet substantial power to extend far beyond the limits of job description.

p.126 Exercising leadership from a position of authority in adaptive situations means “going against the grain”. Rather than providing answers, one provides questions; rather than protect from threat, one lets people feel threat to stimulate adaptation; instead of orienting people to their current roles, one disorients so that new relationships develop; rather than quelling conflict, one generates it; instead of maintaining norms, one challenges them.

p.127 Leadership is a razor’s edge because one has to oversee a sustained period of social disequilibrium so that people confront the contradictions in their lives and communities.

p.128 Five strategic principles of leadership:

1.Identify the adaptive challenge.

2.Keep the level of distress within a tolerable range for doing adaptive work.

3. Focus attention on “ripening” issues and not on stress reducing distractions.

4. Give the work back to the people, but at a rate they can stand.

5. Protect voices of leadership without authority.

p. 180 Authority constrains leadership because in times of distress people expect to much. They form inappropriate dependencies that isolates their authorities behind a mask of knowing.

p.183 The scarcity of leadership from people of authority makes it all more critical to have people exercise leadership without authority.

p.186 Leadership without authority = person operating from the margins of society; to persons with senior authority who lead from beyond their authority, challenging either their own constituents ‘ expectations or engaging people across the boundary of their organization.

p.188 Absence of authority enables one to deviate from the norms of authoritative decision making – one can raise questions that disturb, there is a latitude for creative deviance. Can focus on a single issue. It places one on the frontline of experience and information.

p.193 Advantage of formal authority is breadth – disadvantage is distance from raw and relevant detail.

p.225 Leaders without authority who raise disturbing questions, stand naked and can be the messenger that is killed by an authority figure who is “used” by those that do not like the question being raised.

p.228 Leaders that push authority figures in an attempt to solve important problems should expect that authority figures will strike back because of “others” pressure on them to maintain equilibrium.

p.238 Changing the status quo requires more than changing the authoritative figure .Adaptive work requires adjustments, learning, and compromise of many of the dominant, complacent and beleagured.

p.241 Pains of change deserve respect. Knowing how hard to push and when to let up are central to leadership.

p.242 When pacing the change ask:

1.How stressful is the question or problem.

2.How resilient are the people.

3.Are they accustomed to learning or will they reach for avoidance mechanisms

p.247 The long term challenge of leadership is to develop people’s adaptive capacity for tackling ongoing streams of hard problems. In early stages charismatic authority is a strong resource.

p.251 Strategic challenge is to give the work back to the people without abandoning them. Overloaded, they avoid learning, underload , they grow dependant.

p.261 Ways that communities sacrifice problem solving to restore equilibrium:

perpetually reorganize in hope of a structured fix.

Blame the authority, scapegoat, etc.

p.265 When conflicting criticism seems to damn whatever one does, the distinction between role and self can be life saving. Making the distinction enables one to externalize the conflict, thus focusing attention on the issue and giving the conflict back to the rightful owners.

p.273 When serving as a repository of many conflicting aspirations, a person can lose himself by failing to distinguish his inner voice from the voices that clamor for attention. One needs a sanctuary – a run, quiet walk, a prayer to break the spell of frenzy.

p.274 The practice of leadership requires a sense of purpose – the capacity to find the values that make risk-taking meaningful.

p.275 Adaptive change if prolonged to long becomes a high-risk enterprise that can require a revolution.

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