Adaptive Leadership for LGBTQI+ Movement Builders

Developed by Professor Ronald Heifetz, Adaptive Leadership is one of the most influential leadership frameworks taught at Harvard Kennedy School. It is used by leaders around the world to navigate complex challenges where technical fixes are not enough. The framework asks a central question: how do we mobilize people, institutions, and communities to confront difficult realities, adapt, and make progress? 

In this session, we will introduce the basics of Adaptive Leadership and explore how they apply to LGBTQI+ rights and movement building. We will examine the difference between leadership and authority, the distinction between technical problems and adaptive challenges, and the ways activists can exercise leadership from inside or outside formal positions of power. 

For LGBTQI+ advocates, Adaptive Leadership offers practical tools for diagnosing resistance, understanding backlash, managing conflict, and sustaining the personal resilience required to lead through moments of uncertainty. 

Ronald Heifetz is among the world’s foremost authorities on the practice and teaching of leadership. Heifetz founded the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, where he has taught for nearly four decades. He is the King Hussein Bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership and Faculty Chair of the  Art and Practice of Leadership Development  Executive Program.