Montage

Abstract

The Problem

Adaptive leadership calls for leaders to open up conflicts and differences and to help others engage with them. However, this sets up some tension with organizational priorities such as order and productivityWorking with difference and conflict is built on assumptions other than those that privilege efficiencies and smooth functioning. Taken-for-granted habits and assumptions about what is “good” and productive are at issue. Engaging with differences and conflict is not just a matter of learning new skills, it involves engaging with questions of mind-set and assumptions. The prospect of making space for differences may be threatening or seem to be out of bounds, particularly in traditional organizations.

The Solution

In this article, we argue that new practices privileging conflict and difference call for methods that disrupt habitual ways of working and that support people as they learn to respond to familiar situations in new ways. We offer montage, a technique adopted from the movie industry that sets disparate images side-by-side, as promising in this regard, providing temporary “new rules” that enable people to experience new ways of working.

The Stakeholders

This article will be of interest to human resource (HR) professionals who select and sponsor leadership development interventions It will be particularly relevant for those in the area of learning and development who support new learning beyond workshops, in the context of day-to-day organizational life. It will also be of interest to researchers who seek to understand felt experiences in organizations and managers who are interested in reshaping their practice.