Written by Mélissa Boivin-The District of Timiskaming Social Services Administration Board

When we first stumbled across the Tamarack website, my co-worker and I found ourselves squealing like little children who’ve just seen an elusive unicorn.  Knowing that other people shared in our passion of community engagement and believed in sharing resources with others for the betterment of the community gave us hope and excitement as we entered a new phase in our professional lives.  After registering for the Evaluating Community Impact Seminar in Montreal, we found ourselves having lengthy discussions about how we saw evaluation and the importance we placed on being able to develop tools and techniques that were ethical, would provide a clear synopsis of what has happened in our community and hopefully would help shape the decisions our organization and we as community engagement cheerleaders would take.  Thus with a bounce in our step, off we went to the great land of Complexity Based Developmental Evaluation.

I must admit that walking up to my Learning Lab #2 on that first day and meeting some of the participants from the session was a little bit overwhelming.  Being surrounded by senior managers and CEO’s I found myself questioning the impact that I, as front line staff could have on changing the way evaluate community initiatives are done in my agency.  However, after the three day session, I felt confident that the knowledge I gained during this workshop could be brought back to my community – and that I could have some impact on the evaluative process by changing the way I ask questions and engage community partners. 

For me, one of the highlights of this session (besides driving up Mont-Royal and taking in the beautiful view) was learning about the Adaptive Cycle.  I believe there are so many levels to understanding the process that takes place throughout this infinity loop.  Being aware of the phases of this cycle can help organizations and community engagement initiatives develop a clear and useful evaluation process that will help create strong relationships and perhaps change the way people view evaluation.  Furthermore, being aware of the transitional traps that participants may encounter through their Change Initiative journey helps both participants and coordinators better prepare for and navigate past some of the challenges they may face.

The main ideas presented about the Adaptive Cycle included:

• Community change efforts tend to flow through 4 distinct phases (Exploration, Development, Growth & Maturation and Release)
• The Adaptive Cycle can play out on multiple levels -  Participants, Agencies and Management may not always find themselves at the same phase.
• Each phase requires different leadership and management styles  - different objectives, organizational/team culture (dynamics), resources and evaluation.
• Participants must navigate through different transitional traps to move through the cycle.

Reflecting on these main ideas made me think of a previous seminar I attended on Transformative Leadership.  Thinking of the Adaptive Cycle from a management/leadership lens makes quite a bit of sense.  At first, leaders have to explore and “test out” their leadership skills in order to see which approach may work best for the team dynamic (Exploration).  Next, leaders have to develop and strengthen their relationship with employees in a way that is conducive to a healthy team dynamic (Development).  As a result, the team becomes strong and efficient.  They are able to reach their objectives and are confident in the work they do (Growth and Maturation).  Once the team has reached this phase, transformative leaders are able to empower their team to be independent.  This means, leaders and management trust their team enough to let them do projects alone, in their own way.  Transformative leaders acknowledge their staff’s individuality and evaluate how they achieved their objectives (Release).

Similar to a Change Initiative, leaders navigating through the Adaptive Cycle will face transitional traps with their team.  When transitioning from the Exploration to the Development Phase, leaders may fall into the Scarcity Trap.  This can occur as a result of lack of time to communicate, create activities or rituals that foster a positive and joyful environment (to develop a healthy Team dynamic).  If the team is able to transition into the development phase of the cycle they may get stuck in the Parasitic Trap.  Subsequently, team members may find themselves too dependent on management and unable to achieve objectives without constant guidance.  Team members may get lost in the process and fear moving forward.  If the team is successful in treading through this trap and move towards the Growth and Maturity Phase, they may soon find themselves hitting the Rigidity Wall.  Once in the Rigidity Trap, management (or the team) may find themselves stuck in the old way of thinking.  Personally, I see this trap as an inability to navigate through the hierarchical work culture, whereas management is reluctant to allow staff to do projects in their own way and maintain stuffy institutional positions of power.  As a result, team members are unable to be innovative and things may become stagnant.  Finally, once the team has transitioned to the Release phase and are cycling back to the Experimental Phase, they may stumble into the Chronic Disaster Trap.  Once there, the team may feel as though they are always putting out fires as there is a lack of communication occurring between team members.  Furthermore, there may be a higher turnover rate with staff which leads to a lack of stability and constantly changing context.

I believe that the success achieved throughout the the Adaptive Cycle for Change Initiatives (and even creating a Transformative Environment through Leadership) occurs by falling head first into the transitional traps.  For Change to happen, all participants have to be willing to get dirty, enter into some difficult conversations and answer some hard questions.  Moreover, participants have to be open to evaluating their progress and journey throughout the Adaptive Cycle, ensuring that they are accountable to what they say they will achieve and how they will achieve it.  Therefore, using the Adaptive Cycle to map out your journey allows you to challenge yourself, and your change initiative to be successful and innovative, to not only evaluate the change initiative but also the role you play in its development and success and opens the door to have difficult conversations with your partners which will lead to stronger more engaged teams.