One of the books I enjoyed over the summer was Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: Building the Bridge As You Walk On It by Robert E. Quinn. It’s an extension in some ways of Quinn’s well known book Deep Change, which I’m trying to get to at some point. But wanted to share some of what I appreciated. There are some good summaries on the internet out there that offer an abridged treatment as well.
First, Quinn’s approach to leadership is anchored around contrasting images of leadership – the normal state of leadership and the fundamental state of leadership. The normal state is characterized in Quinn’s language by the leader being “comfort-centered, externally driven, self-focused, and internally closed” (preface ix). The fundamental state is characterized by being purpose centered, other focused, externally open, and internally directed. Essentially this is the contrast many are trying to get at in different ways through discussions about servant leadership or the level 5 leader or other descriptions of leadership that seeks to separate ethical and high performance leadership from the run of the mill leaders out there.
This discussion is a big part of his book Deep Change, though he unpacks some of it in this book to provide a review or foundation for the rest of book. The book is a guideto leading change and serves as a primer for organizational health in many ways. The bulk of the book is organized around 8 practices that guide the development of a leader toward the fundamental state of leadership and they all tend to surface and be informed by the dynamics of leading change. And I liked that they are all framed in paradox, or at least in ways that reflect a continuum between contrasting values that must be held in tension.
The Eight Practices are:
Reflective Action
Authentic Engagement
Appreciative Inquiry
Grounded Vision
Adaptive Confidence
Detached Interdependence
Responsible Freedom
Tough Love
I really enjoyed Quinn’s unpacking of these practices and think it’s really a worthy exercise for a leader to go through them. I think these practices are important for leaders and important for organizations to demonstrate in whole as part of the rhythms of an organization. These capture healthy and transformative culture. It’s not easy, but it’s helpful to have a roadmap of sorts to the types of behaviors and practices that lead to healthy and powerful cultures.
The book isn’t just content. It’s written in a way to stimulate reflection so that’s a helpful dimension to the learning process going through this book.
