This presentation explores the bold actions that make adaptive leadership so essential in human services.

1. At a Human Services
Tipping Point:
How Leaders Move from Ideas to Outcomes
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2. What does it take to turn
GOOD IDEAS
into better outcomes?
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Increasingly, organizations are asking
not only what to do, but how to do it.
Along the way, human services agencies find themselves
challenging structure, culture, processes, policy,and
even executive sponsorship.

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To make progress — while also managing risk — a new,
adaptive era of leadership is starting to take shape.
Five fundamentals are helping define
adaptive leadership in action.

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FIVE FUNDAMENTALS HELPING TO
DEFINE ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
Honor the positive and build from
strength. You don’t always need a clean
slate. Acknowledge what works and move
forward from there.
1

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FIVE FUNDAMENTALS HELPING TO
DEFINE ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
Harness staff power for leadership from
within. Bring people with different skills
together and identify and empower
leaders with new perspectives.
2

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FIVE FUNDAMENTALS HELPING TO
DEFINE ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
See the silver lining in unexpected
places. Optimism and action are key to
countering daunting, high-emotion
problems and breaking through barriers.
3

8. Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
FIVE FUNDAMENTALS HELPING TO
DEFINE ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
Strengthen partnerships with data. Now,
data can help human services providers
meet the needs of the whole person —
but new partnerships and collaboration
between agencies, vendors, legislators
and the private sector is key.
4

9. Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
FIVE FUNDAMENTALS HELPING TO
DEFINE ADAPTIVE LEADERSHIP
Experiment, experiment, experiment.
When there are no proven solutions, be
bold. Trying innovative approaches means
it must be safe to fail.
5

10. Copyright © 2016 Accenture All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Delivered are trademarks of Accenture.
LEARN MORE
about how adaptive leadership is driving innovation
in human services by reading this executive summary
from the 2015 Human Services Summit
at Harvard University:
At a Human Services Tipping Point:
How Leaders Move from Ideas to Outcomes