Learning to Lead from Chaos and Disruption & Offsetting For the Associated Negative Effects

Abstract

This paper explores what we know about how leaders learn from their experience in environments where high levels of uncertainty, disruption and even chaos are present. While there are many theories about learning from experience there is a dearth of studies explaining how leaders learn when situations of uncertainty and disruption prevail. Yet, leaders require their learning experiences to be relevant when operating with the uncertainty that prevails in their world of work. Also, leaders benefit from the capacity to make sense of disruptive and unpredictable learning events, in breaking out of old regressive patterns and fostering new behaviors. Despite the potential benefits, learning from disruption in the context of leadership is negatively associated with difficult practices, such as being overwhelmed by anxiety producing events, or loss of psychological safety. I explore the intersection of the relevant bodies of literature on leadership education and experiential learning to see what insights they p...