Building Communities of Practice: An Italian Path to Adaptive Leadership
by Stefano Zordan

Leadership: A Matter of Language
In the winter of 2017, after completing my studies at Harvard University, I began the work of translating and curating the Italian edition of the latest book by my professors Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky: The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World (Franco Angeli, 2018). It quickly became clear to me that the leadership issues we often lament in Italy stem from imprecise use of leadership terminology. This linguistic confusion is undoubtedly due to the classification of leadership studies as a "field of study" rather than a true academic discipline. As a result, even the most basic vocabulary lacks consensus. This uncertainty is further complicated by the proliferation of models and submodels of leadership that often rest on creative—if not entirely misleading—interpretations of the concept. These definitions reinforce popular beliefs about leadership, power, and authority that sometimes lead leaders to worsen the challenges facing their communities.

This realization shaped my efforts to spread adaptive leadership in Italy, first through the 'Sistema Italia' association and then through the founding of the Adriano Olivetti Leadership Institute (OLI) in Ivrea, housed in the historic Olivetti Social Services Center. Our training emphasizes deep analysis of leadership terms and their etymologies as foundations for a renewed practice. Across numerous encounters with diverse communities—territorial, professional, value-driven—I often saw visions of leadership clouded by hopelessness or reduced to isolated acts by supposed 'leaders.' Adaptive leadership offers a systemic correction to these personalized notions, placing the focus on challenges and the group's inherent capacity to address them.

This framework enters into generative dialogue with the thought of Adriano Olivetti (1901–1960), entrepreneur, politician, and social innovator who transformed Ivrea, my hometown and the site of our institute, into a model community now recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The concept of leadership emerging from OLI sees community as the unit of measure for leadership action. Leadership enables a community to recognize the urgency of its challenges and overcome the resistance to change. In this view, leadership is an educational endeavor aimed at making communities—be they family, school, religious, geographic, workplace, or political—more aware and forward-thinking. In the words of Olivetti, they become places where "the tools of cultural and social action" are cultivated with care and directed toward integral development.

The Leadership Stance
In Real Leadership: Helping People and Organizations Face Their Toughest Challenges, Dean Williams, a colleague of Heifetz and Linsky at the Harvard Kennedy School, defines leadership as the "orchestration of collective learning around complex problems." Real leadership is less about controlling change and more about enabling it—a notion far removed from traditional models that equate leadership with guiding others down a clear path. These old models are inadequate when confronting complex challenges, especially those laid bare by the pandemic.

As an antidote to the leader-follower dichotomy, new notions of leadership are emerging that empower everyone involved in the necessary work of community transformation—even when it means challenging long-held values and habits. The adaptive leadership approach, refined over decades at Harvard, stands out for its rigorous analysis and integration of individual and systemic dimensions. It offers practical tools for conceptualizing and managing complex change, serving as a vital resource in an era of identity shifts. Heifetz and Linsky define leadership as "stepping into a system in the name of a purpose"—an ideal that ignites action.

This image of leadership as a dynamic, physical, and experimental activity contrasts sharply with its frequent misrepresentation as a static, individualized role. The act of "stepping in" represents an intentional intervention in a system we care about and wish to improve. It entails real risk, as it challenges the status quo and may provoke resistance. Diagnosis and interpretation—too often overlooked—are fundamental elements of this step. Like strong legs supporting a leap, these skills determine the quality of the leadership action. Their development requires practice and repetition.

The Indo-European root leit, from which the word "leadership" derives, refers to the standard-bearers of ancient armies—those who often perished first but helped move the front line forward. This etymology underscores the struggle inherent in leadership, marked by risk and resistance. Leadership must be viewed as distinct from roles of authority; it is an additional effort that one may choose to take on. As Heifetz and Linsky put it, leadership is a "dance on the edge of your authority," animated by a sacred purpose that can even challenge the very authority from which one acts.

Leadership thus becomes a posture—a disciplined readiness involving both body and mind. This recalls Aristotle’s notion of practical wisdom (phronesis) as a habit shaped by reasoning and directed toward human flourishing. Leadership posture, like wisdom, must be cultivated through intentional effort. It combines brutal realism (the antidote to naïveté) with unyielding optimism—a hope that strives to bridge the gap between what is and what could be.

Leadership as Learning
Leadership becomes necessary when communities face challenges that cannot be solved with known procedures or technical expertise alone. These are not "technical problems" but "adaptive challenges"—issues requiring new discoveries, experimentation, and changes within the community itself. The classic error lies in misdiagnosing adaptive challenges as technical problems, often delegating their resolution to experts. This leads to dysfunctional systems and disappointed expectations.

Adaptive challenges demand inclusive, community-based leadership that exposes root causes and mobilizes all stakeholders. The goal is not to provide easy answers but to raise the bar and help others clear it. Leadership, then, becomes a practice of learning—a collective process of reframing, testing, and evolving perspectives and solutions.

Why a Leadership Institute?
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, in September 2020, our work found a physical home in the Adriano Olivetti Leadership Institute, located in the restored Olivetti Social Services Center in Ivrea. Built between 1954 and 1959 by architects Figini and Pollini, the building embodies the integration of architectural beauty, social purpose, and the natural landscape.

The institute blends online and in-person modalities, echoing the spirit of the Kansas Leadership Center in Wichita, which for over fifteen years has supported local communities in addressing their adaptive challenges. OLI is a leadership laboratory: deep in content, wide in community engagement. Using the Harvard "case-in-point" methodology, we transform live group dynamics into real-time leadership learning.

We do not offer ready-made solutions. Instead, we equip communities with diagnostic and interpretive frameworks that promote empowerment and shared responsibility. As they practice adaptive leadership, these communities become "communities of practice" in the spirit of Etienne Wenger. Here, each person's work, regardless of role or authority, contributes to a shared front of awareness and mobilization.

From the exchange among these communities, a new language of leadership emerges—one that gradually reshapes practice and institutions, giving rise to innovative ways of managing complex change.