Adaptive Leadership: The Heifetz Collection (3 Items)

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PART TWO

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DIAGNOSE THE

SYSTEM

I

N MEDICINE, DIAGNOSIS COMES BEFORE treatment. As in

the television show House, teams of doctors, nurses, technicians,

scientists, and other health-care professionals devote extraordinary

talent, skill, and energy to identifying the problem. Occasionally, the ill-

ness is identified backward by trying a particular treatment and seeing

whether it works, but more often, tests, time, thought, and discussion

are devoted to assessing the problem first. Treatment comes second.

In organizational and political life, people often jump to treatment

without stepping back to clarify the nature of the problem itself, mak-

ing enormous ...