An excellent book I read years ago, Leadership on the Line, posits that “Leadership requires disturbing people – but at a rate they can absorb.”

The authors, two Harvard professors named Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, write about the important leadership role of “orchestrating conflict” through a careful four-step process.

The first is to create a “holding environment,” a safe space in which people can tackle tough, even potentially divisive questions without flying apart.  A place to analyze trends and discontinuities, to understand core competencies and to map potential opportunities.

The second step is to “control the temperature,” to raise the heat enough so that people take notice, but to lower the temperature when necessary to reduce counterproductive tension.

Third, the leader must “set the pace,” must let out ideas slowly so that they can be absorbed and not so fast that they overwhelm, create confusion and lower creativity and productivity.

And the fourth step is to “show a vision,” to find ways to remind people of the “orienting value” of the work.

The key is to agitate peoples’ minds without aggravating their spirits.  To get them thinking about things they thought they were satisfied with; but to do so without questioning their intelligence or dedication.

People who have given their whole working lives to something – such as educational athletics – can feel threatened and/or diminished by those proposing change unless these four or similar steps are utilized to present and process new policies and procedures.