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Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Case 11.2: Taming Bacchus
Case Synopsis and Analysis
Kyle Barrett, a serious ultimate disc player, was disheartened because his college ultimate
disc team did not take the sport seriously. Together with his teammate, Harrison, Kyle
worked to turn the group from a “partying” team to a competitive one.
When Kyle and Harrison became co-captains of the team, they hired a stellar professional
athlete to work on skills and strategies with the players. This enhanced the players’ skills.
Kyle and Harrison also enhanced the players’ motivation by openly asking each member to
candidly discuss his or her personal goals for the team. Together, the players decided that
they wanted to do well enough at the sectional competition to obtain a berth at the national
collegiate competition.
During practice, inexperienced players sometimes caused stress, frustration, and friction.
However, the captains talked about concerns, discussed the team’s goals before and after
each practice, and organized social events to help keep commitment high. Two years later,
the team earned a spot on the national competition and showed that they could
collaboratively change direction and compete.
This case study shows adaptive leadership at work and highlights some effective behaviors
that led to success.
Learning objectives:
• Students should be able to recognize adaptive leadership in a given case study.
• Students should be able to analyze whether a leader’s behavior comports with
effective adaptive leadership.
• Students should be able to understand what a holding environment is and see how a
strong holding environment enhances the potential for adaptive change.
Answers to questions in the text:
1. What changes were Kyle and Harrison trying to make? How did these changes effect
the beliefs, attitudes, or values of the players?
Kyle and Harrison were trying to change the culture of the team from one that partied
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
2. Were the challenges the team faced technical, technical and adaptive, or adaptive?
What examples can you give to explain your answer?
The team faced technical and adaptive challenges. Adaptive challenges are problems
that are not clear-cut and cannot be solved by the leader’s authority or through the
normal ways of doing things in the organization. Adaptive challenges require that
3. Citing examples, explain how the captains engaged in each of these adaptive leader
behaviors: (1) get on the balcony, (2) identify adaptive challenges, (3) regulate
distress, (4) maintain disciplined attention, (5) give the work back to people, and (6)
protect leadership voices from below.
- Get on the balcony: Kyle considered the problem from the balcony and saw that
he needed assistance, collaboration, and a safe holding space to create a change in
culture. He stepped away from his own frustration with the team and looked at the
problem more holistically. He recognized that he needed a partner, sought
assistance from an expert on technical skills, and saw the need to hold frank
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
4. Describe the holding environment that the co-captains created for the team. Do you
think it was successful? Why or why not?
Creating a holding environment refers to establishing an atmosphere in which people
can feel safe tackling difficult problems, but not so much so that they can avoid the
problem. A holding environment is a structural, procedural, or virtual space formed
Potential teaching approaches:
Below is a way to structure a class based on Adaptive Leadership and Case Study 11.2:
• Hold a lecture on adaptive leadership.
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
• Students read Case 11.2.
• Discuss Questions 1–4 in the case study as a class
• Finally, the professor may choose to conduct in-class exercises listed below.
Exercises for this case study:
1) Many students in your class will have worked on a play/production or been a member
of an athletic team similar to the disc team. In small groups, students should discuss
similar challenges that they may have faced and analyze their leader’s behavior. Was
2) Kyle and Harrison have now graduated and wanted to create a leadership
3) Changing the culture of a team (in this case) or within any organization takes time
and effort. Ask students to reflect on the case as a member of the disc team. The
