Learning to lead through challenge and change
Ryn Hopgood is using her practical skills in adaptive leadership to help transform the lives of women and gender diverse people through meaningful employment.
Published on the 26 September 2024
Ryn Hopgood has always been an explorer, looking for opportunities to learn and grow. From working at a technology company in the United States to lecturing in South Korea, she’s had a vast career.
But Ryn struggled to find work when she first moved to Australia. It’s why she’s now passionate about helping women, non-binary and gender-diverse jobseekers through her current role at Fitted for Work.
“Our organisation is all about helping people. People’s needs are constantly changing, which adds a layer of complexity to what I do. That’s why learning how to become an adaptive leader was important to me,” she says.
Adaptive Leadership is a human-centred leadership approach that recognises the need to adapt to disruption and change quickly. It demands a new way of thinking – shifting from finding technical solutions to embracing adaptive challenges and democratising leadership so everyone can contribute.
In a world where uncertainty, change and complexity are the norm, Adaptive Leadership is needed across business, government and the broader community. It’s a key to thriving in turbulent times.
Recognising the times, Ryn sought to build her adaptive leadership skills to flourish in her role. As the National Operations Manager at Fitted for Work, Ryn is responsible for all processes that go into helping women get job-ready. That comes with its own unique set of complex challenges – navigating different needs, gender biases, confidence building and technology access.
In a role with diverse clients, a constantly evolving job market and multifaceted challenges for women in the workforce, being an adaptive leader is crucial. Within the organisation, Ryn also wanted to improve her stakeholder management skills and learn how to have courageous conversations to resolve any obstacles to progress.
Using curiosity and creativity to solve challenges
In just three days of participating in the Adaptive Leadership program, Ryn’s idea of what it means to be an adaptive leader completely shifted. Rather than approaching challenges with a solution already in mind, she now relies on her curiosity, using the frameworks she’s added to her leadership toolkit since the immersive program.
“I now understand how to lead through change and make a meaningful impact. I know I’m practising adaptive leadership when I’m asking more questions than I’m answering,” Ryn shares.
Her go-to is a checklist that guides leaders through deconstructing a challenge, recognising what’s at stake for different parties, and identifying gaps, roadblocks and strategies.
It has enabled productive conversations about projects that weren’t moving forward, causing conflict between teams and pushback on acknowledging a potential problem.
Ryn took one of the stagnant projects into the program as her adaptive challenge, to identify whether it needed a technical solution or an adaptive approach. Sharing her insights and the checklist with her manager opened up the conversation and they developed a collaborative action plan to progress the project.
Using Adaptive Leadership exercises like ‘What’s in your backpack?’, looking at the load we’re carrying that can slow our progress or growth, has given Ryn new perspective. She now sees that what got her to where she is today might not get her to where she wants to be as a leader in the future.
“As a leader, I can innovate, take risks and make fast decisions. But the program made me realise I need to improve my informal authority, build relationships and instil trust before we forge ahead as a team,” Ryn says.
Deeper learning for meaningful impact
Ryn says the immersive activities based on students’ personal adaptive leadership experiences helped embed her new knowledge and learnings.
“Some activities were very explicit and practical while others were subtle,” she reflects. “Sometimes we didn’t even realise we were in the middle of an activity.”
This learning approach uses real life situations to help students absorb and apply their new skills. And an experience Ryn will never forget – changing both her mind and heart.
“I didn’t realise my confidence in the space of Adaptive Leadership had been shaken until we delved into the deep work,” she adds. Engaging in ‘dadirri’, the Indigenous practice of deep listening and looking inward, Ryn reconnected with her inner self, seeing her story through new eyes. Through the exercise, she has found greater confidence in her identity, sparking clearer communication with colleagues.
Changing the conversation to grow
Together, the practical skills and reflective practices have enriched Ryn’s conversations at work, helping her navigate competing priorities around limited resources.
“Strategies like the temperature check influenced how I approach conversations, helping me discern when to bring the heat and when to turn it down,” Ryn says. Using the temperature check to assess others’ feelings and thoughts on a topic has empowered her to help team members get into the right emotional state to overcome previous roadblocks.
“I now have the language to ask the big questions and have the right conversations – that’s where the magic happens,” she adds.
Ryn Hopgood, National Operations Manager at Fitted for Work.
Changing the dialogue has helped Fitted for Work’s teams find new ways to innovate and grow, including driving digital transformation. This includes reassessing the rate of change for a large cyber security system rollout, after actively seeking feedback from staff. Instead of pushing to complete the rollout quickly, Ryn and her team revised the project plan for more realistic timelines – a positive move for staff mental health.
Collective progress through change
The program was also a catalyst for Ryn’s internal transformation as a leader, encouraging her to adopt new ways of working.
“I’ve learned to intentionally get off the dance floor and back on the balcony,” she shares, referring to zooming out and getting a wider perspective on a challenge. This new habit has enabled her to understand what’s in her control and reach out to others for help when needed.
“Being an adaptive leader is also about connecting with others – I spend more time nurturing relationships than I used to,” Ryn notes. “People now feel more connected, supporting better collaboration across teams.”
She regularly checks in on how people around her are coping, so no one gets left behind.
“I look around to see if I’m bringing people along on the journey of change, to make sure we’re moving at the same pace.” It’s an inclusive approach that has mobilised employees to work shoulder-to-shoulder with collective purpose. And a key skill to make things happen in the workplace.
“I’m still learning and growing – I don’t have it all figured out, but I now have hands-on resources that I can use to continue my journey. And I’ve gained skills on how to live and work with constant change.”
Those valuable skills help Ryn navigate her team through change to continually improve Fitted for Work’s operations and better help women along the path to meaningful employment.