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Individual Course

Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change

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Course Length

6 weeks

6 hours per week

Featuring faculty from:

Harvard Kennedy School LogoHarvard Kennedy School

Certificate Price:

$ 1,850

Enroll by Jun 11, 2026

Enroll Now

Certificate Price:

$ 1,850

Enroll by Jun 11, 2026

Enroll Now

One of the most popular courses at Harvard Kennedy School is now available online!

In today’s complex and fast-paced world, leadership isn’t limited to those with authority or expertise—it’s a practice available to anyone, at any stage of their career.

The Adaptive Leadership approach was pioneered over the course of more than 40 years by Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Ronald Heifetz and offers a tested framework for overcoming challenges and creating productive change where traditional approaches fall short.

This course goes beyond theory, exploring the real-world experiences of Heifetz’s former students who have applied Adaptive Leadership principles in their professional careers across industries and around the globe. From policy innovation and crisis response to corporate product management and health care leadership, these stories serve as living examples of the framework in action. You’ll learn to identify the core issue at the heart of your challenge, view it through a broader systems lens, and make targeted changes that drive meaningful progress—while building trust and empowering others to contribute along the way.

Through real leadership stories, interactive exercises, and insights from Heifetz and other changemakers across industries, you’ll develop a systematic approach to leadership that helps you drive progress.

Self-Guided

Harvard Online

Industries:

  • Consulting
  • Health Care
  • Government
  • Technology
  • Dr. Mislav P.
  • Amy W.
  • Prof. Fatemah Zakareya M. Abdel-Razek

Global Learning Community

  • Learn from real case studies
  • Do it on your own time
  • Get a certificate, add it to your resume
  • Be part of the Harvard Community

Course Syllabus

Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change provides an in-depth overview of one of Harvard’s well tested approaches to making a difference in any group, community, or organization. Following and analyzing the success stories of five practitioners, all former students of the course, you will gain effective tools and strategies for diagnosing challenges and generating lasting progress in the systems you’re a part of, no matter what level of rank, authority, or power you may hold.

Download Full Syllabus

Faculty

Industry Experts

Your Instructor

Ronald Heifetz

Founder, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School

Ronald Heifetz is the Founder, Center for Public Leadership and the King Hussein bin Talal Senior Lecturer in Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is among the world’s foremost authorities on the practice and teaching of leadership. He speaks extensively and advises heads of governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations across the globe. In 2016, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia highlighted Heifetz’s advice in his Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.

Industry Expert

Uriel Kejsefman

Senior Product Manager at Duolingo

Uriel Kejsefman is a Senior Product Manager at Duolingo, where he has overseen the growth of Duolingo subscriptions, redesigned the learning experience with AI, and expanded access to English learning worldwide. Uriel’s has worked to expand access to education across industries—advising universities at the Education Advisory Board, designing large-scale education reforms at the World Bank, and building learning products at Duolingo. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Humanities from Yale University and a Master’s in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University.

Industry Expert

Mitzi Johnson

Former Vermont Speaker of the House

Mitzi Johnson is a leadership consultant, trainer, and coach. In her former role as Speaker of the House, she reshaped Vermont’s legislature and policy focus to navigate the challenging and deeply uncertain first year of the COVID pandemic. Representing the Grand Isle-Chittenden district in the Vermont House from 2003-2021, she helped shape the legislative agenda for nearly 2 decades. For 10 of those years she wrote the state’s budget on the Appropriations Committee, including as Chair and during the Great Recession. She is widely recognized not only for her policy work in community development, water quality, and landmark tri-partisan gun safety legislation, but also for improving collaboration across party lines and strengthening transparency and inclusion. Mitzi holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Vermont.

Industry Expert

Dr. Hasan Sheikh

Emergency Physician and Clinical Lead for Substance Use Disorders, Mental Health and Addictions Centre of Excellence, Ontario Health

Dr. Hasan Sheikh is an emergency and addiction medicine physician at the University Health Network in Toronto, where he serves as the Medical Lead for Substance Use Services. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Department of Family and Community Medicine, and holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He also serves as the Provincial Clinical Lead for Substance Use Disorders at the Centre of Excellence for Mental Health and Addictions at Ontario Health.

Industry Expert

Rebecca Trupin

Consultant and Facilitator

Rebecca Trupin is a facilitator and consultant, who specializes in working with governments and communities to strengthen core public services. She has 14+ years of experience in strategic planning, organizational development, and movement building across small-holder agriculture, conservation, education and public health. She co-founded Better Purpose Collective in India to advance previous work with the state government of Meghalaya to reduce maternal and infant mortality, further early childhood development, and strengthen government-citizen partnerships. Rebecca is currently a Senior Policy Manager at the What Works Hub for Global Education, at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. She holds a Master's in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Industry Expert

Kornvuthi (Korn) Lapprathana

Co-Founder and CEO, TechUp

Kornvuthi (Korn) Lapprathana is co-founder and CEO of TechUp, a tech academy based in Thailand that runs bootcamps and courses in software development, data analytics, and generative AI. Prior to starting TechUp, he worked in management consulting in Asia and Africa. Korn holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University, an MPA in International Development from Harvard University, and an MBA from Stanford University.

This course is forcing me to pause, listen better, and use feedback and social intelligence instead of just expertise and authority. Even halfway through, I catch myself reframing difficult situations as adaptive challenges, and the conversations with colleagues are already different - calmer, more honest, and, ironically, more productive.

Mislav P

Dr. Mislav P.

Associate Professor

The key fundamentals that were taught throughout the course were relevant and broken down in ways that made the concepts feel achievable. The cases in this story were all engaging and uniquely different, yet all tied together with leadership ideologies. I greatly enjoyed this course and learning more about myself along the way.

Amy W.

Amy W.

Public Sector Employee

Overall, the course was thoughtful, challenging, and deeply reflective. It pushed me to examine my instincts, question my habits, and approach leadership with more patience and self-awareness. I feel more prepared not because I have answers, but because I'm better equipped to build trust and learn alongside others.

Prof. Fatemah Zakareya M. Abdel-Razek

It was an excellent, relatable, applicable overview of adaptive leadership tenets that went well beyond my experience with other adaptive leadership curriculum. It came to life for me by taking this course, and the case studies were an excellent way for me to gain a real-world perspective on the principles.

Shane F.

Director of Special Projects, Marketing & Communications

I appreciated the diversity of lived experiences, perspectives, identities, and examples used in each module. It was clear that each was thought out and executed at a high level. I believe the time and financial commitment I have given to this course will return 10-fold in my professional life.

Jenna Bowman

Jenna B.

Strategic Communications & Engagement Director

Professor Heifetz has such a great manner, gently introducing new ideas and mental models for leadership in an accessible way. Adaptive Leadership completely surpassed my expectations. In my day to day work I frequently return to the frameworks I learned during the course.

Adam S.

Completing Adaptive Leadership provided a great opportunity to reflect on my leadership approach, particularly in environments where expectations, priorities and perspectives can differ. The experience reinforced the importance of clear communication, thoughtful decision-making, and balancing empathy with accountability. It's also been a positive way to invest in my development and continue to strengthen how I lead.

Karen Q.

Sports Industry Professional

This course offers significant value for individuals ready to embrace the challenges of leadership. It emphasizes the importance of utilizing traits such as curiosity, self-reflection, and guidance as opposed to judging and directing in challenges involving multiple stakeholders and uncertainty around solutions.

Vincent T.

Vincent T.

What I'm taking from this experience is a deeper shift: learning to act with greater intention, to better distinguish between what requires intervention and what requires patience, and to trust that not everything needs to be solved immediately for something meaningful and lasting to happen."

Valentina O.

Valentina O.

Designer & Producer - Resilient and Climate Neutral Regions

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Past Participant Discounts

Learners who have enrolled in at least one qualifying Harvard Online program can receive a 30% discount, automatically applied to the Program Fee upon time of payment.

Learners who have earned a verified certificate for a HarvardX course hosted on the edX platform are eligible to receive a 30% discount using a discount code. Please check your email for a code or contact us.

Nonprofit, Government, Military, and Education Discounts

Eligibility is determined by a prospective learner’s email address, ending in .org, .gov, .mil, or .edu. Interested learners can apply below for the discount and, if eligible, will receive a promo code to enter when completing payment information to enroll in a Harvard Online program.

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FAQs

We offer 30% discounts to past participants of select Harvard Online courses. We also offer discounts on select courses to learners who work in nonprofits, government, military, or education, or are U.S. veterans. You can find more information about current discounts and eligibility on our course policies and discounts page.

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Exercising Leadership introduces the core principles of adaptive leadership, while Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change takes you further—using case studies and interactive exercises to help you put those principles into action. The courses stand alone but pair well together.

Once you've earned your Certificate of Completion, list it on your resume along with the date of completion:

List your certificate on your LinkedIn profile under "Education" as follows:

School: Harvard Online

For the program description on LinkedIn, please use the following:

Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change is an online course that teaches how to exercise leadership principles to help tackle tough challenges, enable change, and empower others.

The beta cohort of Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change is available by invitation only to select Harvard Online participants and affiliated groups. If you were selected, you should have received an email invitation. It is possible that this wave may be made publicly available as the start date nears. To express interest in future beta opportunities, please contact us at harvardonline@harvard.edu.

After the final deadline in your course, our team reviews all participant coursework. Once this review is complete, you’ll be notified of your final eligibility via email. Certificates are currently available as Certified Electronic Credentials. Your Certified Electronic Credential will be delivered to your email address after this review of coursework is complete.

You are expected to complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely way. This includes completing the modules and fully answering the questions in each module between the course start and end dates so that the cohort can move through the course at a similar pace and benefit from social learning opportunities. ⁠In addition to completing modules and assignments, you are expected to provide feedback on other learners’ reflections and contribute to discussions on the platform.

⁠You can set your own daily or weekly routine and adjust it as needed, but to receive your certificate you must complete all modules and assignments by the stated course end date. Learners who do not complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course. No letter grades are assigned for this course; your participation is evaluated on a complete or incomplete basis.

For detailed information about technology and bandwidth requirements, please see our full Harvard Online FAQs.

There is no application required for this course. You can enroll directly through Harvard Online if you are at least 18 years old, proficient in English, and committed to learning and engaging with fellow participants throughout the program.

Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change is leadership course that focuses on building the skills and tools to navigate complexity and change, foster collaboration, and make progress on difficult challenges. No specific prerequisite knowledge is required, and the course is suitable for learners from government, nonprofit, health care, business, and other sectors who want to exercise leadership more effectively.

Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a digital Certificate of Completion from Harvard Online. Our team reviews all participant coursework after the final deadline in your course, and, once eligibility is confirmed, your Certified Electronic Credential will be delivered to your email address.

You will have access to the materials in every prior module as you progress through the program. Access to course materials and the course platform ends 60 days after the final deadline in the program.

At the end of the course, you will be able to download a PDF summary highlighting key concepts that were introduced throughout the course. We hope the summary document will serve as a helpful resource after you finish the course.

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