Is Your Institution Stuck in Perpetual Crisis? Here’s the Way Out
by Claire Brady, EdD
“…leadership in disruption isn’t about heroic fixes—it’s about building adaptive systems. For higher education, that means resisting the pull of short-term pivots and instead investing in cultures, leaders, and collective capabilities that can navigate both today’s polycrisis and tomorrow’s unknowns.”
If you’ve led in higher education over the past five years, you know what “perpetual crisis mode” feels like. The pandemic, demographic shifts, political pressures, budget cuts, AI disruptions, attacks on DEI, and much more have kept many institutions in a constant state of reaction. The latest research from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) offers a timely reminder: reacting isn’t the same as leading. To thrive, organizations must shift from surviving crisis to cultivating collective, sustainable adaptability.
That’s a lesson higher ed cannot afford to ignore.
Why perpetual crisis is unsustainable
CCL describes today’s environment as a “polycrisis”—multiple, interconnected crises that feed off one another . We see this clearly in our sector: declining enrollments influence budgets, which affect staffing, which in turn impact student support and retention. One “solution” in isolation often creates unintended ripple effects. Staying in reactive mode leads to change fatigue, burnout, and disengagement—not just among staff, but students as well.
For colleges and universities, the challenge isn’t whether disruption will happen. It’s how leaders adapt to disruption without losing their people along the way.
Three shifts for higher ed leaders:
CCL outlines three critical shifts that can help organizations move from crisis to adaptability. Here’s how those apply to higher education:
1. Rebuild organizational culture around learning agility
Culture drives strategy. If your institution’s culture is built on hierarchy, tradition, or silos, it will consistently struggle to adapt. Instead, cultivate a culture where experimentation and continuous learning are valued. For executives, this means modeling vulnerability—acknowledging uncertainty while creating safe space for teams to test, learn, and refine. Ask: Are we rewarding adaptability, or are we clinging to past playbooks?
2. Invest in vertical development of leaders
Most professional development in higher ed has focused on horizontal growth—building new skills and competencies. Useful, yes, but insufficient. CCL argues for vertical development: expanding leaders’ capacity to see complexity, hold paradox, and connect present realities to future unknowns . For cabinet-level leaders, this means moving beyond “what’s my department’s challenge?” toward “how do interconnected forces shape our whole institution?”
3. Strengthen collective capabilities through alignment and commitment
No single higher ed leader can solve today’s challenges alone. Collective capabilities matter. CCL’s Direction–Alignment–Commitment (DAC) framework offers a guide: align around a shared vision, coordinate resources strategically, and foster shared ownership . In higher ed, this may look like unifying academic and student affairs around a common retention strategy—or aligning faculty governance, administration, and trustees around mission sustainability.
Action steps for higher ed leaders:
Audit your leadership culture. Is it dependent, independent, or interdependent? Push toward interdependence, where leadership is collective, not positional.
Prioritize leadership development that expands perspective. Offer experiences that challenge belief barriers and broaden systems thinking.
Use disruption as a catalyst for collaboration. Convene cross-functional teams not just to react to crises but to proactively explore future opportunities.
Guard against change fatigue. Balance urgency with pacing; sometimes slowing down allows deeper, more sustainable change.
Final thoughts
CCL’s message is clear: leadership in disruption isn’t about heroic fixes—it’s about building adaptive systems. For higher education, that means resisting the pull of short-term pivots and instead investing in cultures, leaders, and collective capabilities that can navigate both today’s polycrisis and tomorrow’s unknowns.
Burnout is the cost of constant reaction. If we can shift from crisis-driven to adaptability-driven leadership, we won’t just survive disruption—we’ll reinvent our institutions for the future and shift from reaction to resilience.
Read the full article from CCL: https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/leadership-development-as-force-multiplier-for-systemic-solutions/
