The Department of Defence’s JOURNEY program uses adaptive leadership theory to help leaders respond to complexity and influence across boundaries. Its Assistant Secretary of Defence Learning outlines the approach he and his team took.

The winners for the 2025 AHRI Awards have been announced. View the full list of winners here.

What does it take to lead when yesterday’s expertise no longer solves today’s challenges?

This is the central question behind adaptive leadership theory. Developed by Harvard professors Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky in the 1990s, the model encourages leaders to guide people through complexity not by providing quick technical solutions, but by helping teams learn, experiment and adjust during periods of uncertainty.

Instead of relying on familiar processes, adaptive leaders challenge assumptions, foster collaboration and take a systems-wide view of organisational challenges.

This way of thinking forms the foundation of JOURNEY, a leadership development program created by the Department of Defence which has been nominated for AHRI’s Best Learning and Development Strategy Award at the 2025 AHRI Awards and Scholarship Program.

The program was launched in response to the 2020 Defence Transformation Strategy and supports the 2024 National Defence Strategy, which highlighted the need for a more integrated, future-ready approach to defence. 

“Our nation is certainly evolving at a much more rapid pace than we anticipated,” says Jake Gumley, Assistant Secretary of Defence Learning at the Department of Defence. “Our current environment is just reinforcing the need for adaptive leadership to be at the core of our approach to development.”

Developed with guidance from Harvard adaptive leadership experts, JOURNEY aims to build the mindset and capabilities required to lead transformation in an uncertain and fast-changing environment.

The impact of the program is already showing. Participants demonstrate an average 48 per cent increase in adaptive leadership capability. 

“[Participants’] supervisors are observing a shift in their behaviour and their ability to tackle complex problems,” says Gumley. “The stories I hear [from participants] are not just about their growth as a leader in a professional capacity, but also their ability to be resilient and tackle personal challenges.”

Below, Gumley shares how the program has helped Defence strengthen adaptive leadership capability and embed it at scale.

A staged approach to adaptive capability building

Building adaptive leadership capability takes more than new tools and knowledge; it requires a fundamental mindset shift, says Gumley.

Recognising that this shift won’t happen overnight, Defence designed JOURNEY as a staged approach, beginning with foundational theory and building towards applying adaptive leadership to real organisational challenges.

The program is broken down into five components:

• ENABLE, which builds foundational skills for becoming an adaptive leader
• ADAPT, which trains participants in enhanced strategic thinking
• STRETCH, which applies adaptive leadership practices to real Defence projects
• GET READY, which assesses suitability for entry into the final component
• TRANSFORM, which builds advanced adaptive leadership capabilities.

One of the core goals of the second stage, ADAPT, is to help participants differentiate between an adaptive challenge and a technical challenge – a distinction that’s critical to choosing the right leadership approach.

A technical challenge is a problem with a known solution, which can usually be addressed by experts using established processes, explains Gumley. 

“An adaptive challenge is not quite as simple as that,” he says. “It’s usually complex and involves influencing peers. 

“For example, an adaptive challenge [for us] would be trying to shift the learning and development culture in Defence by combining efforts across the services – APS, Army, Navy and Air Force – into a single approach. To do that, each service would need to buy into the change, but you may not have the formal authority to direct them. So it’s about influencing.”

The ADAPT component of the program recorded an 86 per cent increase in participants’ ability to differentiate adaptive from technical challenges, and a 67 per cent increase in their ability to view systems holistically.

With this grounding, the STRETCH component shifted from theory into practical application. 

Participants brought real Defence challenges into the program, analysing them and testing different approaches. This experiential approach showed participants what adaptive leadership looked like in their own day-to-day work.

“A lot of it is working with your peers and the facilitators, questioning initial thoughts around the challenges themselves, and practicing remaining adaptive and not constantly going to the technical solution,” says Gumley.

The final stage, TRANSFORM – which focuses on consolidating and applying advanced adaptive leadership practice – is rated 97 per cent effective by participants, demonstrating that they feel equipped to apply the learnings in their work.

“Our current environment is just reinforcing the need for adaptive leadership to be at the core of our approach to development.” – Jake Gumley, Assistant Secretary of Defence Learning, Department of Defence

A “level-agnostic” approach to leadership development

One of Defence’s early decisions in designing JOURNEY was to ensure the program wasn’t restricted by rank or tenure. Entry into the program is therefore determined by a “level-agnostic” readiness assessment.

“We’re focusing on the capability uplift we need, not the hierarchy,” says Gumley. “Some people may be at different ranks or levels for different reasons, and sometimes that might not be their leadership capabilities – it could be their technical expertise.”

The program also combined participants from APS, Army, Navy and Air Force services to help strengthen collaboration.

“Doing it with your peers, coming together and building those internal networks, just adds extra value to the program,” he says.

“Building that connection fits very well with adaptive leadership theory itself, because it’s about trying to influence within uncertainty and sometimes without formal authority.” 

This integrated approach also helped establish a shared language across the organisation, he adds, which is a crucial foundation for influencing across boundaries.

Encouraging stretch while avoiding strain

The JOURNEY program was intentionally designed to be challenging, says Gumley.

“We’ve been very open and upfront about what the program is, and that it does seek to put people out of their comfort zone,” he says. “That’s [a key part] of learning adaptive leadership practice.”

With this in mind, it was important for the team to put guardrails in place to ensure they could stretch participants constructively while preventing unnecessary strain.

Read HRM’s article on how to differentiate between stress, stretch and psychosocial risk.

These protective measures included establishing clear safety protocols and confidentiality expectations, using skilled trauma-informed facilitators who reinforced respectful behaviour, and monitoring wellbeing throughout. 

One of the most simple yet impactful measures was transparency around the purpose and expectations of the program, says Gumley.

“[When we] set that scene, people start to feel comfortable and to be vulnerable with their peers – and that’s when the real learning occurs.”

For HR leaders hoping to introduce adaptive leadership practice into their own organisations, Gumley stresses that theory alone is not enough.

“A connection to the strategic intent in that environment is really important, because it brings to life why we’re learning this, and why it’s important for us as leaders.

“As HR practitioners, [we need to] make it really clear why this is an important theory to learn, and how it’s going to benefit their day to day.”