What is an action logic?

IN A 2005 article published by Rooke and Torbert, they argued that the tough situations we perceive are directly related to our action logic or mindset. An action logic basically describes the rules we store mentally that guide how we react to a situation, and are tied to our degree of adult development. A leader with an ‘opportunist’ action logic, for example, sees the world and the problems in it, in terms of unilateral winning and losing. A tough situation for him would be when his power is threatened or questioned.

A ‘diplomat’, on the other hand, feels challenged when she has to show leadership by doing something unpopular which may cause others to dislike her. She would happily relinquish power for the sake of being liked.

For an ‘expert’ leader, a difficult situation is when colleagues are not as efficient as her and ‘waste time’, and she cares little whether she is liked or not. According to Rooke and Torbert’s view of leadership, the more we progress developmentally, hopefully with time, the way we see the world and the challenges within it will change as well.

If we accept that tough situations are, at least partially, a product of our imagination and mindsets, and can be overcome through skill building and changing our perceptions, then there is good news for increasing productivity in firms. The famous self-help guru, Dr Wayne Dyer, once said, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” However, W. I. Thomas also famously said that “if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”. Perhaps productivity and tough situations come down to how we choose to perceive them.