Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change

We offer discounts to past participants of select Harvard Online courses, who can receive 30% off the Program Fee on their next qualifying Harvard Online course. 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 on discounts and eligibility here.

You are free to complete the modules at your own pace between the course start and end dates. You will set your own daily or weekly schedule and adjust it as necessary, but to receive your certificate you must complete all modules and assignments by the stated course end date.

Yes, for this course we offer a 30% discount for learners who work in the nonprofit, government, military, or education fields.

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.

Apply for a Discount

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 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 and credentials are currently available as Certified Electronic Credential and printed formats. Your Certified Electronic Credential will be delivered to your email address after this review of coursework is complete. Your complementary printed certificate will be shipped via United States Postal Service (USPS) First Class Mail and may take eight weeks or more to arrive at its destination. No tracking information is available for certificate shipments.

There are no application requirements for this course.

Participants are expected to fully complete all coursework in a thoughtful and timely manner. This will mean meeting each week’s course module deadlines and fully answering questions posed therein. This helps ensure participants proceed through the course at a similar pace and can take full advantage of social learning opportunities. In addition to module and assignment completion, we expect you to offer feedback on others’ reflections and contribute to conversations on the platform. Participants who fail to complete the course requirements will not receive a certificate and will not be eligible to retake the course.

More detailed information on course requirements will be communicated at the start of the course. No grades are assigned for Adaptive Leadership: Practical Strategies for Change. Participation will either be evaluated as complete or incomplete.

This course is designed to work on an internet-connected desktop or notebook computer running either the Chrome or Firefox browser. Tablet computers and smartphones are not supported for programs on the course platform at this time. A broadband internet connection is highly recommended to access the rich media in the program.

The course platform allows you to engage with the content and watch the course videos with bandwidth of at least 750 Kbps download speed. At this speed, you may experience video buffering and some slowness. Videos can be viewed in HD, or "high" quality with a minimum recommended bandwidth of 2 Mbps download speed. Your browser performance will also affect your experience on the platform. To avoid browser-based issues and to ensure the best experience, we recommend that you update your browser to its latest version.

Upon successful completion of this program, participants will receive a hard copy of a Certificate of Completion from Harvard Online, as well as a Certified Electronic Credential. Certificates are delivered by mail to your home address six to eight weeks after you have been notified of your certificate eligibility.

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.

This is an introductory course focusing on building the skills and tools to navigate complexity and change, foster collaboration, and make progress on challenges. No prerequisite knowledge is required.