We propose the Adaptive Leadership Framework for Chronic Illness as a novel framework for conceptualizing, studying, and providing care. This framework is an application of the Adaptive Leadership Framework developed by Heifetz and colleagues for business. Our framework views health care as a complex adaptive system and addresses the intersection at which people with chronic illness interface with the care system. We shift focus from symptoms to symptoms and the challenges they pose for patients/families. We describe how providers and patients/families might collaborate to create shared meaning of symptoms and challenges to coproduce appropriate approaches to care.