Salt and Light Leaders’ Conference

1. Salt and Light Leaders’ Conference Session 1 What is the cultural background to the prevalent model of leadership and what are some new metaphors for leadership today?

2. Traditional Worldview:the Enlightenment • Rational • Logical • Scientific • Linear

3. Newtonian/ Mechanistic • Cause and effect • Control and Prediction • Competition • Reduction • Objectivity • One right Answer • Certainty

4. Applications • Medicine • Psychotherapy • Organisations • Marketplace • Church?

5. New Metaphors for OrganisationsSolvay Conference 1927

6. New Metaphors: Einstein • Wave/particle duality • What if both are right? • Einstein held up the paradox – the Principle of Complementarity • Choosing one means losing the potential of the other • Diversity and unity, not uniformity

7. Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle • Electrons: particles or waves? • When measuring location, it’s a particle • When measuring speed, it’s a wave • Both are right • Our observation matters • You find what you’re looking for

8. Fractals: Benoit Mandelbrot • Deeply patterned objects • The shape of the whole is in the parts • Self-similarity on different levels of scale • Patterns not measurement • Influence not force • Want culture change? You change…

10. Meg Wheatley • Not survival of the fittest, or natural selection, but adaptation by a species • Life collaborates with life – no competition. We can all play our part in the ecology of church • Change that appears negative may not be so – a new beach after the hurricane • Organisations – churches - are living systems

11. Organic/ Quantum • Non-locality: influence not force • Experimentation, not control and prediction • Co-operation and co-dependence • Holism, not reductionism • Participation, not objective observation • Millions of right answers, not just one • Uncertainty

12. Leadership Mindsets • Change is a nuisance • Change is life • Grand plan • Local initiatives • Homogenous policy – one size fits all • Heterogeneous policy

13. Leadership Mindsets • Equilibrium desired • Equilibrium is short-lived • Managing outcomes • Managing mindsets • Directed strategy • Emergent strategy

14. Leadership Mindsets • Top down managed • Propagation • Pre-specified success • Post-specified success • Single decision • Iterative process

15. Leadership Mindsets • Prediction • Surprise • Engineered change • Cultivated change • Designed identity • Autopoeisis

16. Salt and Light Leaders’ Conference Session 2 Leading in Chaos and Complexity

17. Chaos and Complexity In an increasingly complex world with an onslaught of information at every turn, how do we lead communities in a coherent way that maintains quality of relationship and clarity of purpose?

18. Chaos&Complexity Adapted from Ralph Stacey Anarchy Far from agreement Politics Focus on Relationships Chaos Unpredictability Multiple agendas Constant disruption Unanswerable questions Get on with it Focus On Vision Close to agreement Unproductive Conceptualising Rules & Procedures Close to certainty Far from certainty

19. Chaos&Complexity Adapted from Ralph Stacey Anarchy Far from agreement Politics Focus on Relationships Shared commitment Paradox Complex communication Allow emergence New learning Get on with it Focus On Vision Close to agreement Unproductive Conceptualising Rules & Procedures Close to certainty Far from certainty

20. Paradox Two apparently conflicting truths about the same situation.

21. Meta-Programmes Away From Towards Necessity Possibility Self Others Similarities Differences In Time Through Time Detail Big Picture

22. Common Church Paradoxes Responsibility/Impact on others Experiment in ministry Honouring heritage Breaking down traditions Discretion/Sensitivity Transparency Cultural Empathy Standing apart Release and empowerment Cover and accountability

23. Paradox • Think of an area in the church where there • appears to be a conflict. • Describe both sides of the argument equally • to the rest of the group. What is the paradox • in that situation? • How could church benefit if more • people were invited to engage with both • sides of the paradox?

24. Living with Change • Change is a fundamental part of life • We can only get with the script • We resist engaging with change meaningfully because we don’t like pain • We need to honour our emotions, but it’s our commitment that can steer us through change, not our emotions

25. Living with Change Disruption/ Interruption New Order New Relationship Disorder/ Personal Chaos

26. Salt and Light Leaders’ Conference Session 3 Being true: Commitment and Uncommitted Behaviour Leading out of the unique expression of who God made us to be is the most effective way to bear fruit and live well. But that is easier said than done when faced with an increasing number of demands from all sorts of angles. How can we ‘live long and prosper!’ in our leadership roles?

27. Commitment Who I am as a contribution to this world

28. Commitment ‘God calls each one of us to be what we are, to allow our lives to unfold according to our intrinsic nature, to become what God knows us to be’. (Norvene Vest : A Benedictine Spirituality of Work)

29. Commitment ‘A call from God is not a call to do something. It is to be a faithful partner and friend and from that identity, vocation naturally emerges. We do what we are’.

30. Commitment ‘Poiemia’ For we are God’s workmanship… Ephesians 2 v 10

31. Commitment ‘We have a deep, often unspoken sense that we have been created for special purpose, that we have a serious and holy calling to be expressed through active engagement with the world’.

32. Commitment ‘Each one of us has an essential role to play in the divine plan and we have a longing for the reality of this in our hearts, leaving us restless and unsatisfied until we begin to live in fidelity to it’. ‘We must listen for our own ‘deep gladness’

33. Commitment ‘We are meant to be attentive to our own distinctiveness so that we can allow the unfolding of our souls in the service of God…

34. Commitment Enthusiasm means ‘filled with God’ Greek: ‘en’ meaning ‘in’ and ‘theos’ meaning God.

35. Commitment God is far more interested in who you’re becoming than in who you’ve been…

36. Commitment • Spend ten minutes on your own writing down aspects of yourself that provide glimpses into who God has made you to be as a contribution to this world. • Clues are: what you love to do and what you’re enthusiastic about. • Then find a partner and share with each other about who God has committed you to be.

37. Commitment • What did you notice about the other person as they shared? • What did you notice about how you listened? • What did you notice about how you were listened to?

38. Uncommitted Behaviour When the teddy leaves the pram!

39. Uncommitted Behaviour Being Right and Making Others WrongDominating and Avoiding DominationShedding ResponsibilityCreating a Context to Justify our Negative Behaviour

40. Uncommitted Behaviour Uncommitted behaviour means:We relinquish our commitmentIt achieves nothing positive in the long termIt has long term negative consequences:relationships, productivity, health, self-expression and fulfillment

41. Uncommitted Behaviour How do we deal with uncommitted behaviour? We need to make sure we are making choices consistent with who we are in God. We need to get back to our commitment, rather than stay in our emotions.

42. Uncommitted Behaviour • Think of a change or initiative that someone has tried to introduce in the church or at work where you have shown uncommitted behaviour.What were you trying to achieve that was positive for you? • What would have been a better expression of that? • Is there an expression of uncommitted behaviour that is a habit for you?

43. Salt and Light Leaders’ Conference Session 4 Learning to Love The greatest commandment, Jesus said, was to love……first God, and secondly, my neighbour. How can we keep love as the focus and motivating force in our leadership?

44. Listening • Listening is the number one leadership skill • Hearing is not listening • We don’t listen, we reload • Listening allows relationship • How you listen affects how the other person

45. Listening ‘Listening is the beginning of love. There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is impatient, inattentive listening that despises the person and is only waiting for a chance to speak’. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

46. Listening ‘Holding one’s tongue means we allow people to exist in their freedom. God did not make this person as I have made him. He is not for me to dominate and control. I can never know before hand how God’s image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form. The diverse individuals are cause for rejoicing in one another and serving’. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

47. ‘The deepest need of the human soul is to be heard…’

48. Listening • To evaluate – coach or critic? • For use – apprentice or mercenary? • With efficiency – steward or miser? • To relate – • heart or mask?

49. Listening Exercise • Think about a time when you were listened to negatively …describe how you felt. • Think about a time when you were listened to well. What was that like? • Think about your habitual form of listening…how do you affect the other person? • How could using the other forms of listening improve your relationships?

50. Discussion ‘to shake apart’ • Offloading opinions • Analysis • Repeating one’s view • Being defensive • Competitive • From a fixed position