Here is a set of discussion cards about leadership as improvisation. In my doctoral research I made a distinction between improvisation and innovation as follows:
According to Sharon Parks, adaptive leadership occurs through experimentation and improvisation. (Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World. Boston: Harvard Business School Pub., 2005).
The cards of quotes from an excellent journal article by Deborah Kapp, “Improvisation and the Practice of Ministry.” Journal of Religious Leadership 9, no. 1 (2010): p35-57. http://arl-jrl.org/journal-of-religiousleadership/ journal-articles-by-volume/. Deborah Kapp describes improvisation in congregations as a subset of innovation.
Whereas Kapp speaks of improvisation in ministry more as “on the fly” adaptation in response to immediate need, I am placing improvisation in a continuum between conservation and innovation.635 Improvisation is more concerned with creatively transforming the tradition, whereas innovation is focused on doing completely new things. [C. Mitchell, Re-forming Christian Education as the Praxis of Growing Disciples for a Missional Church, PhD Thesis, Flinders University, 2018.]
Maintaining tradition
Preservation” _builder_version=”4.15.0″ _module_preset=”default” col_chead_text_font=”|600|||||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_label=”Improvisation” col_content=”Improvisation
Reforming tradition
Adaptation” _builder_version=”4.15.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][dvmd_table_maker_item col_label=”Innovation” col_content=”Innovation
Releasing tradition
Mutation” _builder_version=”4.15.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][/dvmd_table_maker_item][/dvmd_table_maker]
In my doctoral research regarding Christian education in Uniting Church congregations, my finding was that most churches and leader in the sample were improvisational. Diana Butler Bass speaks of the retraditioning (or adaptation) on Christian practices. [Diana Butler Bass, The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church, the Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church. Herndon: The Alban Institute, 2004.]
These cards are provided for discussion purposes. Please acknowledge Deborah Kapp as the author.
IMPROVISATION_QUOTES (150kb PDF)