Week 8 of our unit for Uniting College for Leadership and Theology was the first of two sessions on Leadership and Change. Of course there is a plethora of material on both, and people can do whole units on each of these topics through the College and University anyway. So I kept the focus selective in a couple of ways.
I began by asking people to write on post-it ntoes “What are some common problems facing churches when it comes to mission?” We then put those aside for later.
Leadership as Perspective
We talked about the Anablep (a favourite of Jenny Byrnes) and then the difference between seeing what is happening from the dance floor and from the balcony (Heifetz and Linksy). Then we explored the difference between technical and adaptive problems and solutions (Heifetz and Linsky).
We returned to our post-it notes to discuss whether the problems and possible solutions that we had identified were technical or adaptive, or sometimes both.
Leadership as Asking Deeper Questions
We explored single, douple and triple loop learning (attributed to various authors, sometimes erroneously).
To put it most simply,
- How do we do it better? (Better results)
- What are we aiming for? (Goals and purpose)
- Why are we doing this in the first place? (Identity)
Yes there’s a whole lot more to learning loops, but you get the idea. Again we reflected on some of our examples of mission problems with this.
Leadership and Learning
My focus has been on the two-way relationship between growing as disciples and growing in mission, and hence the importance of a congregation being a learning community of missional disciples.
We revisited some of my doctoral research about learning communities, and then went deeper on my findings about learning and leadership: leaders as leaders and leaders enabling learning. So there are things here about (a) leaders’ own openness to and participation in learning, (b) how leaders lead a learning community, (c) the ministry of teaching, (d) teaching and learning styles, and (e) cultivating a leadership team who are a learning conmmunity.
We watched and discussed a video excerpt of my research interview with Rev Dr Ian Hickingbotham who was at the time serving at North Ringwood Uniting Church in Victoria. Ian is superb, I asked people to analyse the interview through lenses related to learning – what Ian was learning, his ways of teaching and encouraging others to learn, and what others were learning.
Screenshot
The Growing Disciples Game
Yes folks, then it was time to play the Growing Disciples Board Game which is a game I developed based on my doctoral thesis, because learning can be fun too. You get to travel around the board, visit each corner for an activity, and try to avoid the Budget Black Hole in the middle (your church has no budget for Christian education…)
- LEADERSHIP CARDS have quotes from church leaders (my interview participants) to discuss
- TEACHING CARDS have story examples from their churches for discussion
- CHURCH CARDS have a comment and then a question for the game players about their own church
- DISCIPLES CARDS have pithy quotes about discipleship, faith etc from well-known authors to reflect upon.
At each corner you get some M&Ms (which I forgot to buy on this occasion). We were playing the game hybrid style with 2 cameras and people in the room and online. Of course it’s a blast but we needed more time.
Next week we’ll be looking at change as a process, and how that differs with different kinds of learning approaches, and looking at what resources and approaches we’ve been acquiring over the semester to assist with this,
Thanks for playing.