Dorothy Sayers and The Network
“I have a hunch that if we were to repeat our research in ten years’ time, networking would feature more prominently.”[1] Yes! Networking. Better yet, networks. While reading Eve Poole’s Leadersmithing, I was already pondering mental comparisons to Michael Lindsay’s View from the Top,[2] published just a few years before Poole’s work. After all, the two authors (among the many who cover the subject of leadership) do take their readers on the journey of “how to lead,” but they do so from different starting points. When I read Poole’s “hunch” about networking, my pondering grew even stronger. I’ll come back to networking in a few minutes.
Character
Dorothy Sayers. The best definition of “work” I’ve ever heard (or read) gets attributed to Sayers: “Work is the gracious expression of creative energy in the service of others.” In addition to that absolutely correct definition of work is Sayers’ super helpful essay she penned during World War II: “Why Work.” That essay, taken from Letters to a Diminished Church, proved to be very formative in an earlier season of my life and ministry. It was a season where I gobbled up everything I could find on faith, work, and leadership. And so, I was immediately MORE interested in Poole’s Leadersmithing when she name-dropped not only Sayers but the playwright’s essay “Why Work!”[3] If character is the goal for the leader who wants more confidence in leadership,[4] Sayers essay is a must read. Sayers puts a great deal of emphasis on the intrinsic value of work. It’s an “internal reward or good in itself.”[5] And it’s a good place to start when it comes to leadership. Think about the product you are building or the service you are delivering. Apply your experience and skills to do excellent work before you think too much about what others think. “You cannot do good work if you take your mind off the work to see how the community is taking it – any more than you can make a good drive from the tee if you take your eye off the ball.”[6]
Apprenticeship
What better place to learn how to lead or do anything that requires some skill for that matter, than to approach one’s craft through the apprenticeship framework. After all, “apprenticeship used to be the main way you entered trade.”[7]
Poole’s “Crafty Essentials,” the “core practices (that) are the equivalent of learning about tools and materials as an apprentice,”[8] are best explored before the craftsperson, or the leader, exercises their skill for “public consumption.”[9] This apprenticeship – dare I expand that word to “residency” – approach has proved to be helpful for churches that plant churches. Being a “church planter in residence” can be a safe place to explore a number of tools, competencies, even “critical incidents,”[10] without having to make it all on one’s own. Many of the leadership components (dealing with uncertainty and risk, conflict, delegation, communication, speaking, work-life balance, coaching, etc.) discussed as Diamonds, Spades, Clubs, and Hearts in part 2[11] of Poole’s book are tackled during a 2-year residency for church planters at a church I know quite well. In year one, the residents would receive on the job training while serving a particular ministry within the church. About half of the resident’s time involved working through best practices at the church. The second year involved the resident serving at a daughter church (one of the many churches our church had planted around our city over the years) under the tutelage of that church’s pastor while continuing to report to a supervisor. During year two, the resident gained more experience in preaching, leading teams, developing a ministry plan, and much more. It wasn’t perfect, but it was done in the spirit of apprenticeship.
The Guild
One of the best parts of the church-planter-in-residence program at that church was the region’s 501c3 network the planter belonged to. The “church planting network” provided the perfect place for the prospective planter to meet others who were further down the road in their pastoral ministry. At the same time, the resident had the opportunity to receive training and peer coaching alongside other church planters. The network convened monthly. It provided a sense of belonging. It was a place to develop friendships and cultivate partnerships with others also serving the work in that city. It’s not necessarily a dynamic equivalent, but the network could be compared with aspects of the old “guild” referred to by Poole in her Leadersmithing chapter.[12] “Guilds are defined as associations of craftsmen and merchants formed to promote the economic interests of their members as well as to provide protection and mutual aid.”[13] Okay, perhaps it’s a stretch, but the network accomplished some of this. It promoted the interests of the planter/pastor in that city, gave street cred to its members (it was cool to be in this particular network!), and it provided cohort-based training and individual coaching — very real aid the planter needed!
Back to Networking
I said I’d come back to networking. If Poole DOES repeat her research in the future and acts on her networking “hunch,” I wonder what authors and practitioners she might consult. Maybe Keith Ferrrazi? Ferrazzi’s book Never Eat Alone[14] might be a good resource to glance at. By the time Poole repeats her research, Ferrazzi’s book would be a golden oldie. Even older would be James Davison Hunter’s To Change the World[15]. In that book, Hunter wrote about the importance of the network (rather than the “hero” leader) as crucial to affect change.
Perhaps one of my favorite “leadership” books of the past several years has been Michael Lindsay’s View from the Top. Lindsay writes about the power and foundational nature of the leader’s network. The leader’s network is crucial to the leader truly getting anything done. He writes, “There are many ways to ‘make it,’ but they all require networks.”[16] Perhaps Poole goes there, next time.
[1] Poole, Eve. Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership. (London: Bloomsbury, 2017), 143.
[2] Lindsay, Michael. View from the Top. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, 2014.
[3] Poole, 48.
[4] Ibid., 47.
[5] Ibid., 48.
[6] See the following website, accessed on 2.10.23: https://www1.villanova.edu/content/dam/villanova/mission/faith/Why%20Work%20by%20Dorothy%20Sayers.pdf
[7] Poole, 59.
[8] Ibid., 73.
[9] Ibid., 73.
[10] Ibid., 10.
[11] Poole, Part 2, 71.
[12] Poole, Chapter 4, 57-69.
[13] See the following website, accessed on 2.10.23: https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/se_77021364.pdf
[14] Ferrazzi, Keith. Never Eat Alone. New York: Crown, 2014.
[15] Hunter, James Davison, To Change the World. Oxford: University Press. 2010.
[16] Lindsay, 1.
About the Author
Travis Vaughn
8 responses to “Dorothy Sayers and The Network”
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Hi Travis, Your comments opened up a bunch of reading doors toward leadership. Thanks.
I liked your thought, “The spirit of apprenticeship” applies to many resident/intern programs.
While the historical practice had some seedy elements to it, the idea of learning from the master makes perfect sense. I think the idea of Comacho’s Mining for Gold harmonize with the apprenticeship marries up nicely with this book.
My required internship at World Relief, set me on a path of learning/discovery. More importantly, I discovered a strong sympatico with the Refugee, Humanitarian Parolee, Asylum seeker and others.
I watched the incredibly bureaucratic immigration process overlayed with compassion and love by those already in the business.
Thanks for your comments…Shalom…Russ
Russ, I didn’t know you did an internship with World Relief. Our church has been involved with World Relief for a long time (my family has done some volunteer training with them, too). Great organization. What was the outcome of your internship — what was the internship designed to help you do? I’m curious. I would imagine that, had you NOT participated in that internship, perhaps your perspective on immigration would not have been as comprehensive as it is today. I’d love to hear what threshold concepts you might have crossed when you went through the internship.
Travis,
We’ll need to talk further in Oxford as much of what you are describing in the church planting Apprentice program is what I believe formal education needs to transition to for all ministry preparation (with the inclusion of some formal theological training from a credited institution and personal mentorship examining their inner life). This notion of sending away our young adults for four years of primarily class instruction and a short ‘internship’ is not only becoming more and more financially unfeasible, it is also showing itself and less and less effective in ministry training. Some sort of hybrid system that involves formal education, practical work experience, and long-term mentorship seems to be viable alternative. What do you think?
Scott, the short answer is YES. I concur that some sort of hybrid system is both the present (in some places) and future of ministry preparation. The brick and mortar seminary / graduate school will have to continue to adapt to a changing educational landscape. In our theological tradition, I do see a growing number of students who are pursuing non-traditional options, some of which are not regionally accredited. In the church I wrote about in the blog post, some of the residents who had not started or were not yet finished with their graduate/seminary degree would take advantage of a local non-traditional seminary option while doing their residency. In my present work, I am hoping to integrate a three-tiered residency approach that will help leaders work out their calling, be placed in a church planting residency, and then AFTER planting, they would work through a cohort-based leadership track using a trusted partner to provide the coaching and training. I think the current/future is non-formal (not informal, nor formal, necessarily) education and training. And yes, I’d love to talk more with you about these things when we are in Oxford. How is your tribe dealing with the changing frontiers of graduate level theological training (or even undergrad?)? I’d also be curious to know what you think is MISSING from new(er) methods of training, including what you think might be missing from a content standpoint.
Travis I love reading your brilliant posts! you are truly inspiring my brother. I have placed “View from the Top” on my reading list. This might be a conversation for London but how did View from the Top change you as a leader?
Todd, thanks for your kind words. And would love to talk more about it when we are in Oxford, too. View from the Top helped affirm a couple of things — 1) Networks are critical to leadership and they probably precede knowledge and skill, as important as those are, and 2) The White House Fellows program that he references — and others like it — are crucial to building networks not only to strengthen weak ties but to affect change
I like where you are going with the networking and how you highlighted that part of the book. I appreciate your reading suggestions. In my work in healthcare, our Bereavement Coordinator often tells us to find a “lunch” buddy! We are field clinicians so there are days we can be out in the field and never run into a coworker and it can be lonely and isolating and easy to find yourself cornered into a space where you feel like you are the only one struggling or not doing enough. I have found even in this program the best I feel is when others can relate to my struggles! It normalizes the humanity in me. So to your point in finding a network seems to be a crucial piece to leadership longevity! Not just the schmoozing type of networking, but a closer accountability type networking where trust is built and we can be vulnerable!
What kind of network have you found that helps sustain you?
Jana, that is a great question! I have a non-formal network that I have been a part of for many years — many of whom were guests on seasons 1 and 2 of my podcast in ’21 and ’22 — and I led a network in Atlanta that served as a 501c3 nonprofit in the church planting space. I also serve on a few boards, and these act as a sort of network, and I am building network dynamics right now into a presbytery (an association of churches in my denomination), and we are very much on the ground floor of that.