Metanoia: The Formational Undercurrent of an Innovative Leader
To imagine “that which could be” requires a new way of thinking – new wineskins. The status quo is a direct result of the current modus operandi, or to quote the oft used leadership adage, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” It’s helpful to employ a Greek concept here: that of metanoia. Peter Senge’s pinnacle work on leadership in the 1990s, The Fifth Discipline, brought this word to the popular stage as he urged organizations to be “learning organizations.” True learning, not simply fact gathering or information consuming, is predicated by genuine metanoia. This shift of mind in learning is so important and foundational.
[Learning] gets to the heart of what it means to be human. Through learning we recreate ourselves. Through learning we become able to do something we never were able to do…Through learning we extend our capacity to create, to be part of the generative process of life. (Senge, 13-14)
Leadership, and innovative leadership all the more, demands – or perhaps invites – metanoia. This word is translated in the New Testament simply as repent. The innovative leader must have metanoia as the continual formational undercurrent of shift in mindset and repentance – particularly of the stale, the ego, and power.
Humans have a propensity to reductionism: ideas, thinking, God, theology and imagination. This is how I would describe stale thinking. One does not need to move to neophilia – the over infatuation with the new – but must head Jesus’ words: “Metanoia, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Jesus wasn’t calling for mental ascent, but for an entirely new category of thinking (and thus living).
One of the biggest obstacles to a leadership embodiment categorized by metanoia is the ego. The story of the Tower of Babel stands (pun intended) as a pointed reminder of an innovative leadership revolving around the ego. “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4). The text reminds us of our need to repent and fulfill the full range of what metanoia means in a changing of mind – a confession of a propensity to use the gifts of God for our own name, but also the calcifying of our imaginations.
Power becomes important to innovation theory because innovation is largely about solving problems, but whose problems, who decides which problems to address, and who might have access to these solutions? These are all issues of power. Andy Crouch helps us make the connection between creativity and power with his concise definition: “Power is the ability to make something of the world” (Crouch, 17).
Consider the preceding to be a lengthy introduction of a leadership theorist, practitioner, and consultant, Simon Walker of Oxford University. Striking some of the same notes, his work is best captured in The Undefended Leader Trilogy. He proposes a comprehensive image of an undefended leader which can be described most simply as “being free enough as a leader to be fully available for the situation in hand, without being compromised by fears, doubts and the need for self preservation” (Walker, Leadership).
We all carry stale “steering cognition biases” that often result in “defended leadership” which degenerates (think opposite of “generative”) into innovation killers: devotion to stale strategies, grasping for control, and eliminating risk (Walker, Leading out of Who You Are, 120). Walker calls leaders to “make different choices, embrace different aspirations and develop a different political vision” (11). Though he doesn’t use the word metanoia he certainly describes that shift in mind.
For Walker, our lack of freedom stems in part to the ego which is a part of our sinful nature, but also nurtured throughout our childhood (61). He explores the pathologies of over-confidence and paternalism, drivenness and ambition, anxiety and over-responsibility, and suspicion and over-sensitivity (61-111). The ego, he argues, remains as the largest obstacle for undefended leadership.
In his second book of the trilogy, Walker offers a fresh take on power through weakness. Calling for metanoia, he urges for a “whole new way of thinking about power” (Leading with Nothing to Lose, 5). A free leader is able to embody weakness and deploy the most appropriate of Walker’s eight distinct kinds of power. He will go on to describe these kinds of power through the lens of a corresponding historic and famous leaders. His third book will look at societal factors that play both into the ego and power dynamics. He will explore greed, hunger for “cheap” money, celebrity, and the growing poverty gap as failures of Western Capitalism (Leading with Everything to Give, 19-69).
Personally, I am wrestling with the concept of the undefended leader in light of finishing a scholarly history of Cru and its founder, Bill Bright. While Bright inspired thousands and thousands, created one of the largest Christian nonprofits in a single lifetime, and spawned dozens of ministries, I would not categorize Bright as an undefended leader. His control and authoritarianism were recognized widely. Many staff under Bill Bright agreed about the rigidity, regimentation, blindness of other’s input and ideas and one lamented, “There wasn’t a lot of room for creativity.” Cru’s history is pockmarked with resignations and firings of dissenting voices. An argument could be made that the new ministries founded under the umbrella of Campus Crusade for Christ were the brain children of Bill Bright and not due to an innovative culture.
Pray for me (seriously). I am trusting God for a personal life marked by metanoia, but also seeking to lead in an organization that needs a fresh posture of metanoia. We are stuck in many ways in the stale, have an inflated organizational ego, and have a power imbalance. I remain hopeful (to a point) also based on Cru’s history. The renewed growth in the 1990s can be attributed to a refocus on the core vision of Cru (“Every student”), a rediscovery of their essential emphasis on the Spirit, and an openness to move on from past approaches and embracing new ideas and philosophies.
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Andy Crouch, Playing God: Redeeming the Gifts of Power (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2013), 17.
Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. (New York: Doubleday, 1990).
John G. Turner, Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2008).
Simon P. Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership (Carlise, UK: Piquant, 2007).
Simon P. Walker, Leading with Nothing to Lose: Training in the Exercise of Power (Carlise, UK: Piquant, 2007).
Simon P. Walker, Leading with Everything to Give: Lessons from the Success and Failure of Western Capitalism (Carlise, UK: Piquant, 2007).
Simon P. Walker, “Leadership” website, (accessed March 10. 2020) http://simonpwalker.com/leadership/4532701005.
About the Author
Shawn Cramer
13 responses to “Metanoia: The Formational Undercurrent of an Innovative Leader”
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Shawn,
As I read your words, I envisioned you as a rudder on a ship. With the slightest of adjustment, the rudder can redirect the ship toward a vastly different destination. Where might that mighty Cru ship port when you begin to make slight changes in your leadership posture? How might those around you be impacted by your willingness to live metanoia? It’s such an integral component for Kin-dom living. I believe your intention to do so can transform a culture and a people.
I appreciate your intentional words of encouragement. I’m concerned the ship is too large and the rudder is set 🙁
There’s always hope, my friend. Always. Jesus is the master sailor. He knows the waters well. Be faithful and He will carry you through to destinations you could never have imagined.
I was thinking of the caracteristic of an innovating leader as I was reading your post. Innovative leaders lead with confidence and authority. They turn difficult circumstances into opportunities to demonstrate their decision-making abilities, and take responsibility for making difficult decisions. These leaders interact and hold the attention of the audience in major meetings and discussions, and do not avoid conflicts or differences of opinion.
It takes a humble confidence to listen to dissenting voices, doesn’t it.
Shawn,
I believe there is room for confidence and authority, as well as, humility and compassion in a leader. Transformative leaders know when to be a strong leader and when to be humble and change their minds. My prayers are with you as you maneuver the organizational ego and the power imbalance.
Thanks for the encouragement. Timely use of different power – sounds in line with Walker to me.
We all carry stale “steering cognition biases… I would think there is some value in the stale as you post. Some who want change change change may need to do what an employee told me he learned from his sargent when he sought adventure during his job. Private Holmes, don’t just do something, stand there!
I would distinguish the historic and alive with the stale and dead. Change for change sake (neophilia) is just as dangerous of fear of change (neophobia).
Shawn, I’m psyched about what your work can and will mean to bringing about needed change.
I know that Cru has a lot of university volunteers in it (met a few when I was with my previous organization). How has the current leadership climate affected students who want to try something new? Is it encouraged? Or are new ideas shut down? Is it a case where there’s little to no support for them in these endeavors?
To a degree (and of course, mileage varies from campus to campus) – I would say that there is little support if it doesn’t seem completely aligned with the staff’s direction.
Your post reminded me of my fascination with Lincoln and his cabinet of “rivals.” He created a culture where one was free to argue and dissent- maybe even to the point of changing the president’s mind- but they were also clear that his was the final decision. I’m in awe of leaders who have both the strength and humility to build and lead such a team. The image of metanoia is powerful because it reminds us that at the end of the day, this is all belongs to God- not us. I will lift you up in prayer as you seek to infiltrate your organization with new ways of thinking and being!
Unanimous agreement feels so good, though, doesn’t it?