Open Leadership by Charlene Li who co-authored Groundswell is essentially a book about transforming relationships. There are 3 main sections. First, she makes the case that giving up control is inevitable and then gives 10 characteristics on what giving up control and being open look like. Second, she unpacks what a strategy to create open leadership looks like. Third, she explains the benefits of being open and how to measure open leadership. Open leadership is not about adopting a new \u201cmantra\u201d or even philosophy. For Li, Open Leadership is an approach to strategy and leadership. It is about changing relationships.<\/p>\n
I approached this book with two questions in my mind. First, what is this book assuming about humanity? Second, how can this book help a bivocational pastor become a better leader?<\/p>\n
This book assumes that humans are consumers and desire to contribute to the organizations that are providing them the goods and services we consume daily. These goods and services are consumed in the U.S. mostly from private businesses like Dell, Apple, Google, and Proctor & Gamble. However, these goods and services are also consumed from non-profits and government sectors as well. For example, the American Red Cross after a disaster like Hurricane Katrina or the United States Department of Defense. The book also assumes that humans desire relationship and social technologies are making it easier for us to relate to the providers of our goods and services.<\/p>\n
Out of the assumption that we desire relationship, Li offers strategies and stories of how to transform relationships by using social technologies. One huge part of any relationship is voice. We\u2019ve talked about this with Hirschman, Friedman and even with The Leadership Mystique. Today\u2019s social technologies are giving consumers a voice that is both loud and easy to share. I have a friend who rents her basement on AirBnB and she says they live and die by their reviews. In other words, her customer\u2019s voice has the power to help or hurt business. Power is shifting in organizations and LI explains how Open Leadership can adapt.<\/p>\n
This book is helpful for bivocational pastors. I found her engagement triangle on page 61 to be very helpful. In a way it reminded me of the old 80\/20 Rule. However, I appreciate the levels of Curator, Producer, Commenter, Sharer and Watcher. I think a bivocational pastor can apply this to her church as a way to audit who is doing what.<\/p>\n
Another helpful concept is the Sandbox Covenant (106). It is hard sometimes for bivocational pastors to define boundaries and create a safe place to play. Bivocational pastors tend to blur boundaries. However, having covenants is an essential part of building trust (109). People who are part of a bivocational pastor lead church need to know what procedures dictate how things will operate in the church. One idea from Li with this is to create social media guidelines. I see this as essential for churches. Two weeks ago I had to have a series of conversations with a Sunday School teacher and a mom and an elder because a person posted on Facebook some negative comments about the Sunday School teacher. It was hurtful and time consuming. Guidelines and a Sandbox Covenant would have helped avoid some of the pain and disappointment.<\/p>\n
One huge struggle for bivocational pastors is authenticity. Li has a great section on what authenticity really means. \u201cTo be a leader, you must first be a good person with intangibles like integrity, honesty, fairness, respect for people, a sense of humor, and daring\u201d (190). But that is not all there is to authenticity. Li states, \u201cAuthenticity is largely defined by what other people see in you and, as such, can to a great extent be controlled by you\u201d (191). To do this bivocational pastors must be true to our values and focus on what we want to accomplish (192). Second, to build authenticity skills we must start small 192).<\/p>\n
Her final advice in her Action Plan: Starting The Transformation is to be patient. Although patience does seem to contradict her first step of creating a sense of urgency, I see patience as an essential step to changing our relationships as leaders with those in our churches. The call for patience assumes that generally speaking humanity is not patient. It also aids bivocational pastors by encouraging us that these things take time. I appreciate that we read this book and I have already spent some time on the open-leadership.com site for more materials. Here\u2019s to becoming more open!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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