REFLECTION<\/p>\n Even though the book is primarily filled with examples of the for-profit world, the core ideas have a direct relationship with the way we approach pastoral leadership. \u00a0After all, we are called to lead in relationship, and to inspire people to grow and serve in meaningful ways in order to accomplish God’s goals together.<\/p>\n One important insight of the book is that for open leadership to work, it must be structured with internal systems that provide accountability. The author says, \u201cYou have to have a plan for how you will, in effect, control openness. This is not a contradiction\u2014in fact, I believe it is a necessity that you structure and explain openness and hold it accountable.\u201d (106) Li suggests that using covenants<\/em> is a good way of building trust and ensuring accountability. \u201cCovenants are promises that people make with each other\u2026 When leaders open up and give up control they trust that employees will do what they promise, that customers will respond and engage in a civil manner. A key part of a covenant is accountability, spelling out what happens if either party doesn\u2019t keep their side of the bargain.\u201d (109).<\/p>\n I find these insights validating. A couple of years ago, when we started developing the new philosophy of membership at Ethnos Bible Church, we created a covenant to ensure accountability and to facilitate healthy exit (we call it a Ministry Partnership Agreement). We included a list of expectations and asked the person to sign the bottom of the page. Initially, the idea of asking new members to sign a covenant seemed exclusivist. I was fearful that implementing this new system would turn people off, especially since church is seen more like family rather than as an organization. However, the outcome turned out to be positive rather than negative.<\/p>\n This week I attended a conference called Mosaix. It is the largest gathering of leaders from the multiethnic church movement in the US. They dedicated an entire hour to the importance of open leadership in multiethnic churches. I learned that healthy multiethnic churches make an effort to give voice to their congregation in order to ensure that people from different cultural backgrounds can share their ideas and concerns. One speaker pointed out that sometimes the best next idea might come from the most unexpected person in the church and not necessarily from the paid staff. It was good to hear these perspectives while I was reading Li\u2019s book. They all point out to the same direction.\u00a0\u00a0 They remind me that if I want to grow as a leader, I must be interested in what people are thinking and develop intentional ways to engage them. Wisdom,\u00a0says proverbs, is found in the abundance of counselors.<\/p>\n The book was not only validating but also challenging. It calls me to engage with social media and technology more effectively, both at the personal and at the ministry level. Yet, it is not easy for me to be a leader in the Facebook age. I am an introvert and prefer to be connected to a smaller group. Posting on Facebook still feels awkward for me. Yet, Li challenges me to re-think the way I use social technology to connect with people. One small step in that direction was the creation of the email ideas@ethnoschurch.org<\/a>. It seeks to give people the chance to send us any comment at any time they want. This may be a small step, but after all, every journey starts with one step.<\/p>\n Even though I enjoyed the book, I was also left wondering about the relationship between open leadership and cultural worldview. To what degree is this view of leadership compatible with different cultural contexts? \u00a0If you are still looking for a topic for your dissertation, maybe you just found one!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUMMARY Collins told us that Level-Five leaders surround themselves with self-motivated people who seek\u00a0understanding together. They learn from mistakes and develop an atmosphere where people\u2019s input is valued.\u00a0\u00a0 Hirshman told us that it is very important to develop this kind of environment because it allows people to have voice, and in doing so it can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[708,689,688],"class_list":["post-10118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-charlene-li","tag-ethnos-bible-church","tag-pablo-morales","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Open](\"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Open-Leadership-Chart.jpg\")
<\/a>Charlene Li defines open leadership as \u201chaving the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals.\u201d (18). She argues that leadership is fundamentally about relationships, and nowadays, the way people relate to each other and to information has been shaped by new social technologies. Consequently, leaders must learn how to relate to people in their organizations in new ways, while at the same time they must develop organizational mechanisms that take into consideration the new dynamics and shapes of open leadership.<\/p>\n