{"id":27995,"date":"2021-12-01T11:15:37","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T19:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=27995"},"modified":"2021-11-24T19:48:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-25T03:48:30","slug":"flourishing-aint-just-sitting-around-a-campfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/flourishing-aint-just-sitting-around-a-campfire\/","title":{"rendered":"Flourishing Ain\u2019t Just Sitting Around a Campfire"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Everyone Culture<\/em> is a book about the development of people. Incorporating leadership, business, and psychology principles, authors Dr. Robert Kegan and Dr. Lisa Lahey address the importance of developing people to develop businesses. The two principles can coincide and certainly are not mutually exclusive. In fact, People Development + Business Development = the Good for All. Coining the term DDOs (deliberately developmental organizations), the authors state that if you care deeply about \u201cpeople development (for the good of the company, or the good of the planet, or both), this might be the most powerful way to organize your culture \u2013 and it is possible to do so, and still run a very successful business.”[1]<\/a> Having co-founded a company called Minds at Work (MAW<\/a>), Kegan and Lahey are experts in the field with a distinct methodology to help individuals, teams, and organizations foster desired change.<\/p>\n

The authors pose the question, “What is the most powerful way to develop the capabilities of people at work?”[2]<\/a> As communicated above, this is a book about the development of people and human flourishing. It “includes an experience of meaning and engagement but in relation to the satisfaction of experiencing one’s own growth and unfolding, becoming more of the person one was meant to be, bringing more of oneself into the world.”[3]<\/a> While the authors do not use this language, it is my interpretation that the theme of the book is captured in Ephesians 2:10, which says, \u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.\u201d[4]<\/a> As leaders motivated by faith in Jesus, our call is to develop those we lead to mature and find fulfillment in the God-ordained works that the Lord has set before them. Assuming we can lead our organizations in such a way, the author suggests that this kind of human flourishing will lead people to experience \u201cnew incomes,\u201d which are all about \u201cpersonal satisfaction, meaningfulness, and happiness.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet, the authors do not hold fast to a rose-colored understanding of flourishing. For one to flourish does not mean that they are free from conflict, or in the words of the authors, \u201cWe don\u2019t define flourishing by sitting-around-the-campfire moments.\u201d Why? Because we \u201cask people to do seemingly impossible things.\u201d[6]<\/a> This mindset reminds me of the cost of discipleship and leadership. 2 Timothy 3:12 says, \u201cIndeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.\u201d[7]<\/a> This passage and so many more make clear the true cost of following Jesus. However, it is also in this path, and only in this path, that we experience the full life God intended for us. By trying to save our life, we lose it, but in losing our life for Jesus and the gospel, we save it and partake in the abundant life (cf. Mark 8:34-36; John 10:10). With this view in mind, the authors note, “Pain + Reflection = Progress.”[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

I found this book to be of particular interest to me both in my capacity of leading a nonprofit organization and in light of my NPO. While I am still undecided which direction I will go for my final project, two of my Big Three Ideas<\/em> focus on the leadership development of residents in our low-income community. In addition to the noted observations from the text, many other concepts will further aid me in developing a curriculum to identify, invite, equip, and release leaders on a mission to seek the flourishing of all.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey, An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization<\/em> (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press, 2016), 197.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 4.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 9.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Kegan and Lahey, An Everyone Culture<\/em>, 8.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 35.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update<\/em>.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Kegan and Lahey, An Everyone Culture<\/em>, 52.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Everyone Culture is a book about the development of people. Incorporating leadership, business, and psychology principles, authors Dr. Robert Kegan and Dr. Lisa Lahey address the importance of developing people to develop businesses. The two principles can coincide and certainly are not mutually exclusive. In fact, People Development + Business Development = the Good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"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":[1931,1934,2139,2004],"class_list":["post-27995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-an-everyone-culture","tag-kegan","tag-lahey","tag-lgp11","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995","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\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27995"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27996,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}