{"id":35816,"date":"2024-02-20T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35816"},"modified":"2024-02-19T09:22:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T17:22:49","slug":"questions-subvert-mindsets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/questions-subvert-mindsets\/","title":{"rendered":"Questions subvert Mindsets."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"15<\/p>\n

“A Failure of Nerve Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix” by Edwin H Friedman is compelling, especially the comparisons between the old and new world orientations, summarised at the end of chapter one[1]. The author’s juxtaposition of the two worlds provides an accurate analogy for the goal of a leader when guiding an organisation or church from its current state to its potential future.<\/p>\n

In 2019, I was honoured to be voted the National Leader of a Pentecostal Denomination in Great Britain. The great joy of envisioning where the denomination could transition versus the reality of the situation was stark.<\/p>\n

In his foreword for Friedman’s book, Peter Steinke introduces the reader to the author’s philosophy that “questions subvert mindsets” [2]. Indeed, any radical transition of our movement starting in 2019 would involve asking the right questions. Friedman’s book provides insights into addressing, at least partially, five crucial questions that our movement needed to address.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How can a movement that is 95 years old (100 this year) transition into a new season with success? The answer to this was to lead by example. Friedman says, “The Old World’s process of reorientation could never have come about if that civilisation had not produced individuals who were willing to go first.” [3] We needed our “Captains Courageous” [4] to lead the way.<\/li>\n
  2. How can church autonomy function without independence diminishing a collective vision\/mission? Friedman explains that when two individuals undergoing tension seek solace by drawing in a third party, emotional triangles emerge [5]. Similarly, in the context of a movement of churches, tensions between the current state (individual 1) and desired future state (individual 2) may prompt a quest for relief through new leadership and strategies (individual 3) embodying New World ideologies and methodologies.<\/li>\n
  3. How can a denomination radically move forward while valuing traditions and people, without dishonouring those who have gone before? Friedman’s chapter on The Fallacy of Empathy addresses this issue in depth. In particular, he writes that “focus on empathy rather than responsibility has contributed to a major misorientation in our society about the nature of what is toxic to life itself” [6]. Responsibility in leadership today is about running with the baton of faith before God, without an over-reliance on what was, focussing on what is and can be. We can honour people, without holding to historic practices that are not explicitly prescribed in Scripture. Historically our empathy and sympathy have cross-pollinated and restricted us from acting decisively.<\/li>\n
  4. How do we identify the systemic weaknesses that hold us back and the strengths that will move us forward? Friedman discusses the problem of agendas where “adaptation is constantly toward weakness rather than strength.” [7]<\/li>\n
  5. How do we successfully take as many people and churches as possible on the next stage of the journey? In the chapter entitled “A Society in Regression”, Friedman highlights the importance of leaders maintaining a non-anxious presence and demonstrating courage in challenging regressive patterns[8]. The potential to lose leaders\/churches on the journey of change can create anxiety in leadership.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    “Leading the Revolution[9]” by Gary Hamel articulates powerful assertions that, when reframed as questions, prompt critical reflection for the radical, new world leader.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. What would it look like to not just “get better, but get different? [10]\u201d<\/li>\n
    2. What would it look like to “not just catch up, but break out? [11]<\/li>\n
    3. What would it look like to “not just do best practice, but invent new practice?” [12]<\/li>\n
    4. What would it look like to “not just accept your lot, but change your world?” [13]<\/li>\n
    5. What does it mean to recognise that “yesterday’s insurgents are today’s incumbents?” [14]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      In part, the answer to each of the above questions lay in recognising that our heritage was and is not our destiny. We must be willing to set sail from the shores of our current reality to reach new shores (a modern rewording of Andre Paul Guillaume’s quote)[15].<\/p>\n

      Change is costly, but so is failing to change[16]. In identifying that living with a crisis is a major part of leaders’ lives[17] or, as Eve Poole describes, critical incidents[18], Friedman prepares the emerging leader and reminds the seasoned leader what leadership involves. To be a cartographer of a new world, leaders need to prepare to lead through the crisis dynamic. His insight into tension in leadership crisis [19] empowers leaders to prepare and handle such events. While the past five years have seen remarkable results as we have sought to answer the subversive mindset questions, inevitable crisis moments have arisen as leadership has been in “the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives.” [20] Friedman adds to this by underscoring that leadership has a “conceptual and emotional dimension that reinforce one another.” [21] Transitioning from the old to new worlds takes emotional fortitude and is not for the faint-hearted. The team I am honoured to serve with are remarkable men and women, my \u201cCaptains Courageous.”<\/p>\n

      It is sad that Friedman died at such a young age and never fully realised his vision for the book.<\/p>\n

      References<\/p>\n

      [1] Friedman, Edwin H., and Peter Steinke. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. 10th Anniversary edition. New York: Church Publishing, 2017. 56
      \n[2] Ibid, viii.
      \n[3] Ibid,199.
      \n[4] Ibid,199.
      \n[5] Ibid,219.
      \n[6] Ibid, 143.
      \n[7] Ibid,13.
      \n[8] Ibid, 57.
      \n[9] Hamel, Gary. 2003. Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life. Revised edition. New York: Harvard Business Review Press.
      \n[10] Ibid, vii.
      \n[11] Ibid, viii.
      \n[12] Ibid, viii.
      \n[13] Ibid, viii.
      \n[14] Ibid, ix.
      \n[15] Gide, Andre. 1952. \u2018Ainsi Soit-Il; Ou, Les Jeux Sont Faits\u2019. 1952. Accessed 14 February 2024, https:\/\/en.wikiquote.org\/wiki\/Andr%C3%A9_Gide.
      \n[16] CCL. ‘Change Comes at a Cumulative Cost’. CCL, 2022. Accessed 14 February 2024, https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/leading-effectively-articles\/change-comes-at-a-cumulative-cost\/.
      \n[17] Friedman, 29.
      \n[18] Poole, Eve. 2017. Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership. Bloomsbury Publishing. 14.
      \n[19] Friedman, 260.
      \n[20] Yukl, Gary. 2012. Leadership in Organizations Global Edition. 8th edition. Boston Munich u.a: Pearson Ed. 8.
      \n[21] Friedman, 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      “A Failure of Nerve Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix” by Edwin H Friedman is compelling, especially the comparisons between the old and new world orientations, summarised at the end of chapter one[1]. The author’s juxtaposition of the two worlds provides an accurate analogy for the goal of a leader when guiding an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"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":[2967,236],"class_list":["post-35816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03","tag-friedman","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35816","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\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35949,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35816\/revisions\/35949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}