{"id":37605,"date":"2024-04-18T09:54:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T16:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37605"},"modified":"2024-04-18T09:54:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T16:54:22","slug":"the-power-to-abandon-the-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-power-to-abandon-the-outcome\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power to Abandon the Outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Parrish’s book,\u00a0Clear Thinking<\/em>, was a great book to end the semester on. This simple but helpful text has reminded me of many of the things we’ve been pondering over this term together, as well as other leadership learnings I’ve experienced along the way. Parrish mentions the importance in his introduction of being in a good position, because “our position determines our future. A good position allows you to think clearly, rather than be forced by circumstances into a decision.”[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Parrish organizes his text into five different parts that build on clear thinking including the enemies of clear thinking, building strength, managing weakness, decisions, and wanting what matters. I want to focus today on a concept that I\u2019ve learned over the past few years; the abandoning of outcomes.<\/p>\n

I first came across this concept of \u201cabandoning the outcome\u201d in a book called, Your Best Life in Jesus\u2019 Easy Yoke<\/em> by Bill Gaultiere. While the book title is one of the cheesiest ever, the book was transformative for me in an important moment of my leadership journey. Gaultiere, however, learned this concept from Dallas Willard.<\/p>\n

It is in Renovation of the Heart<\/em> where Willard lays out the awareness of our limited ego and wisdom when we try to force outcomes as leaders. Instead, the abandoning of the outcome allows us to, \u201caccept that we do not have in ourselves \u2014 in our own \u2018heart, soul, mind, and strength\u2019 \u2014 the wherewithal to make this\u00a0<\/em>come out right, whatever \u2018this\u2019 is.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

As leaders, we are often driven by results. Our emotional, ego, social and inertia defaults can lead us to make mistakes and not think clearly. Parish mentions his conversation with Daniel Kahneman and improving our judgment and decision making through the \u201creplacing of decision with rules.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

What if a rule to safeguard leadership was the abandoning of an outcome to God?<\/p>\n

For the last few years our church has been wrestling with whether or not to keep the word, \u201cEvangelical\u201d in our church name. In a university town in the Pacific Northwest, there are a lot of different connotations that are generated when people hear that word. Even though Evangelical has been in our name for 150 years, we began t0 discuss as to whether or not this word was an unnecessary barrier in reaching people we are called to reach in our city and community. Initially, as one of the main leaders in our church, I had a strong opinion about this question. I thought that my role as a leader was to persuade people to see my perspective and agree with me. But while this probably would\u2019ve worked in the end, the process shifted significantly, for me and our church, when a year or so ago God invited me to abandon the outcome of this conversation to him. Because I let go of the need to get my way, I\u2019ve been able to be a less-anxious anxious leader in discussions and decisions regarding this issue and have been able to use this as an exercise for our church and our leadership in practicing healthy discernment and decision making together, something that is way more important in the long run then the name of our church.<\/p>\n

Ironically, it does appear that we are close as a church leadership to moving forward with a name change, but the joy I feel is not in the decision we are arriving at, but the process that we\u2019ve followed and the health we\u2019ve modeled for our community in this important part of refining the mission of our church.<\/p>\n

In his book, \u201cThe Emotionally Healthy Leader\u201d Pete Scazzero talks about the awareness that leaders need to have on the power in a context that they possess and to make decisions about how they are going to exercising that power. \u201cWe must learn what it means to use our power and then how to establish wise and healthy boundaries in our relationships with others.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the boundaries that I\u2019d suggest we consider is to abandon the outcome to God. This safeguard frees us from the danger of using our power or position to ultimately protect our own ego. When I release the outcome to God, or to a group of leaders, my position as a differentiated leader can then be to bring health and wisdom to the discernment process. It doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t share my opinion and thoughts, but my role has shifted. I learn to ask questions more than provide answers, to listen instead of to speak. This differentiated leadership helps us give the primary role of decision making to the Holy Spirit and enables us to wonder and search, together with the group of people leading with us, the best possible outcome for everyone involved.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m reminded of Paul\u2019s invitation to the Church of Philippi in regard to this leadership rule I\u2019m seeking to live by: \u201cDo nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

This safeguard rule has made a tremendous difference in my own leadership journey. What are some leadership rules you\u2019ve developed?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Parrish, Shane. Clear Thinking<\/em>. Xiv.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart<\/em>. 205<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Shane, Parrish, \u201cDaniel Kahneman: putting Your Intuition On Ice,\u201d The Knowledge Project<\/em>, podcast, episode 68.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Scazzero, Pete. The Emotionally Healthy Leader<\/em>. 247.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Philippians 2:3-4 NIV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane Parrish’s book,\u00a0Clear Thinking, was a great book to end the semester on. This simple but helpful text has reminded me of many of the things we’ve been pondering over this term together, as well as other leadership learnings I’ve experienced along the way. Parrish mentions the importance in his introduction of being in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"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":[],"class_list":["post-37605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37605","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\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37607,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37605\/revisions\/37607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}