{"id":38382,"date":"2024-11-18T10:05:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T18:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38382"},"modified":"2024-09-12T17:09:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T00:09:27","slug":"since-i-gave-up-hope-i-feel-a-lot-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/since-i-gave-up-hope-i-feel-a-lot-better\/","title":{"rendered":"Since I gave up hope I feel a lot better"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1987, the genre-defying songwriter Steve Taylor released his fourth studio album, I Predict 1990<\/em>. I loved Taylor\u2019s progressive music, which blended pop, new wave, and a little post-punk, and I was smitten with his intelligent lyrics, which bordered on irreverence. His was one of only a handful of \u201cChristian\u201d artists that I resonated with in my later years of High School, as, in my mind, so much other popular Christian music was tedious, homogenized, and vapid.<\/p>\n

The song I remember most from that album was the sarcastic \u201cSince I gave up hope, I feel a lot better.\u201d If the title alone provides a hint of the content, the first stanza is a dead giveaway:<\/p>\n

\n

Enter the young idealist
Chasing dragons to slay
Exit the hustler
Packing up his M.B.A.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There were moments when Margaret Wheatley\u2019s book Finding Our Way<\/em> reminded me of Steve Taylor\u2019s song. This book, first published in 2005, provides hints of Wheatly\u2019s struggles when she did not see her unique vision of leadership take deep root in our culture. Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cFor too long, I have lived in the world wanting to change it. This has been an impossible stance. It takes normal desires to contribute something to the human condition and intensifies them into crusades that are doomed to disappoint. I have gradually weaned myself from this posture, I think because it is just too exhausting and unsatisfying.\u201d<\/em> (244 Finding Our Way)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Wheatly\u2019s widely acclaimed and groundbreaking book Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World<\/em> was released ten years before she published those words. Her thesis in Leadership and the New Science <\/em>represented a new way forward for leadership and organizational management. She suggested that what we have learned from chaos theory and quantum physics should inform us regarding how to engage with organizations’ unpredictability and uncertainty. In her assessment, control and certainty are not a healthy or effective way to lead; instead, solutions emerge from within the system when space and attention are given to organic self-organization.<\/p>\n

Predating what Edgar and Peter Schein would write in their book Humble Leadership<\/em> (but much like it), Wheatly decries the accepted practice of leaders who exist to command and control their subordinates and organization. She and the Schein\u2019s both instruct their readers that relational leadership is the key to how effective organizations can thrive in an uncertain and volatile world.<\/p>\n

In Leadership and the New Science,<\/em>\u00a0modern science was the foundational connection and metaphor, and that brand of science is significantly connected to postmodern ideology. Wheatly writes, \u201cThe new physics cogently explains that there is no objective reality out there waiting to reveal its secrets. There are no recipes or formulas, not checklists or expert advice that describe \u201creality.\u201d <\/em>(9). That\u2019s just one early example.<\/p>\n

Many of her leadership ideas reminded me of post-structuralism in literature, which disembodies a text from a specific meaning (even an author’s intended meaning) and instead invites each reader to provide their own interpretation.<\/p>\n

(Maybe that\u2019s why my brain made the connection to Steve Taylor\u2019s post-modern rock)<\/p>\n

Whether you agreed with Wheatley or not, these were unconventional, unorthodox, and innovative ideas. She had charted and created fresh maps to help others navigate a new world of leadership, and she was disappointed when people didn\u2019t use what she thought could change the world for their organizational journeys.<\/p>\n

And that brings me to our doctoral work. Many of us have been laboring over the last two years to focus and strengthen our contributions. We may have thought of wild success when we started, believing we could create a project that made a significant difference in the world. But now that we are honing it down, perhaps we realize that our contributions will, at best, be what, in Oxford, Jason called \u201ca small drop\u201d in the vast ocean of knowledge.<\/p>\n

So, maybe it\u2019s okay to give up hope that what we produce will make as big a difference as we dream it will. The result is not ultimately our responsibility; the contribution is.<\/p>\n

As Wheatly says, \u201cIn the end, We do what we are called to do because we feel called to do it. We walk silently, willingly, down the well-trodden path still lit by the fire of millions. And the rest, I now know, is not our business.\u00a0 (244 Finding Our Way)<\/p>\n

I think if we give up hope that our projects will change the world but hold onto the knowledge that we’re doing it because we\u2019re called to, perhaps we\u2019ll feel a lot better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1987, the genre-defying songwriter Steve Taylor released his fourth studio album, I Predict 1990. I loved Taylor\u2019s progressive music, which blended pop, new wave, and a little post-punk, and I was smitten with his intelligent lyrics, which bordered on irreverence. His was one of only a handful of \u201cChristian\u201d artists that I resonated with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[2489,345],"class_list":["post-38382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-wheatley","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38382","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\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38382"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38384,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38382\/revisions\/38384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}