King of the grass-roots
April 9, 2008
Leadership theorist, Peter Senge writes on why top-down efforts are limited for bringing about significant organizational change:
Why do we cling to the view that only the top can initiate significant change? Is it just our unwillingness to give up a familiar mental model? Is it the fear of stepping out of line without the imprimatur of the hierarchy? Perhaps, also there is an element of self-protection—the comfort of being able to hold someone else, namely, top management, responsible for the lack of effective leadership. There is no doubt that a CEO opposed to fundamental change can make life difficult for internal innovators, but this hardly proves that only the CEO can bring about significant change. At the very least, shouldn’t we be suspicious of the knee-jerk tendency of people in organizations to “look upward” and expect top management to fix things?”
Consider a different view: little significant change can occur if it driven form the top.
Hierarchical authority, as it has been used traditionally in Western management, tends to evoke compliance, not foster commitment. The more strongly hierarchical power is wielded, the more compliance results.”
the more we appreciate the inherent limitations of executive leadership in bringing about deep change, the more frustrated we are likely to feel, given the immense need for change [if we keep trying to change it from the top].
Have you ever thought about the God’s strategy to bring about change? God chooses to overthrow empires with fisherman?
The Ultimate Authority of the Universe chooses bottom up change.
So, if God is the King of the grass-roots movement, why does the church still want emperors? and why do we build empires?
Awaken Conference
April 5, 2008
I am continually amazed at how technology is changing the world. Although I am not in Los Angeles, I feel like I was able to attend the Awaken conference of my former church, Mosaic, by reading Eric Bryant’s blog and others who commented on the conference that I haven’t met before.
Here are a few of leadership insights I found significant from “invisible mentors:”
How we Learn
February 8, 2008
Currently, I am taking a course called Foundations of Leadership Development from a distance at Fuller. I am finding the course really helpful, especially as we are implementing some more intentional leadership development in our church community. Today, I listened to a lecture by Eddie Elliston, Ralph Winter, and Ted Ward about the future of leadership development in the church, and it was really interesting on a number of levels.
Two points really jumped out to me:
“seminaries need to move from seeing their roles as disseminating the right information to an invitation of inquiry into the unknown that leads to real discovery”
“you learn best by understanding what you need to learn for what you want to do, and then learning while doing it”
One of the professors said that the “dissemination” way of teaching often fosters dependent and dettached students. This made me think about how we learn. When I learn, it is because I have a vested interest in learning. I remember Erwin McManus saying one time that he made an intentional decision when he became the lead pastor of Mosaic not to “feed people, but to make them hungry.” The best teachers I’ve had are the teachers that help me to see the need to search, discover, question, and expend my own energy to enter into the unknown because my insight and contribution matters.
