Convention 2014

From Source by Jaworski and Leading from the Emerging Future by Sharmer and Kaufer

Beyond Servant Leadership

The Call for Deeper Leadership“What counts is not what

leaders do and how they do it but their interior condition, the inner place from which they operate or the source from which all their actions originate.”

Otto Sharmer

Need for an inner shift from fixing or fighting the “old” to sensing an emerging future possibility.

Call and Crisis of our Time

Crisis Call

Crisis reveals the dying of old social structures built on pre-modern, traditional and modern industrial forms of thinking and operating.

Call is to a shift to a new form of presence and power that grows spontaneously from groups of people with a different quality of thinking, conversing and collective action which operates from a real future possibility.

Converging Trends

Looking at the Systemic Factors

Evolution of Mental Models and Leadership Development

Reflecting on the Crisis and the Call

1. Global civil society in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King

2. Action Science represented by Kurt Lewin and Edgar Schein

3. Mindfulness and awareness inherit in the essence of all the wisdom traditions

Trends: Three Streams Coming Together

The Current System

Symptoms

Themes and Patterns

Systemic Disconnects

Mental Models

What are some Symptoms?Attendance declineYounger generations

not interestedIrrelevance –daily

issuesHypocrisyFunding the ChurchConflictReligion vs.

spirituality

Global Themes and PatternsDisconnect between

self and cosmos: i.e. compromised stewardship

Disconnect between self and others: i.e. compromised outreach

Disconnect between self and Self: i.e. compromised piety

Systemic DisconnectsStewardship: infinite

growth, undeveloped and/or irresponsible use of resources

Outreach: fixing or programming vs. meeting real needs

Piety: religious programming vs. spiritual transformation

Cultural Characteristics – Reinforce DisconnectsSystemic structures

designed NOT to learnUnaware of external

forcesSocial, financial, and

spiritual capital flowing inward vs. outward

Allow special interest groups/issues to rig system to disadvantage of the whole

currentNew/More is better,

efficientProblem solvingNetworks and

negotiation with stakeholders to be #1

Security, justice, respect, equality, development

Open, attentive, adaptive

Tuned in to adaptive and emerging changes

Aligned with well being of others and the whole

Mental Models

needed

Evolution of Mental Models“State Centric” –

hierarchy and control“Free Market” –

markets and competition

“Social Market” – networks and negotiation

“Co-creative” – seeing and acting from the whole

Stages of Leadership Development

Stage 1 – Self centric leaders: ego, position

Stage 2 – Achieving leaders: conform to & enforce established rules

Stage 3 – Servant Leaders: serve & develop others

Stage 4 – Renewing Leaders: breakthrough thinking, creating future

Renewing LeadershipFrom me to we

Better relating to others

Better relating to the whole

Better relating to selfExplore edges of system

Emerging mental models/consciousness

Explore edges of selfOpen mindOpen heartOpen will

Reflections on Systemic

Factors, Developmen

t, and Trends

Stage 4 (Renewing) Leadership is Collective Leadership

Renewing Leadership Practices need to be Cultivated

Renewing Leadership Principles are based on Theory U

More on Stage 4 Leadership

What is needed in renewing leadership today is the ability to hold and evolve our collective attention at the same rate at which reality around us keeps changing.

We need to develop new collective leadership mechanisms that allow a diverse constellation of players to connect, co-sense, and co-create.

This calls for deepening levels of awareness and avoiding the blind spots which keep us from seeing the future possibilities.

Collective Leadership

We cannot transform systems unless we transform the quality of attention people apply to their actions individually and collectively.

Quality of results produced by any system depends on the quality of awareness from which people in a system operate.

Form follows consciousness.

Leaders and Transformation

Preparation – inner transformation, contemplation

Igniting passion – commit to pursue inquiry on the edges

Observing and Immersing – seeing with fresh eyes

Letting go – mental models, mindsets, world views

Indwelling and Illumination – surrendering to the Self (identity in God) and Work (Vocation/Mission)

Crystallizing and PrototypingTesting and Verifying – usable programs/

initiatives

Leadership Practices

Theory U

Absensing holding on manipulating De-sensing Deluding entrenching will abusingDenying Stuck in skin Aborting

blinding Stuck in one truth disembody

DownloadingDestroying

Avoiding Shadow of the U - Absensing

Energy follows attention – shift from what we are trying to avoid to what we want to create

Follow movements of the UGo to edges of the self – suspend judgment,

empathize, let go, let come“Eye of the needle” – Who is my Self? What

is my Work?Transform 3 enemies: VOJ, VOC, VOFStart by attending to the “cracks”, openings,

challenges, disruptions

Renewing Leadership Principles

Hold space for transforming fields of conversation: from debate to dialogue to collective creativity

Strengthen sources of presencing to avoid destructive dynamics of absensing

Principles - continued

Reflections on Stage 4

Leadership

Focus on critical mass of leaders with capacity for change (convene the system)

Refining and reaffirming core values, purpose, identity

Focus on 2 or 3 shifts which are neededMagnify positive attitudes, behaviors and

practices that already existProvide growth and development

opportunities throughout the congregationBuild a learning community – each person

teaches what they learn and learn from others

Congregational Actions

Co-initiation Implement solutions

Foundation Learning by

Workshops doing

Learning JourneysCommon immersionCommitment

Innovation Retreat

Innovation Lab

From Spectators to Stewards

Stewardship is a state of being where people see the whole and their role in it and accept responsibility for their role and the whole.

From Outreach to Engagement

Listening to others on the edge with open minds, hearts and wills

Gathering diverse stakeholders inside and outside the congregation to create new possibilities

Commitment to action

From Piety to TransformationSpiritual practices to

connect to our true Self

Listening for our true Work/Vocation

Loving what we do and doing what we love

Surrendering to God’s will for our lives and congregations

Reflections on Congregational

Actions