NCC CAST

Created byDr. Mark Adams

Superintendent, NCCNov 2008

Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.“ Matthew 20:25-28

Two basic views. . .

Leadership is influencing people to follow the leader’s vision or plans.

Leadership is influencing people to face their problems and make healthy adaptations.

Leadership is activity leading to accomplishing adaptive work. Adaptive work requires a change in values, beliefs, or behavior through exposure to and orchestration of conflict and internal contradictions within individuals and constituencies which provides the leverage for mobilizing people to learn new ways.

James Burns, “Leadership”

“Tackling tough problems – problems that often require an evolution of values – is the end of leadership; getting that work done is its essence.”

Ron Heifetz

Leadership as adaptation has roots in biological awareness. That which does not adapt dies. Examples?

Biological adaptation is based upon trial and error, genetics and ‘survival of fittest.’

Cultural adaptation is based upon learning.

CONS OF LEADERSHIP AS CONTROL

CONS OF LEADERSHIP AS ADAPTATION

Arrogance Results based upon

skewed perspective (yours)

Leading out of blind spots

Promoting unhealthy dependencies

Merely coping Values skew toward

ungodliness May not match current

cultural demands

Our values and practices, when limited and not exposed to new ideas can actually create an environment in which we lead out of our blind spots.

Can a blind man lead a blind man, will they not both fall into a pit? L.6.39

What may be some of our “Easter Island” failures to adapt?

What are some of the problems facing your congregation? What adaptations do you believe would be healthy?

Why doesn’t the congregation adapt?

“To make progress, not only must invention and action change circumstances to align reality with values, but the values themselves may also have to change. Leadership will consist not of answers or reassured visions but of taking action to clarify values. It asks questions like: What are we missing here? Are there values of competing groups that we suppress rather than apply to our understanding of the problem at hand? Are there shared values that might enable us to engage competing views? Ongoing adaptive capacity requires a rich and evolving mix of values to inform a society’s process of reality testing. It requires leadership to fire and contain the forces of invention and change, and to extract the NEXT STEP!”

Why do people fail to adapt? May not perceive the threat. May perceive the threat but be unable to

meet the challenge in a productive manner.

May perceive threat as too stressful or necessary changes as too great a sacrifice.

Work Avoidance Behavior….

A significant pull upon leader is to provide quick answer, solid vision in times of distress (whether or not the answer is right or vision true).

“Tackling tough problems – problems that often require an evolution of values – is the end of leadership; getting that work done is its essence.”Ron Heifetz