LeadershipConneXtions

The Transitional Time in Which We Live

This past Sunday I spoke on The New Thing God is Doing. We spent time talking about the dangerous, serious, "here be dragons," inbetween the times of transition, "Kansas is going bye-bye" times in which we live.

Here is a chart that is out of one of Alan Roxburgh's books... I forget which one. I think it is from, The Sky is Falling.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

LCI and Counter-Cultural Leadership

I had a pretty significant reflection about Leadership ConneXtions and our vision/dream when I was in Thailand, speaking at a UWM conference.

The reflection was launched by the interaction of two different things.

First, I was talking about a counter-cultural way of doing spiritual formation and leadership development. This is just some of the "main stuff" of LCI. It is core to who we are and what we believe and what we do. It is the guiding ethos for how we do leadership development.

Second, I was reading Seth Godin's book, All Marketers are Liars / All Marketers Tell Stories and while so many things i this book stimulated my thinking, here is one that was especially powerful.

Godin says that for a "story" to be successful, it must "fulfill the wishes of a consumer's worldview." Here is a paraphrase of that. For you to buy in to something, it must meet your needs/wants according to your core understanding of what life is all about (what your life is all about).

And that is what created incredible tension for me on that trip.

For LCI, at its core, is counter cultural in our thinking. We live in a "worldview tension."

On the one hand, we believe that Christianity has accommodated itself, far too much, to the dominant worldview of modern culture (forgive me for NOT going any further in explaining this, in this post). Therefore, our core message is not going to fulfill the wishes/wants/needs of the leaders we want to impact.

On the other hand, we believe that at a deep level, most Christian leaders who are trying to lead according to their culture's worldview and methodologies, know that it isn't working, that it isn't right and that it won't satisfy. Therefore, when we talk about a new way of leadership and a different way of spiritual formation, it does resonate deep inside. It does make sense. It does stir up a grander vision of life and leadership.  

But only to a degree, for most leaders experience the "worldview tension" within.

So I started jotting down some phrases that resonate with me and what I believe LCI is all about.  Pardon any narcissism.

Edgy, deep, different, really good but very hard.

Marching to the tune of a different drumbeat, or a different heartbeat.

It's not for everyone, just those who want to walk the narrow leadership road.

A new kind of leader.

An ancient-future kind of leader.

A company of friends surrendering our "selves" for the sake of Christ.

The best processes there are, but it is going to cost you something.

Hanging out with God and His Mission.

We're very good at what most people aren't, but which they need.

Make the investment in your growth, you are the only one who will.

The cost of discipleship . . . for leaders.


Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
Brian K. Rice  

A Connected World

When we came up with the name Leadership ConneXtions, for our leadership devilment organization, we liked the word connections because we deeply value the relational connections necessary for mentoring, training and spreading a movement.
 
One of the things I like, so much about the Jesuits, is that they were highly intentional about companionship. They called themselves, The Company of Jesus (from the Spanish phrase). The Latin translation took a different spin and they became known as the Society of Jesus. But the better translation has to do with the deep sense of friendship and affection and the bonds of missional purpose that tied them together.
  

One of the great joys I have is in my travels, I get to meet so many wonderful leaders.

Every now and then God raises up a person with whom I have a sense of real companionship and the desire for collaborative ministry and friendship.

Of course the challenge is how to stay meaningfully connected at a distance.  The Jesuits were avid letter writers, but in their age of slow travel by boat and by foot, it took years for letters to be received.

The social networking sites like FaceBook is a way to do that (quite a bit faster). Skype calls help so much since you can have a visual connection with the other person. I am looking in to other formats as well.

But it takes work. Even when you want to connect, it takes work.  But I believe it is among the most crucial leadership work you will do.

In this new kind of world, connections is the way to influence, the way to results, the way to making a difference.

So, what are you doing this week to expand your sphere of connectedness?

Even better - what did you do today to build your network?

Who are the people with whom you are already connected, but you haven't been doing much with that connection lately?  (My list has about 20 people to whom I am already connected, but I haven't been doing much about that connection.)

Who are some new people with whom you would like to connect? (I have a list with another 20 names, or in some cases, it is a _______________ (category) of person with whom I would like to connect.

Where are you turning to find information… discover opportunities… enhance your learning… ?

If you aren't doing this today, if you aren't doing this in a consistent way, than, you are going to be part of the world that was, not the world that is and which is coming.

Sit down and jot down three lists on a piece of paper.

The first column are those connections you have where you actually connect well.
The second column are those connections you have, but you have dropped them somewhat.
The third column will be new connections you would like to have. 


Another exercise I will sometimes have leaders do (and it is a fun one by the way) is have them do a social mapping exercise. Use a big piece of paper (11 x 17) and start writing down your main social networks. Give a name to each major "hub" (it could be work, an organization you belong to, family, neighborhood, church, a ministry team, or individuals). And then write down the key names associated with each hub. It might look a little like one the images above.

So what are you waiting for…?

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com 

Don't Just "Think" Outside the Box...

Here is a short but sweet idea.

Don't just think outside the box.

Live outside the box.

In fact, maybe your best out of the box thinking will be the result of living out there. And maybe you are stuck in your out of the box thinking because you are stuck living inside your box.

So... get out.

Experiment. Investigate. Go exploring. Try something different today. Visit a new place. Do the unexpected. Travel off the beaten path...

(This is why I love trying to different cultures, meeting people, seeing new and different ways of living and leading.)

And pay attention to the thinking that gets inspired as you live out of the box.

p.s.  enjoy the cartoon...

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

The Leader as Imaginator (Creative Imagination)

One of the graduate courses I team in Latin America is Emerging Paradigms of Leadership. It is a course that looks at the emerging culture and the Christian engagement with that culture and the new kind of leadership needed for serving the purposes of God in our historical situation.

I will be teaching that course this fall at Lancaster Bible College and Grad School and I am doing some re-reading of key texts to be covered in that course. It hits me again that so many of the emergent authors give a central place of importance to imagination. Tim Keel (Intuitive Leadership) and Alan Roxburgh (The Missional Leader) are just two of these voices.

Now, I guarantee you, that if you work through the standard texts on leadership, you will be hard pressed to find imagination listed in the top ten leadership skills needed for today (for example, check out Kouzes and Posner, the Leadership Challenge) unless the author sneaks it in when discussing visionary leadership. But even then, it is not being used the way the emergent leaders talk about imagination.

I think Keel and others are on to something important.

We live in a post-modern world and in that world, rationality and logic, while still important, are not enough.  Imagination, creativity, intuition and more are just as vital. Leaders will have to cultivate their creative side in the season of life that is ahead of us.

The Leader as Poet, Leader as Artist, Leader as Story-Teller and even Leader as Fool are all useful metaphors for the new kind of leadership in a "post" world.

With that said, here is a great thought from Jeffrey Sobosan in Romancing the Universe:

My increased years have taught me that, like competence in all other things, competence in imaginative effort also takes deliberate and focused attention. The listlessness of mental effort that often characterizes our behavior, the refusal to attend to anything that is not immediately apparent or useful - the narcissistic temperament - can give way to intellectual passion only when the mind is diligently and carefully exercised over a wide variety of experiences.

This challenges me. Like everything else, I can practice imaginatino. When I practice and exercise the imaginative aspect of life and leadership, it can grow.

In the last two months, I have posted several times on practice.

What are you doing these days to practice being imaginative?

Brian Rice

"Beyond Hierarchy" Class

I'm auditing a Fuller Doctor of Ministry class this week entitled, "Beyond Hierarchy: Leadership as Co-Creation in the New Millennial Church." It is being tuaght by Sally Morgenthaler and George Cladis.

The course has been sort of blowing my mind about gender roles, how the Church has understood roles, and the challenges we as Christian leaders are facing as we enter the 21st century.

One of the things we discussed today was the idea of the "leaderless organization" or group. I don't agree that leaders are unnecessary, but I do think we have to wrestle with the reality of certain groups in society functioning as a "mob" without a recognized leaders.

(Picture is of Sally Morgenthaler)

- Brian Newman

Emerging "Intuitive" Leadership (and a MUST READ BOOK)

One of the topics I have been interested in for some years now is the issue of post-modernity (the philosophical worldview), post-modern culture (the popular way we see that worldview manifested all around us) and what kind of leadership is needed in that culture.

Emerging leadership arises in a specific cultural context and must make its way through that context in a way that is both culturally relevant and biblically faithful.

There are about a dozen core books that I have read and reflected upon and which shaped the foundation for the course I taught in Paraguay. On the flight down, I read a brand new boook recommended to me by Byron Borger.

Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor and Chaos by Tim Keel!

A FANTASTIC BOOK!

Tony Jones describes it this way: Tim Keel . . . brings together the multiple streams of emerging church, postmodernity, media theory, biblical interpretation, churchplanting, cultural studies and holistic, missional life. THIS BOOK IS DESTINED TO BE A CHURCH LEADERSHIP CLASSIC.

When I read that, I thought to myself, "talk about over-promising and under-delivering!"

Guess what? Tim Keel delivers it and it will become a classic. I read a few too many emergent books that are kind of fluffy and anecdotal. This one is substantial in every way and a lot of fun to read. If you want to read ONE BOOK that suggests a new way forward for emerging leadership - this is it.

Keel is very passionate about this point. The way of leadership that was advocated by people like Maxwell, Hybels and others like them is no longer culturally relevant leadership, and he may even softly raise the question - was it biblically faithful leadership or a culturally shaped substitute?!

For a good reveiw, go to EMERSION.

If you do read this book - be ready to be rocked and also, please tell me what you think about it.

Brian Rice

Emerging Paradigms Course in Paraguay

Today is the first day of teaching a new course called Emerging Paradigms in Leadership. I am in the city of Asuncion, Paraguay. This is my second visit to this city. The first time I was with both Omar Gava and Brian Newman, when we launched the Master's Program for Londrina.

I have been working on this course for some time, although the last month has been a time of intensive work (since I had fallen a bit behind in preparation).

There are several very good textbooks that I use for this course. One of them I have just finished re-reading and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I read it.  That book is:  Unnatural Leadership: Going Against Intuition and Experience to Develop Ten New Leadership Instincts. It is by David Dotlich and Peter Cairo.

I usually refer this as the book on "counter-intuitive leadership." Their thesis is simple. There is a conventional wisdom about leadership that is wrong on ten points. A new wisdom is needed for the cultural time in which we live and work. If leaders do not learn to go against their intuition and gut feel, they are going to be in trouble.

They look at issues of personal leadership, team leadership and organizational leadership. Pick up a copy of the book and work your way through it.

Of course, my challenge this week is to find ways to contextualize the insights of Dotlich and Cairo (and many others) into the Latin context of Paraguay. As you remember - pray for me.

Brian Rice

Leadership Divided by Ron Carucci

Leadership Divided: What Emerging Leaders Need and What You Might be Missing

This is a great book by Ron Carucci who is a leadership consultant, author of several good books, professor and now involved in the leadership of Mars Hill Graduate School, which is an avant guarde, new kind of seminary.

The son of a good friend of mine attends Mars Hill and has had quite an educational and transformative experience there.

Anyway, this book is a great book that seeks to help older, established leaders connect in healthier ways with younger, emerging leaders. Actually, Carucci seeks to help emerging leaders do their share also in connecting, but he puts the first responsibility on established (he calls them incumbent) leaders.

The book is organized around six major relational movements that Carucci (pictured to the right) believes are needed is the divide is to be crossed and healthy, collaborative working relationships developed between established and emerging leaders.

If these issues are important to you - I highly recommend the book.

Brian Rice

A New Kind of Leader

A question that I think about often is this: What does a new kind of leader look like in the context of the church and mission?

It is not an easy question to ask, much less answer.

Implicity, it may be a criticism of the "current kind of leader" that is in place in church and mission. It may be too reductionistic in assuming there is a new kind of leader that is needed to replace an old kind of leader. Perhaps there are many new kinds of leaders?

It is difficult to work with this question because the issue of leadership "style" is inherently involved. Maybe my preferred new kind of leader is nothing other than the preferred leadership style I have!

When we ask this question in its best and most authentic way, we are asking it in light of our larger context. What is the larger cultural context in which we are situation? What are the church and missional organizations like in that cultural context? What are those who lead those churches and missional organizations like? What is working? What isn't working? Why is it or isn't it working?  What will work? Why do we think it will work?

The list of questions could go on, but this is the way to reflect and dialogue meaningfully about this issue of a "new kind of leader."

There are a number of books that have been useful for me as I think through the changing culture and the emerging organizational paradigms that are needed for effective ministry in those cultures and the new kind of leader who will lead in those emerging paradigms. Here they are:

The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church by Frost and Hirsch

The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition by Alan Roxburgh

The Missional Leader by Roxburgh and Romanuk

Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World by Margaret Wheatley

Those of us who are interested in developing leaders must do some hard work of thinking what a new kind(s) of leader may look like.

And then, perhaps an even harder question, how do we develop those kinds of leaders?

Let us know if there are some resources that are helping you think through the quetsions of new kind of leaders and how to develop them.

-BR