mountain masala

Communities of Practice and Church Councils

"The most distinctive, valuable knowledge in organisations is difficult or impossible to codify and is tightly associated with a professional person's identity. Developing and disseminating such knowledge depends on informal learning much more than formal - on conversation, storytelling, mentorships, and lessons learned through experience. This informal learning, in turn, depends on collegial relationships with those you trust and who are willing to help when you ask. Informal learning activities amd personal relationships among colleagues are the hallmark of communities of practice. Hence, we see an increasing focus on informal community structures whose aggregate purpose is to steward the learning of an organisation and its invaluable knowledge assets."

William Snyder and Etienne Wenger 2004, 'Our world as a learning system: A communities-of-practice approach' in Conner, ML and Clawson, JG (eds), Creating a Learning Culture: Strategy, Technology and Practice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp35-58.

While the above quote focuses on informailty and relationships, I see another aspect to this. There seems to be a fundamental tension between the trend toward executive leadership by a few and the goals of forming 'reflective practicioners' and reflective communities of practice. The more that discussion about the critical challenges of life and faith are removed from the life of a community, not only is the capacity to learn together from experience undeveloped, but the personal and interpersonal practices and disciplines that might make such learning and discernment possible lose their power and purpose. The less that a synod or presbytery meeting or a church council is allowed to have deep and ongoing conversation about those things that matter most (and instead 'rubber stamp' the thinking done by a few people), the less the whole group is able to function as a self-transforming entity. Not only is an unhealthy trust and dependence built, those who see the dichotomy are likely to withdraw their participation, thereby depriving the whole of their own critically reflective capacities.

In this regard there is a fundamental problem in the notion of church councils dealing with a lot of busniess efficiently. Might we instead choose wisely about which few issues we will wrestle with deeply and prayerfully over time. Let us choose to frame our gatherings around ongoing conversations about those things that are most critical to our life and mission, and thereby build our capacity as a community of faith to make learning and discernment part of our lives.

improvisational leadership

when I studied at Duke University in the late 1980's they had just set up the Fuqua School of Leadership. There were a lot of jokes about how to say the name. today they have an impressive track record.

I have a book of Disney's creative leadership activities, most of which I've never used. Here are Disney's learnings about improvisational leadership from Prof Robert Kulhan at Duke:

1. Suspending Judgment – keeping your mind open to possibilities
2. Managing Attitude – using the phrase “yes and...” to frame thoughts in positive ways
3. Reacting and Adapting – letting natural intelligence rise to the surface
4. Taking Risk – having the courage to seize opportunities and make them work for you
5. Learning and Practicing – taking time to learn and practice your new skill set

read the full article here.

While I'm on this, a great paper given at the Aust Assoc of Researchers in Education (AARE) Conference on learning and creativity here.  I thought I'd link to the full list of articles. Belinda Allen's paper is fourth on the list.

 

the future of theological education

some rumblings going on in the US. tectonic shifts perhaps...

The Future of Seminary Education

Tuition-free degrees for US Presbyterians

 

Becoming a 'Blue Ocean' Educational Leader

Another characteristc of effective educational leadership, according to John Roberto in Faith Formation 2020, is the capacity to go into uncharted waters (or as Captain Kirk would say, "to boldly go.....). "Blue Ocean" refers to open opportunities where there are no competitors, as distinct from "red oceans" that are jam-packed with people doing similar stuff. His two examples of "blue ocean" businesses are Netflix, the US online movie rental company, and Pierce College, a US post-secondary college that decided to focus on adults, and to augment their campus offering with localised in-situ learning and online learning, well ahead of other institutions.

Roberto's references include an article by Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne (245kb PDF), their book titled - guess what? - "Blue Ocean Strategy", and the book's website. Key factors are to identify a 'target audience' and to consider the strategic factors involved (time, cost, availability, location, etc). Really?

I have to say that this section contains no examples of local churches doing something refreshingly new and different. It seems to me that this is really a subset of being innovative.

At the same time, it raises questions for me about church amalgamations. Robin Trebilcock used to say that if you put five plates of cheese sandwiches together, you end up with one big plate of cheese sandwiches. If what is needed across a region is a smorgasbord of spiritual growth and community experiences, then to go from, say, five similar communities into one isnt necessarily an improvement. If that new combined 'congregation' in fact provides a range of community experiences in different styles, places and times, according to local cultural characteristics, then it is a different proposition. It's one thing to reduce the competition, but its another thing to step out into new territory.

The Pierce College example is interesting, because it suggests that a congregation might see itself as a 'campus', and explore what on-campus,on-site (off-campus, in situ) and online learning opportunities might look like. A bit like what a theological college could do...

Roberto's schema ('faith formation', not 'Christian education') with multiple audiences pushes the church to consider which groups of people without current church connections might be open to experiences of spiritual growth, and to meet them in situ. hmmm..... sounding like 'fresh expressions' to me...

a new culture of learning

thanks to rob hanks for this post about a book and website called 'a new culture of learning' by douglas thomas and john seely brown. i like this from the website:  

By exploring play, innovation, and the cultivation of the imagination as cornerstones of learning, the authors create a vision of learning for the future that is achievable, scalable and one that grows along with the technology that fosters it and the people who engage with it. The result is a new form of culture in which knowledge is seen as fluid and evolving, the personal is both enhanced and refined in relation to the collective, and the ability to manage, negotiate and participate in the world is governed by the play of the imagination.

Typically, when we think of culture, we think of an existing, stable entity that changes and evolves over long periods of time. In A New Culture of Learning, Thomas and Brown explore a second sense of culture, one that responds to its surroundings organically. It not only adapts, it integrates change into its process as one of its environmental variables.

Read the interviews with medua studies guru Henry Jenkins here and here.

Becoming an Innovative Educational Leader

"Innovation can be defined as people creating value through the implementation of new ideas". Innovation is Roberto's second desirable characteristic of leaders of faith formation in churches. The definition is interesting, focusing on new 'ideas', but he expands it to "leaders who practice innovative practices and skills". His main resource in this section is The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley. (I've just ordered the book).

Kelley talks about three learning roles, three organising roles, and four building roles. It's a wonderful, intriguing list:

Learning Roles

The Anthropologist - observes people in their daily life, reframes problems in new ways that apply to daily life

The Experimenter - "celebrates the process, not the tool, testing and retesting potential ways to make ideas tangible"

The Cross-Pollinator - "draws associations and connections between seemingly unrelated ideas or concepts to break new ground"

Organising Roles

The Hurdler - a tireless problem solver who is energised by tackling somehitng that's never been done before

The Collaborator - "is the rare person who truly values the team over the individual"

The Director - understands the bigger picture, sets the stage, targets opportunities, brining out the best in people, getting things done

Building Roles

The Experience Architect - "relentlessly focuseed on creating rermarkable experience for people

The Set Designer - "transforms physical environments into powerful tools to influence behaviour and attitude"

The Caregiver - "through empathy, works to understand each individual and family and creat relationships"

The Storyteller - "builds both internal morale and external awareness through compelling narratives that communicate the vision and goals of faith formation, and real life people in the four scenarios."

Read a more complete summary here.

It's a great list, and quickly has you thinking about which of these are your strengths, and which are best left to other people.

Becoming an Adaptive Educational Leader

What characteristics are essential for educational leadership in these times? John Roberto suggests six key ones from all of the available research on leadership. A paper by Mary Hess first introduced me to the notion of adaptive vs technical leadership (see my post on Ronald Heifetz) - it's the difference between applying known solutions to known problems and new solutions to new problms, the latter requiring not only inovative solutions, but changed behaviour and attitudes to reach them.

My example of this is through the great film, Pieces of April, starring Katie Holmes (let's not mention hubby, shall we?). It's the story of April, the outcast oldest child from a difficult family situation. Actually the difficulty is her mother dying from cancer, and a set of sad family relationships. The family decide to visit April and her (unknown to them) African-American partner in their inner city apartment (ie. dodgy) for Thanskgiving. Of course, everything goes wrong, April has to adapt, and in so doing shows remarkable resilience and adaptability. The themes of US Thanksgiving are re-presented as human community rather than close-knit family reunion as various people in the apartment building get involved in the unfolding tale.

Launch of UnitingLeaders website

This week sees the launch of Uniting Leaders, a portal for learning and community among UCA leaders. Hosted by Uniting Church SA, this site is offered as a resource to the church nationally.The aim is to enable all kinds of leaders to connect -  from Ministers and lay preachers to chaplains, youth workers, ministry leaders and others.

There are two sections to the Uniting Leaders site: Courses and Community. Information in the Courses section is for students undertaking accredited courses through the Adelaide College of Divinity. Occasionally information about non-accredited courses will also be available. The aim is to enhance distance learning; students can learn at their own pace with the benefit of interactivity and multimedia.

The Community section is where anyone can be involved. It’s a bit like Facebook – you register and create a profile for yourself. As well as providing a space for discussion and encouragement, the groups enable users to upload resources that can be shared with the wider community, such as prayers, songs they’ve written, service orders, photos, sermon material and helpful links.

Initial group topics include preaching from the lectionary, fresh expressions, youth ministry, Christian education and discipleship. Often lay leaders, ministers, chaplains or youth workers will find themselves trawling the internet for ideas and advice.  However it’s easy to get lost or find material that’s
unhelpful or doesn’t quite suit our Australian Uniting Church context.

If you’re involved in ministry and leadership in the Uniting Church, log on to unitingleaders.org.au today to create your profile and see what the buzz is about.

(part of the above adapted from New Times, April 2010. Download it here (7.7 mb PDF).

Faith and Leadership

This website is an initiative of Duke University Divinity School. It has short articles from 'academics' and those 'in the field'. Delighted to find Ronald Heifetz talking about adaptive leadership. I first heard about Heifetz from Mary Hess, and this notion of 'adaptive leadership', as opposed to technical leadership, is the first of 6 essential leadership characteristics descrbied in John Rioberto's book "Faith Formation 2020".

Technical leadership applies known solutions to known problems, which may be exceedingly complex, but can be solved with wisdom and processes already understood. Hence leadership is primarily about mobilising resources (from Leadership Can Be Taught by Sharon Parks). Adaptive challenges are often not only more complex, they resist technical solutions. They require transformed habits and values. Adaptive leadership is about the capacity to observe, interpret and design. Leadership education then, is about teaching leaders to do this, but also helping then learn to icnrease the capacity of those whom they lead to be adaptive.

"Faith and Leadership" has a bunch of videos, and they're also on their Youtube Channel.

Heifetz also features on video at the website of the The Institute for Educational Leadership in Ontario, Canada. Click here. (viewable on a Windows computer only... sigh... they're educators, for goodness sake!)