Sacred Shifts Session 1: Shifting Our Worldview

Sacred Shifts

Tradition Culture Memory/History Power Values Hope Risk/Trust Faith Connections Vision

Survival Digital Courage Learner Time Place Address Demographics Socioeconomics

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity

Israelites leaving Egypt Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity Israelites leaving Egypt Why did it take at least 215 years for God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity Christ’s Birth Or so long for God to come in the form of Jesus Christ?

Paul on the Damascus Road Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity Paul on the Damascus Road

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity Luther and the 95 Theses

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in your congregation

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in a Google world

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in a Lyft world

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in a Netflix world

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in a Venmo world

in an ethnically diverse world Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in an ethnically diverse world

Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in a gender-fluid world

in an unaffiliated world Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in an unaffiliated world

in your congregation’s NEIGHBORHOOD Tradition Vision Place Time Window of Opportunity in your congregation’s NEIGHBORHOOD

Sit in quiet to intentionally listen to God Tradition Vision Place Time Sit in quiet to intentionally listen to God

What is God’s dream for me or my congregation in this window of opportunity? Tradition Vision Place Time

We are making choices that impact our future.

Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams Judger Mindset Learner Mindset Reactive & automatic Responsive & thoughtful Critical Appreciative More close-minded More open-minded Having the answers Values not knowing Own point of view only Takes multiple perspectives Blame oriented Responsibility oriented Problem focused Solution focused Defends assumptions Questions assumptions Primary mood: protective/fearful Primary mood: curious Pg.4 Say: We introduced Question Thinking at the last seminar – and the shift of our mindset from judger to learner. Or if this is new to this community: We want to introduce you to the idea of question thinking before we move into sharing stories and learning from each other. Think of this as a way of framing our conversation. This book by Marilee Adams points out that we all have both a judger mindset and a learner mindset that we are navigating all the time. The heart of this is to point out that we are in charge of our own thinking, moment by moment. We can learn to observe ourselves and even switch our mindset by the questions we ask ourselves. Our judger mindset are those judgmental things we think about others or about ourselves. This is that zone that pulls us into feeling we are not good enough or someone else is wrong. Our learner mindset are the times when we become curious about something, opening ourselves up to a new way of thinking or feeling about someone or ourselves. Rather then getting stuck on self-judgement or demonizing someone else, we can focus on a more hopeful perspective. Adams points out that the choice is ours – and we can actually learn to influence our own mindset. Judger Questions include questions like this: Who’s fault is it? What’s wrong with them Why am I failing? Why are they so stupid? Learner Questions are more like this: How can I think about this differently? What are they thinking and feeling? What is possible in this situation? What do I really want? What do they really want? Look at the two columns on the screen – do you see the difference? We want to invite you to lean into a learner mindset as you share stories from your work over the last six months. Before you left Seminar A, your team set goals. We want you to read the goals from the last seminar, give us an update on where you are now, and share any “learner” opportunities you want to bring to the group so we can learn together. Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams

Judger/Learner Questions Pg. 4 Judger/Learner Questions What's wrong? Who’s to blame? What works? What am I responsible for? Jane leading,

Judger/Learner Questions Pg. 4 Judger/Learner Questions How can I be in control? What am I losing? What's the big picture? What are my choices? Jane leading,

Sit in quiet to intentionally listen to God Tradition Vision Place Time Sit in quiet to intentionally listen to God

How do we shift from here to there? The subtext of this session is a response to this question: How do we move from here to there? We will start by introducing some of the deeper social science research that informs the Tune In Process. As you know, are ultimately a process for transforming your congregation from inside out - joining in God’s mission.

Pg. 4 Technical Challenge The problem and the solution are clear, those in authority do the work and the work is to optimize execution.

Pg. 5 Adaptive Challenge The problem requires learning and listening, stakeholders are needed to do the work and the work is to experiment.

The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky Pg. 5 Observe Intervene (experiment) Synod office values???? Interpret The Practice of Adaptive Leadership by Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky

Formal and Informal Authority Beyond you start to disappoint expectations and you start taking risks this line Pg. 5 Dancing on the edge of authority… this is LEADERSHIP Formal and Informal Authority Say: We introduced Question Thinking at the last seminar – and the shift of our mindset from judger to learner. Or if this is new to this community: We want to introduce you to the idea of question thinking before we move into sharing stories and learning from each other. Think of this as a way of framing our conversation. This book by Marilee Adams points out that we all have both a judger mindset and a learner mindset that we are navigating all the time. The heart of this is to point out that we are in charge of our own thinking, moment by moment. We can learn to observe ourselves and even switch our mindset by the questions we ask ourselves. Our judger mindset are those judgmental things we think about others or about ourselves. This is that zone that pulls us into feeling we are not good enough or someone else is wrong. Our learner mindset are the times when we become curious about something, opening ourselves up to a new way of thinking or feeling about someone or ourselves. Rather then getting stuck on self-judgement or demonizing someone else, we can focus on a more hopeful perspective. Adams points out that the choice is ours – and we can actually learn to influence our own mindset. Judger Questions include questions like this: Who’s fault is it? What’s wrong with them Why am I failing? Why are they so stupid? Learner Questions are more like this: How can I think about this differently? What are they thinking and feeling? What is possible in this situation? What do I really want? What do they really want? Look at the two columns on the screen – do you see the difference? We want to invite you to lean into a learner mindset as you share stories from your work over the last six months. Before you left Seminar A, your team set goals. We want you to read the goals from the last seminar, give us an update on where you are now, and share any “learner” opportunities you want to bring to the group so we can learn together.

Go to the balcony. In the book, The Practice of the Adaptive Leadership, the writers open with a story about the value of going to the balcony. TELL THE STORY. The balcony and the dance floor are the two perspectives an adaptive leader must have. The “balcony” (looking down on the “dance”) is where you get a larger perspective of what you’re facing and how you are doing with your response. From here you do your observing of patterns, reflecting, option thinking, analyzing, and monitoring of the change. When you take action and make an intervention, you have stepped onto the “dance floor” and are participating in the “dance.” When we are on the dance floor we are part of the dance and lose perspective. We miss the big picture. The listening we have been doing in the Tune In process has helped us gain some perspective and brought us to the balcony. How many of you felt like you were moving outside of your comfort zone in this work? We have to stretch, to get outside of our comfort zone in order to gain perspective. In fact we must move between the dance floor and the balcony over and over and over – it is not a one-time experience.

Manage the heat. We are the people who will lead our congregation onto the balcony so they can gain perspective. The question is “how”? Our friends from Harvard tell us that we can do this by thoughtfully diagnosing the system we are part of and by managing the heat. We have been diagnosing – and we will bring that together today. Let’s talk about managing the heat. Your congregation is producing its current results because the people in the system want it that way. If people like it the way it is, then as a leader, your job is to add a little heat so they begin to move towards the balcony. The challenge is to figure out how hot to make it!

Pg. 4 Process the slide together. Effective adaptive leadership manages the heat with the ability to turn the heat up or down as they observe the system. Basically there is a sweet spot for change. You want just enough heat to keep creative energy and experiments happening as a learning community, but not so much that the community catches fire! Do you see that sweet spot in the gray zone? Notice that this is not a comfortable space, but neither does it leave casualties. People will always be trying to pull you back into their comfort zone - they act like a rubber band, always wanting to return to their original shape. There is a space in which productive change can happen – but there is a threshold of change that can exceed the limit of tolerance. Notice that this is a long-term reality for leaders, not a one and done situation. If there is one thing you take away from this session today, I hope it is this: It is your job as leaders to manage the heat. Process the slide together.

Shifting your worldview: Where’s your leadership edge in this window of opportunity?

Pray for the church as we shift our worldview.