Church Development Institute

 Readiness Factors  Self readiness (maturity, conflict skills, courage, trust)  People readiness (creates missional thinking, cultivates growth, enables change, coalitions)  Congregation readiness (integration, missional culture & practices, missional theology)  Community readiness (understanding, engagement, missional future, Biblical foundation)

Inward Outward Prayerful Emergent Adaptive Culture Formation Engaged Imaginative Grounded

 Adaptive leadership is the practice of mobilizing people to tackle tough challenges and thrive, and has three characteristics:  Preserves essential congregational culture (DNA)  Discards the parts of the congregational culture (DNA) that no longer serves  Creates congregational cultural (DNA) arrangements for the ability to flourish

 Leading the Church in rapidly changing times  Shifting Church culture to stay relevant  Building an Adaptive Culture  Naming elephants in the room  Shared responsibility for the congregation  Independent judgment is expected  Develop leadership capacity  Continuous learning institutionalized

 Authority relationships: power entrusted for service  Leadership challenges some expectations and creates an environment where the system can adapt.

TaskAuthorityLeadership DirectionProvide problem definition and solution Identify the adaptive challenges and frame the key questions ProtectionProtect from external threats Disclose external threats OrderOrient people to current roles Restore order Maintain norms Disorient current roles; resist orienting people to new roles too quickly Expose conflict or let it emerge Challenge norms or let them be challenged

observeinterpretintervene

 Data to diagnose the adaptive challenge  Core frameworks, organizational diagnosis lens, survey feedback, cultural analysis, trust  Some common adaptive challenges  Gap between espoused values & behavior  Competing commitments  Speaking the unspeakable  Work avoidance

TechnicalAdaptive BenignConflictual IndividualSystemic

 Balcony view (patterns, action/reflection)  Readiness of the congregation (resistance, disequilibrium)  Leadership demands (situational leadership)  Managing anxiety (differentiation, triangulation, anxiety binders)  Leveraging the political landscape (negotiating vision)  Keep adaptive work central to people’s attention

 Equilibrium Strength – people like things the way they are  Known is more acceptable than the unknown  External and internal forces, values, narratives at work in the system

 Manage yourself  Help people tolerate the discomfort  Keep everyone in the productive zone of disequilibrium Productive Zone Tolerance limit Threshold of change

Group Assessment 1. unable, unwilling, insecure 2. unable but willing or confident 3. able but unwilling or insecure 4. able and willing or confident Leadership Style 1. Define and tell 2. Clarify 3. Involve – team participation 4. Empower – facilitate as needed

Balances Individuality and Togetherness Emotional Fusion Emotional Cut Off Enmeshment Disengagement Undifferentiated Response Reactive, Automatic, Instinctual Calm, Reflective Objective Responsive

Dyad relationally too intense Triangle – less intense and natural, negative triangles – high anxiety Rescuer Persecutor Victim De-triangulate – get all parties together, focus on process, work with healthiest parties, identify the primary triangle

 Strengthen your relationships  Score some early wins  Address interests unconnected to the adaptive challenge  Sell small pieces of your idea, plan, intervention  Negotiate vision/read political landscape

 Gather a network of support and feedback  Adaptive change takes time and ripples through the system  Discern vital behavioral changes and cultural changes with others  Create a climate for imagination and experimentation  Work toward gathering critical mass of support