Servant Leadership in an Unjust World

Good corporate citizen ... social justice ..... fair and equal treatment ... helping others first ... and addressing injustice in the world. Noble ideas? Perhaps. Practical... not very often it would seem. Survival of the fittest and best ... free competition ... cost cutting strategy ... elimination of waste and winner takes all is often the prevailing wisdom. Privilege and entitlement become the fruits of current defined success. What leadership theory focuses on others first and is an emerging theory of sustainable success? Servant Leadership which was first introduced by Robert Greenleaf.

Servant leadership can be seen as an upside down style of leadership. Leaders transcend their self-interest to serve the needs of others, help others grow and develop, and provide the opportunity for others to grow materially and emotionally. The least and last become the first and the most important. This means valuing people of all abilities and strengths. Servant leadership calls for a long term view of human capital investment. In the corporate world, in the long term this investment in people creates success and value where before there was bitterness and exploitation. In the corporate world, this creates a distribution of wealth that creates sales and prosperity for a greater number of people expanding the economic pie. This gives hope for a better future and the hope of stability in markets.

Characteristics of servant leadership include;

• Put service before self- interest 
• Listen first to affirm others
• Inspire trust by being trustworthy
• Nourish others and make them whole

This view leads to the conclusion that the organization exists to provide meaningful work. Listening builds relationships. Belief that through respect for others each person can reach their potential. Humility is an important characteristic of a servant leader. 

The servant leader's top priority is serving the customer, the employees, the shareholders, and the general public. Leadership succeeds because it enables other people to grow and fulfill their intended purpose by achieving success.

Leading & Team Conflict

Ever been part of a team in a situation that turns ugly because of conflict? Wherever people work or live together there is going to be some conflict. Bringing conflicts into the open and resolving them is one of the most important roles and responsibilities of a leader. Conflict is an antagonistic interaction within and outside the team where one party attempts to interfere and disrupt the plans and goals of another. When a leader is able to address conflict effectively the positive impact on team cohesiveness and success is significant.

Conflicts centered around disagreements among people about the goals to be achieved or how to approach the tasks to be performed to meet the goals is referred to as task conflict. Conflicts that arise due to a personal incompatibility referred to as relationship conflict creates tension between people and feeling of personal animosity. Making conflicts personal tends to create an environment where common ground for resolution of the disagreement becomes more challenging. Task conflict on the other hand can be beneficial by forcing the team to resolve the conflict in a logical manner by evaluating the alternatives often coming up with a third better solution not previously considered.

Positivity and building on strengths is an excellent approach to find common ground in task conflict with the parties building a solution on the foundation of shared stories of success and the strengths of the team. Appreciative Inquiry leverages this approach by asking powerful open ended questions, This common ground supported by the value of the organization often finds a 'best' solution for the task in conflict. The tension created promotes creativity and a dialogue between the team members on the preferred future statement called Dream in the 4D AI process.

Leadership and teams overseeing conflict resolution exhibit different styles, Each has advantages and challenges:

• dominating style (my way)
• appropriate in high crisis / disenfranchising people
• avoiding style (no way)
• appropriate over trivial matters / minor conflicts can fester
• compromising style (half-way)
• appropriate when opposing goals equally important / not an optimum solution
• accommodating style (your way)
• appropriate when one sides is wrong or seeks harmony / resentment may accumulate
• collaborating style (our way)
• appropriate when both opinions are important / consensus is hard work

Remember, wherever and whenever people work or live together there is going to be some conflict. Bringing conflicts into the open and resolving them is one of the most important roles and responsibilities of a leader.

Developing Teams

Throwing managers together rarely creates a high functioning team, yet many organizations follow that process and expect things to "work out". Sometimes reorganizations or changes in the make-up of the leadership team create the need to re-form an existing team or create a new team. It is important to understand that teams develop over time and can be influenced in their development by leaders and the methodology used to form the team. Appreciative Inquiry's 4D model aids in the development of a team by forming a positive foundation and building on that firm foundation.

The stages of team development are well documented and usually happen in sequence although sometimes there may be overlap or regression depending on the relative health of the team.

Forming - The forming stage of development is a period of orientation and getting acquainted. Team  members find out what behavior is acceptable to others, explore friendship possibilities, and determine task orientation. uncertainty is high because the ground rule norms have not been established and what is expected of them. Members will normally whatever power and authority is offered by formal and informal leaders. Leaders need to make team members comfortable and make sure all have a voice. Teams already in conflict that need to be re-formed need to focus on things in common and speak into what the concerns are in the group. Appreciative Inquiry helps in the forming stage by recalling what has called the team together and the strengths of the team.

Storming - During the storming stage, individual personalities emerge more clearly. People become more assertive in clarifying their roles. This stage is marked by conflict and disagreement. The team may disagree about the team's mission and goals. This team is characterized by general lack of unity and cohesiveness. It is essential that teams move beyond this stage or they will never achieve high performance. Teams already in conflict that are in this stage are particularly challenging to deal with as they have formed individual and splinter group positions that may be hardened. There is a need to express emotions, even negative ones, that builds camaraderie and a shared understanding of goals and tasks.

Norming - At the norming stage conflict has been resolved and team unity and harmony emerge. Consensus develops as to who the natural team leaders are, and the member's roles are clear. Team members come to understand and accept each other. Differences are resolved, and members develop a sense of cohesiveness. This stage is usually relatively short lived and moves to the productive next stage.

Performing - During the performing stage, the major emphasis is on accomplishing the team's goals. members are committed to the team's mission. They interact frequently, coordinate their actions, and handle disagreements in a mature, productive manner. Team members confront and resolve problems in the interest of task completion. At this stage the leader becomes a facilitator of success in reaching goals.

Adjourning/Re-forming - Celebrate successes by telling stories! The adjourning stage is when the team mission has been accomplished and the team is dis-banded and re-formed in another team or placed back in their functional assignment. In on-going teams, like leadership teams their should periodically be an intentional re-forming usually when the make up of the team has changes through a loss of a key member, or the environment has changed that the team faces causes a serious challenge, or the goals of the team/ organization has changed meaningfully.

The Appreciative Inquiry 4D model helps guide the organization through this team development.

Making Vision Real

Vision is an attractive, ideal future state that is credible and compelling yet not readily attainable. Once an organization has gone through the dreaming process to determine what might be and articulated that vision with an identified mission it is ready for the process of making it real. The Appreciative inquiry 4D model calls that Design and we know that process as strategic planning. This process asks the powerful open ended question "How do we make our vision real?"

Within a church community visioning might be led by a pastor with the assistance of lay leaders. In the strategic planning process, lay leadership needs to take the initiative and leadership of the plan development. Making the dream real depends on the willingness of the lay leadership within the church to lead and participate in the process with great energy. Selection of the strategic planning team is an important component of the planning process.

Strategy might be described as the general plan of action that takes into account resource allocation (people, facilities, equipment, and time); strengths and identity of the organization; and and core programs to build on. The church as the organization finds this foundation in the skills & gifts of the leaders and people within the church, scripture, buildings, community partners, and healthy existing programs. Leaders need a clear purpose and vision before they adopt an effective strategy. Strategy involves a road map to where you are going and making adjustments along the journey based on what the organization wants to be and do.

It is very important to evaluate the environment the organization and church finds itself. Community demographics and trends are an important component of a strategic plan. Telling stories of successes that help to build momentum or future success are used to gain energy from the strategic planning process. Situational analysis includes a search for SWOT - Strengths to build on, Weaknesses to grow into, Opportunities to take advantage and build on; and Threats to identify and meet with plans and resources. Data is gathered along with the stories of God's work in order to form a solid foundation of success. By linking action with vision, strategic planning provides hope for a better future.

Improving the chance of success, leaders develop strategies that focus on three qualities:

• Core Competence - This is something the organization does extremely well in comparison with others in the community. Asking the question, "How has God used our church to impact the community inside and outside our walls will point to a possible core competence. Core competencies can be developed by assessing the resources of the church and reading scripture to determine how the church has been equipped or ministry.
• Synergy - Occurs when the organizational parts come together to produce an impact that is greater than the individual components. Multiplying by bringing different groups within the church to a common purpose, engaging partners in the vision, and prioritizing activities that push the plan forward are all examples of leveraging synergy within the church. Small groups that pray and study scripture together often help form this synergy.
• Creating Value - Focusing on the church's core competencies and the synergy in moving together create value for the community. Grounded in scripture to love others this value multiplys itself throughout the church and into the community it serves.

Strategy formation integrates knowledge of the community, focus on scripture and the Spirit, vision and mission with the core competencies in such a way as to attain synergy and create value within and outside of the church community. Leaders need to ensure that strategies are executed and actual behavior within the organization reflects direction. The Appreciative Inquiry 4D Model focused on Design is an excellent methodology to develop a strategic plan.

Team Formation Predicament

Leaders working to build a strong leadership team can be more effective when they understand that there are three basic reasons that potential team members wrestle with forming a leadership team:

Giving up our independence and power
Managers, who become part of a leadership team, find their individual success dependent on other manager's performance and contributions. Most managers are willing to make sacrifices to achieve their own individual success, balk at teamwork demands to make sacrifices for the group success.

Putting up with members not pulling their worth

Leadership teams are made up of managers that perceive rightly or even wrongly of a team member not contributing to the team success or exhibiting the same work ethic. This fosters resentment within the management team.

Teams can be dsyfunctional and slow to respond to challenges

Patrick Lencioni in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team identifies dsyfunctions with resulting attitudes and behaviors:

• Lack of trust - people don't feel safe to reveal mistakes, share concerns, or express ideas
• Fear of Conflict - people go along for sake of harmony , not talking things out until it bursts into the open
• Lack of Committment - people do not commit to team decisions because they have not contributed their true opinion
• Avoidance of Accountability - people don't accept responsibility and engage in finger pointing when things go wrong
• Inattention to results - Members put personal ambition and success over the collective team success

The Appreciative Inquiry 4D Change model can be a powerful tool create a functional team by building on the member individual and collective strengths, creating a preferred future state and making the necessary changes to achieve that result.

Leading Change through Appreciative Inquiry

The role of the leader is to make sure organizations change as needed to respond to threats, opportunities, or shifts in the organization's environment. Leading change is an intentional process of determining the current state of the organization, followed by the shaping of a preferred future state, which results in an action plan, and then the implementation of change.

John Kotter developed a model that helps leaders guide their organizations through change:

1. Light a fire for Change
2. Get the right people on board
3. Paint a compelling picture
4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
5. Get rid of obstacles and empower people to act
6. Achieve and celebrate wins
7. Keep it moving
8. Find ways to make changes stick

Lighting a fire for change happens when people believe that the change is really needed. There needs to be a sense of urgency generated in such a way that people's emotions are impacted. It is much more important for the people to feel the need for the change rather than see facts and figures. The evaluation of the current state in an appreciative way during the AI Discover stage builds of a foundation of celebration of success. This generates enthusiasm and confidence to make changes that align with the question of what the organization wants more of? This strong shared foundation creates the fire and energy to think about the future state, called Dream in the AI 4-D process. This establishes the best of what exists and begins to gather momentum for change.

During the Discover change it very important to identify the people that will help shape and drive the change. Change is complex and no one person can implement a meaningful change alone. For successful change there is a need to build a diverse and strong team of people with a shared committment to the success of the organization to generate the the possibility of change. One of the best practices is to start by selecting three core leaders - the first as the visionary leader for the change; second the logistics and project management leader; and the inviter/relationships leader who will provide the communications.  Next find three more people that share the idea of the change and complement the three leaders bringing the team to six total. The final step to complete the change team is to review the team and add six more people that complement and fill gaps in power bases and skills not present in the original six.

Leaders start to create a vision of what could be and develop a compelling picture of the possibilities of change. This Dream process step of AI is characterized by open ended questions and a focus on abundance and possibilities rather than scarcity and barriers. Often the team will record their ideas and dreams in pictures and images to paint the compelling picture of the preferred future state. The use of positive and expansive language forms the change that will be raalyed around and moved forward. Finally the team asks what would the organization look like five years from now if the dream / preferred future state was fully implemented.

How to make the dream real? The question that transitions the AI process from Dream to Design. During this transition, the leaders tell the message of the change no just once rather over and over again. This combats the reality that change throws people into confusion, uncertainty, and stress which is not a state conducive to hearing clearly and processing information effectively. While it is important to communicate the change verbally it is far more important to demonstrate the change in actions by the leadership.

The design stage of the AI 4D process is one of the most difficult for most organizations to implement. Characterized by the answers to the question: how do we make the dream real? Leaders focus the team through providing resources, knowledge, methods, and discretion to create an implementation plan. Success during this period is characterized by examining methods, policies, procedures that impact or hinder progress on implementing the plan. This process involves getting rid of obstacles and empowering people to act. This design formulates the plans to achieve success.

The implementation of the plans in AI is called destiny. This stage involves the timetable and activities being implemented in the change. Telling stories of success about achieving those wins celebrate progress and builds support for the change. Build the momentum through those celebrations of the cheivement of key milestone events which keep the change moving forward. Finally as the changes are implemented find ways to make them part of the every day life of the organization.

Lead by Moving On

There comes a time in leadership where the organization needs to move on from something it has always done. Something that was once healthy becomes old and, tired and ineffective. Even traditions that formed the bedrock and foundation of the organization can become out-dated and counter-productive. These organizations, traditions, and activities can be fiercely defended by some who remember a much happier and more prosperous time. So is this story of a beloved horse who was the pride of the stable in its youth now not able to get around quite the same way. As far as I know there is no source to turn to to attribute this story, it has passed to becoming just ancient knowledge that rings uncomfortably true today.

Some people, in an organization, are said to have gotten together and brainstormed some strategies for dealing with the beloved  "dead horse" and returning it to its former glory... one might call it an organizational parable.

• change the leader/rider
• use a stronger whip
• shout and threaten the horse
• appoint a committee to study the horse
• visit other places to see how they ride dead horses
• appoint a committee to revive the dead horse
• increase funding to improve the dead horse's performance
• bring in consultants to show how to ride a dead horse
• harness several dead horses together to increase speed
• declare a dead horse is less expensive to maintain than a live one
• form a work group to find uses for a dead horse
• promote the dead horse to a shiny example of leadership

Think about your dead horses and move on. If you don't get this organizational parable, that's ok many leaders of the original parables did not get them either.

LEAD - Listening Skills

A friend of mine who is a corporate leader and thinker remarked recently that the problems of the world could be summed up by the lack of leadership and the presence of injustice in the world. He also believes that business where there is the absence of injustice and the presence of leadership can move the world forward in a substantial way. Considering that injustice is about the lack of fairness, inequity, corruption, tyranny, repression, exploitation, and intolerance it seemed that the answer or at least a small step forward was to improve relationships between people which at its core is one of the strong tenets of effective leadership.

Relationships in the workplace are focused on the way employees, supervision, and the organization (senior management) treat each other. How they talk to each other, behave toward each other, and deal with one another is how the Merriam-Webster dictionary views relationships. A key leadership skill to shape and improve the work environment and perhaps the world is to develop effective listening skills. Good listening skills are important to relationships because at the core of sustainable positive relationships are trust and respect which can be mutually found through effective listening to one another.

There are a number of scholarly works that spell out the characteristics of effective listening. In business and in building teams of people these are some of the best practices:

• Be involved in the conversation and listen actively. Show interest, nod, ask questions, and paraphrase what is being said and learned. 
• Ask open ended questions by avoiding "yes & no" questions and process the response with an open mind that wants to learn not a mind already made up.
• Stay focused on the conversation. Do not get distracted rather concentrate on the moment. Since thought is faster than speech, stay in the moment by summarizing and checking back to the point being made.
• Stay open to the possibilities of changing position and hold your fire. Do not judge until the other position is fully understood. The stronger you feel about your position, the more open to the possibilities you need to become.
• Listen for the idea and rationale. Resist nit-picking the facts, find areas of common ground of agreement. Emphasize the areas of agreement and stay away from focusing on the differences.
• Work at listening by good eye contact, positive posture, and engaging actively. Resist interrupting thought trains and learn to be present with the other person.

Let me know if you have other best practices. Good listening skills promote and multiply good leadership. Good leadership fights injustice. The business improves and sustains performance. At least that is the premise of good leadership being promoted here.

Leadership Lens & Role - HR

Human Resource professionals are tasked with viewing the organization through the leadership lens that employees are the most valuable organizational asset. Employees, if led properly, will create a competitive advantage and appreciate in value to the organization. Leadership change theories are plentiful that can be deployed to create an environment and develop leadership skills where the human resource asset appreciates and contributes to that competitive advantage. Appreciative Inquiry provides a complementary and powerful change tool to today's lean organizations, as an example, that seeks to find the best of what exists, imagine what could be, formulate a plan to achieve what should be, and then live out that new vision. Leaders are seen as not relying solely on position power rather build relationships by empowering and engaging the individual employees and work teams in the common mission.

The role of the Human Resource professional is complex seeing the organization through this Leadership lens. The effective Human Resource professional in facts takes on three distinct roles:

• Employee advocate 
• Supervisor / Manager supporter 
• Organization advocate & protector 

The HR professional as an employee advocate looking through the leadership lens that the employees are the most valuable organizational advocate stands up for those employees when they are seen as being a cost and a waste as organizations deploy lean concepts without the partnership with AI. Pressure on organizations to constantly reduce cost place the HR professional acting as an employee advocate in direct conflict with operations and financial management unless handled properly. The HR resource must argue for the concept that employees appreciate in value and offer a competitive advantage or they can become cynical and numb to the impact on the organization of poorly treated employees. The economy, the move to distance/part-time workers, and merging of companies have led to this becoming an increasingly rare effective role for the HR professional.

The HR professional as a supervisor/manager supporter is one of advisor and partner who helps the supervisor get the most out of their employees. Equipping the supervisor/manager with mangement and leadership skills to empower and encourage their employees to achieve improvements in output or reduction of costs. Pressure comes from the employees who sees the supervisor/manager as not supporting them and from poor performing employees who weigh down the performance of the units. At the same time the company needs to be protected from the impact of failure to follow the employment laws. The HR professional instead of acting as a partner with the front line manager and supervisor often seems to be the chief critic of the supervisor/ manager obsessed with protecting the company and abandoning the supervisor/manager.

The HR professional as the organization advocate & protector can become so focused on that protection that the most valuable asset - the organization's employees - are not uniquely encouraged and empowered for success, rather all employees are treated the same as to not create the environment to excel. Creativity and initiative are crushed under the heavy weight of conformity.

HR professionals need to find a effective balance between these three roles. Appreciative inquiry as a change model values employees by finding the best in them, sets free the supervisor/manager to encourage and empower their employees, and develop a plan that protects and advocate for the organization through a vision of what could be...

Strategic Leadership

Strategic leadership is the ability to anticipate and envision the future, maintain flexibility, think strategically and initiate changes that will create a healthy organization living out its vision and mission in the community within and outside the walls of the church. Strategic leadership consists of the relationship between the external environment and the church's vision, mission, strategy, and their execution.

This is how we shape each of these areas, both traditionally in the Strategic Leadership model and secondarily from an Appreciative Inquiry model:

• Vision - "Where are we headed?" or "How do we visualize our future?"
• Mission - "Who are we?" or "How do we live out our vision?"
• Strategy - "How do we get there?" or "How do we make it real?"
• Execution - "What do we do right now?" or "How do we live our plan out?"

Strategic leadership does not necessarily come naturally to the leader and is often not welcome with open arms by the stakeholders within the organization. There are some strategies for thinking strategically and navigating uncertainty:

• Anticipate threats and Opportunities - Effective leaders constantly test the waters of their organizations - talk to the leaders & people within the church leaders along with leaders & people out in the community. They identify early signs of change both favorable and damaging.
• Challenge the Status Quo - Strategic thinkers question their own assumptions  and processes to look for opportunities to improve. They are curious and want to learn which they do by asking powerful open ended questions.
• Interpret Trends - Leaders look for patterns in what they find out and observe. They dig deeper trying to understand new insights rather than accepting the easy answer. Leaders do not accept that things need to stay the same practicing the idea that if you keep repeating the same process you will get the same result.
• Achieve Alignment - Leaders need to get buy-in from the stakeholders and key members of the faith community who may have different, even conflicting viewpoints and interests. Everyone must be aligned in the same direction to achieve the vision, even if all do not agree with the details of the change.

Forming Strategic Leadership: Be consistent and positive in language so when people repeat the same thing conjures up the same thing with everyone else... without a clearly articulated vision that everyone understands and buys into - people pull in opposite directions - that makes it tough to go where the community is being called to go... Focus on abundance not scarcity and possibilities not barriers,

4E Encourage, Equip, Empower, & Engage - Preparing the Ask

The cornerstone to engaging volunteer servants and leaders successfully is to encourage them to find what God is calling them to be, then equiping those volunteer servants, then empower each servant, and then engage them in the ministry. This process needs to be focused on the mission of the organization and intentional in its consistent application. The process to encourage leaders starts with developing a role description for the opportunity. This understandingof the servant role is very important for the success of the process. Misty Molloy, a volunteer engagement expert, believes that creating a good system of information in a data base and then creating tools that support the process.

The development of the role description starts with the creation of a Servant Opportunity Description based on a templete of questions that are posed to the Ministry Leader seeking volunteer servants. The SOD is designed to help the leader answer the question: "What does the servant need to be successful?" The questions are asked in a way to create a very detailed profile of the position that equips the leader to encourage and explain the service opporunity to potential volunteer servants.

WHO?

• For whom possibly would this be a good fit? ( leave the possibilities open by considering the gifts, heart, abilities, and personality desirable for this role.
• To whom does the volunteer servant work with and who is the leader of the ministry?

WHAT?

• How would a servant volunteer be successful? 
• What are the opportunities presented by the opportunity?

WHEN?

• Describe all the aspects around time?
• Commitment length (ie: one month?, one year? how often?)

WHERE?

• Describe all the aspects around location? 

WHY?

• What will be the immediate impact from the volunteer servant's participation?
• What is the greater purpose? 
• How is this opportunity tied to the BIG PICTURE?
• How will this opportunity allow them to follow the organizational mission?

The development of the role description starts with the creation of a Servant Opportunity Description based on a templete of questions that are posed to the Ministry Leader seeking volunteer servants. Asking these question create the foundation to move forward with encouraging new servant volunteers.

Developing Leaders Continuously

Leaders in many faith organizations are typically appointed for a period of time, often three years. This frequently happens once a year and often as a process of seeking people to fill open leadership roles. At Assurance UMC, we seek to grow leaders through an intentional process of identifying, encouraging, equipping, and apprenticing leaders through a year around process. 

The process is tied to the church’s singular mission to follow Jesus to “Grow and Go”. Assurance is Growing Disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ so that we can Go serve Christ in the world. In “Growing and Going”, we emphasize the 3 S’s: Spirit, Serve, and Share. We grow our Spirit in worship, prayer, and small group connections. We grow by Serving others inside and outside the walls of the church. And we Share our gifts and the good News that God loves us all.

One of the key leadership development initiatives is in deepening discipleship to develop current and future leaders through intentional identification of apprentices; create candidate pools in order to ensure adequate numbers of equipped candidates; and provide training/equipping opportunities. This LEAD process: ‘L’  Learn Leadership Skills; ‘E’ Encourage SHAPE; ‘A’ Apprentice Others; and ‘D’ Disciple Through Grow 7 GO.

These are some key results from this LEAD process:

ü  Identification of Apprentices - We continue to find future leaders to work alongside current leaders through intentional invitation. We explore member gifts through SHAPE, participation in small group and ministry work, and a heart for leadership.

ü  Candidate Pools – We create pools of candidates for leadership positions that have been pre-identified as candidates last year and throughout this year, many of whom have received encouragement and development opportunities during the following year. We believe in co-chairs for our administrative teams for continuity of leadership. We believe ministries we are called to start should have three leaders at their inception: one who is the visionary leader, one who is the logistics and equipping leader, and one who is the inviter/nurturer of volunteers and partners to come alongside.

ü  Leadership Training & Development Opportunities - We continue to develop manuals and training events for our leadership. We believe a leader at Assurance should serve where God has equipped them and have a heart for Grow and Go.

This is what we hope will be accomplished by our year around lay leadership team:

Ø  Fill the key leadership roles with our church community

Ø  Discuss and recommend that a new leadership structure be adopted that is more conducive to successful missional and vital UMC congregations

Ø  Support the future leadership needs of a multi-site church

Ø  Recommend Leadership Celebration and Development Days

Ø  Affirm GROW & GO characteristics of Spirit, Serve, And Share as a part of leadership

We seek to build the leadership of the faith community intentionally all year long.

Discovery and Value Stream Mapping – Powerful Change Foundation

Strategic Lean Six Sigma and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful change agents within organizations. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and the Appreciative Inquiry process (4D) step of discovery forms sustainable change foundation. This new emerging process is called Appreciative Lean Six Sigma.

The Discovery element in the 4D model focuses on identifying the strengths and successes of an organization. This complements the lean tools of value stream / business process mapping. The appreciative questions provide recognition of strengths and confidence within the teams. This affirmation creates ownership during the value stream mapping process while maintaining a perspective of the larger picture throughout the organization.

Value stream mapping discovers and identifies each step of a process from inception to completion. Each process step contains specific elements:

• What work is being done? (value added & waste)
• Who is doing the work? (people)
• How is the work being done? (machine, process)

These process steps are then mapped out in a visual manner and utilized through the continuous inquiry process (5 Whys) to determine the value added and waste. These ‘5 Why’ questions focus on discovering a root cause problem and identifying an optimum solution. Analytical tools and measures along with lean and six sigma tools are applied to improve and stabilize the process.

The challenge within an organization during this discovery and problem recognition process is the commitment of the people to the improvement opportunity. Often the value stream mapping is seen as a direct threat to individual security and competence. Complaints arise regarding the recognition of past value of the work and the individual performing the tasks being reviewed in the value stream. Organizations desire maximum buy in from associates during this value stream mapping process. Generally this buy in is sought to be attained through training on the competitive purpose and an understanding of the methodology. Often this leaves an organization feeling unrecognized and in a constant state of being unsettled. This leads to a general resistant to change.

The 4D appreciative model during the change phase of discovery offers an opportunity to create a more positive environment for the application of lean change. In the 4D Discovery appreciative questions using how questions such as “How has this process benefited the organization? Or a people / relational inquiry such as “How have this team achieved successful results through utilizing this process under evaluation?” This leads to affirmation of success and forms a solid base to achieve long lasting continuous improvement.

Value stream mapping used in lean six sigma improvement processes and business process mapping remains a very powerful set of change tools. 4D Discovery questions and stories provide depth to the value stream mapping process. This increases the ownership and excitement surrounding the result, creating sustainable change.

Leveraging AI for Lasting Transformation

Leaders of faith communities face challenging times and circumstances. Sometimes through vision and foresight ... sometimes due to the pressure of changes enfolding around them, these leaders must make fundamental and significant changes in the ways of the congregation. 

Often the challenges of change can be overwhelming: resistance builds, confusion and misinformation swirls about, and the first steps into the unknown are tentative, not bold. Language helps create the environment for positive change or the solidifying of negativity. Scarcity rises up: "not enough money", "not enough time", and "not enough people". Barriers form standing in the way of progress: "those people are different", "we don't do it that way" and "we don't know how".

The language of scripture is one of God's Abundance in the face of a world of scarcity... where we are never enough ...or have enough of anything. In God we are enough and we have blessings in abundance. God is a God of possibilities in the face of challenges when you trust in Him, yet the world throws up barriers to what God has placed on our heart.

The language of abundance and possibilities forms the foundation to look at our faith community from strength not weakness using a proven model of change: the Appreciative Inquiry Model. This model forms the shape of our collective conversation and change model. 

The practice of using AI to celebrate the blessings and resources that the faith community has been given by God which is what gives life. Leveraging these strengths by asking questions like "what do you want more of" leads to a reflection of "what might be?" During this stage of the change process, the congregation is invited to envision "what it might be like in the future" if the congregation changes some of their practices and goes where God is leading them. Throughout the process it has been bathed with prayer and scriptural reflection.

Asking the question "how do we make this real?" moves the congregation into a season of co-creation where "what should be" is developed and planned. These steps and plans are then placed into motion through empowering and resourcing the plans. This results in sustaining the momentum of the change process.

Appreciative inquiry coaching offers a model for change that builds an environment for change that is about abundance, not scarcity... possibilities, not barriers.

Leading through Head, Heart, & Hands

Leadership leverages creativity to live out a church's mission to minister to children so they can minister to others. Ms. Tina Spring, Director - Children's Discipleship at Assurance UMC provides one example of children's ministry focused on a vision and by using creativity unleashes children to grow and go serve others.

At any given time while entering the Assurance UMC children's ministry programs, classes, or even the hallway, one will find much going on. There will be laughter, singing (loud singing!), creative energy, experiments, mini dramas, small group discussions, and much, much more. To the normal eye, this may all appear to be just church made Fun, but in reality a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ is being formed within each child. Every single program, group, or activity is designed with that purpose in mind. It is our hope that all that we do will connect the children to Christ and the three S's of Assurance: SPIRIT ~ SERVE ~ SHARE

via:
THE HEAD - Know God
These activities are designed so that the children will learn all about God, the Bible, Christian themes and Life Application.
THE HEART - Love God
These activities will help the children feel God and His presence, ultimately growing into a closer relationship with Him.
THE HANDS - Serve God
These activities will explore different ways that even the smallest among us are called to serve and help others.

Curriculum development is a cornerstone to our efforts to reach children's heads, hearts, and hands. One example is our Silly Holiday curriculum:

Finding Faith in the Silly Holidays - Every day there is something to celebrate! From Pizza Day to Apple Dumpling Day there is always a Silly Holiday to be found. It is our hope that we can take the secular and help children discover Jesus in these silly days. Children are excited to find engaging ways to see Jesus and to be reminded of how much He loves them.

http://findingfaithinthesillyholidays.blogspot.com/2015/04/april-22-earth-day-jelly-bean-day.html?m=1

Open your creative energy to unleash the head, heart, and hands of our children. Contact: tina@assuranceumc.org for more information.

Leadership Vision - God's Community?

Casting vision and developing a mission is a critical component of every successful leadership strategy. There are many approaches to this process, including the positive and building process Appreciative Inquiry, which focuses on abundance, not scarcity, and possibilities, not barriers.

How might we form a faith community vision that most resembles God's community?

The first aspect seems to be to ensure the vision focuses on loving and worshiping God first, then focusing on loving our neighbor. This can be very difficult for many churches and faith communities who struggle over the details of loving God and worshiping Him rather than focusing on God's grace and the heart of that love and worship. While this is important we are going to assume the faith community has discovered genuine and heartfelt love of God along with authentic worship celebrating differences and passion for God.

How might the church move toward God's community after learning to genuinely worship God and love their neighbor?

The second aspect of God's community represents significant and important challenges on what is the focus and heart of the faith community. There are two steps in this process that are need to build on each other.

1. Move from 'I' to 'We'
2. Move from 'They to We'

Move 'I' to 'We'

As an individual we are called to humble ourselves and act as servant leaders. As a faith community we are called to look beyond our church / faith community into the broader community which we reside. Sadly many churches fail to make this transition to a 'We' community because energy is focused on the church members and those who may wander into their community that are like them. 

Examples of 'I' faith communities:

• churches who open their doors and hope people come inside that are like them
• churches who have facilities like gyms, yet fail to open them to the community youth 
• churches whose worship uses words and traditions that form a barrier to new people
• churches whose food ministries do wonderful meals for their own members and the only time the community is welcome are fund raising opportunities
• churches who have small groups forming disciples where no outsiders are invited or welcome

Example of 'We' faith communities:

• churches that go outside their walls to meet people of the community where they live
• churches who open their facilities like gyms to the communities 
• churches that offer multiple ways to worship God that invites new people
• churches that focus more of their ministries such as food on people not part of their faith community than their own members
• churches who form discipleship groups and paths focused on those who are not part of the church community, welcoming all seeking knowledge in to the discussion

These are the churches that seek to do God's work outside of the walls of the church. There are few faith communities that effectively and consistently practice this vision that is close and yet not all of God's Community. Most churches are thrilled to be living into this kind of faith community. These are the healthy churches.

Move from 'They to We'

There is another aspect to God's Community. There are people sitting just outside every community that the people and leadership do not believe belong. These people have characteristics that the faith community does not find desirable. These people can be generalized as "them" based on characteristics like education, community position, style of dress, race, ethnic group, sexual orientation, age, gender, culture, political thinking, theology, and religion.

Faith communities that worship and love God along with showing the willingness to serve the community as 'we' outside the church have the need to continually focus on reducing the 'them' found in their community. An example of this might be a youth program in the church that reaches out into the community yet excludes or fails to connect with the 'them' youth - youth that cannot afford the fee or are excluded because of race or ethnic group. Another example might be a church that has food outreach to the community and yet looks down and fails to invite homeless 'them' into their fellowship.

What is your vision? How do you worship and love God while loving your neighbors in the community? How do you are you defined by a 'we' not 'I' community? How are you focused on reducing the 'them' in your faith community? 

Coaching within the Church

The core of the coaching process is asking the question, intuitive listening for clues to progress forward, and walking alongside the coachee (client). Continuous curiosity enables pondering values, perspective, context, lifestyle, goals, feelings, and relationships. This continuous curiosity promotes thought provoking questions, active listening, and leaps of intuitive insight for the coachee. The coachee is built up through these inquiries focused on goals and dreams enabling clarity and energy to achieve their ministry.

The flow of an effective coaching relationship is unique. While mentoring flows wisdom and experience passing on a father-like legacy; counseling flows prespective advice promoting physician-like healing; and consulting flows direction and expertise fixing a specific flaw akin to a senior design engineer. Coaching draws equals together flowing in a partnership characteristic by walking through life challenges together until actions are taken and the coachee's goals are achieved.

The ebb and flow of the coaching relationship is dictated not by a carefully scripted agenda of the counselor or the step by step plan of the consultant. Rather the coaching topic is influenced by the coachee's state of mind reflected in the coaching model continually centered around Jesus Christ as the foundation. Perhaps on a given coaching day, a powerful reminder needs to be crafted of the vision becoming fuzzy in the midst of the demands of every day life. Another session may need to explore strategy and objectives with the success or failure of initiatives considered. Stepping back and unpacking obstacles could be the unanticipated topic of another coaching day resulting from the brutal confidence damaging effects of a meeting. The topic may need to be a thoughtful examination of awareness of the realities of the present and setting the foundation firm again to build with strategies and actions.

Gary Collin's book, CHRISTIAN COACHING, presents a comprehensive picture of the relationship. Positive change that is: collaborative not prescriptive; dialogic not sermon focused; positive building up not problem solving taking apart; and life encompassing not component evaluating.

Some of the key underpinnings:

• Listen intuitively
• Demonstrate continuous curiosity
• Promote mutual respect and trust
• Clarify assumptions
• Race alongside toward action oriented goals

There are several organizations that develop people coaching skills and certifications.

Power of Stories

As leaders we search for measurements of success. We produce metrics to connect with the goals of the team and organization in order to measure and celebrate that success. These are valuable leadership tools to help shape the organization and focus individuals / teams on success. Often lost in organizations is the sharing and celebrating of stories as a measure of success. These shared stories help shape the organizations and create an environment that sustains success for longer periods of time.

As leaders who practice continuous improvement using the lean model of changes often ignore the stories of success as we focus on "why" to discover a root cause problem to be improved. The stories told are often seen as traditions that are spoken to limit or place up barriers to change. The leaders in these organizations are not interested in being derailed by what has been successful in the past. The change model Appreciative Inquiry (AI) discovers an affirmative topic and then builds on strength to effect positive change. Stories are a foundation to that sustainable change process. The best elements of lean and AI comes together in the measurements of success - the metrics and the stories.

Stories can have a tremendous influence on people's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors within an organization. Storytelling goes hand in hand with good active listening skills in a leader. Leaders listen to stories from their supervisors, employees, customers, and vendors to construct what is strong and good about the organization. Stories connect people with the processes of the organization and allow long lasting positive changes to be implemented.

Stories can make sense of complex situations, connecting them together for a common purpose and goal, inspire action, and invoke powerful images of success that improves organizations. The five step model AI helps create an organizational environment that is curious about others and how they fit into the organization. Think about asking powerful open ended powerful questions and actively listening to the story.

Howard Gardner, in his book Leading Minds, says: "Stories are the most powerful weapon in a leader's arsenal." Create a positive organizational culture, one of inquiry and positive stories.

LEADERSHIP EXECUTION - Execution - "Perform" / "Achieve"

Some of us are not perfect as people and leaders. I'm not, and maybe you are not perfect either. I try to exercise regularly and also eat a balanced portion controlled tasty diet at home thanks to my dietition spouse who executes a well thought out plan. When I stay on my established standard process and execute my plan consistently the results are measurable and quite rewarding.

So why am I drawn like a piece of metal to a magnet, when I venture out on a road trip and pass a McDonald's? I ignore my standard process and the results I have achieved and stop for my large diet coke, fries and cheeseburgers. Maybe you have seen in your life a similar situation where you thrive in a standard process well-executed and fail when you deviate from your plan.

Lean business systems and six sigma protocols are designed to reduce the variations in the process through continuous improvement. Still there are always variations - the business environment changes, the nature of the product changes, something always changes! So if you have a standard process, do leaders make a difference in the execution?

Definitely! Take McDonald's where I earlier established my vast experience. I had the occassion over a few days to observe the culture of execution at two different McDonald's at various times of the day for a week. (Spouse was visiting her mother)

Both restaurants were relatively new and basically identical in layout. McDonald's had deployed their legendary standard work so all the food was made on the same equipment, the process metrics were the same, uniforms were the the same, and the training manual identical.

The execution of the process and the customer experience could not have produced a starker result. The first restaurant X was a pleasant place to dine and the other Y wasa chore to leave unstressed. Y had more associates running around constantly bumping into each other. X and Y used almost the same words of greeting, and you felt like X employees cared about what you ordered and how your day was going. Y never listened to your answers to thir questions asked from the manual. X had eye contact and seemed to take more time with you even the line flowed smoothly. Y always seem rushed to get to the next customer in the long slow lines. The appearance in uniform was dramatic: X pressed and professional; Y the uniform was hanging on the associates. One drink area was messy (Y) with straw wrappers and spills, while the other (X) seemed to shine.

Execution is about enabling your team to translate the standard work and continous improvement into a culture of high expectations for achievements. There is a case to be made that while successful managers perform the basic operation of the operation. Leaders create a culture and expectation for consistent execution of operational excellence, even in an environment of difficult economic conditions or operational stress.

• Eliminate the distractions and uncertainty from the work environment that impact the core of the performance expectation. 
• Provide a culture of high expectation for the team's execution of the spirit and not just the words of the business process.
• Motivate the team members to embrace the standard process as the way to satisfy customers and lead to success, not just follow "stupid rules" or repeat "empty words".
• Develop a culture that allows enthusiastic execution of the organization's strategy. Make it fun to come to work, as well delivering a consistent high quality product.
• Envision a clearly defined and understood work practice that manifests itself in sustained excellent results.

Final thought: Larry Bossidy, in his book, Execution sets out an excellent frame work for " the discipline of getting things done". A great read for all levels of managers in forming a strategy of performance within their group.

Lead with Love or Fear in Organizations?

Team development is an important component of leadership. The organization's environment provides the context of the character of that development. Leaders control the fear / love level within the organization. A team grows more effectively and produces sustainable success in an environment of love and respect. An enviroment of fear works in the short term dramatically however it stiffles long term success and the quality of team members that environment attracts.

Organizations and teams driven by love & mutual respect are marked by openess and authenticity. a respect for diverse viewpoints & people, and emphasis on positive interpersonal relationships. Organizations driven by fear are characterized by cautiousness and secrecy, blaming others, excessive control, and emotional distance between members of the team. The relationship between the employee and their direct supervisor is the prime factor determining level of fear experienced at work.

Daniel Holgren, in his work "Team Development: A Search for Elegance, in Industrial Management, September - October 2007 produces an interesting comparison between Fear-Driven indicators and Love/Respect Indicators:

Fear Driven Indicators:                                                Love/Respect Indicators:

Caution & secrecy                                                           Openess & authenticity
Blaming & attacking                                                        Understanding diverse viewpoints
Excessive control                                                            Expecting others to do great things
Sideline different views                                                   Involvement & discernment
Coming unglued                                                              Keeping perspective
Aloofness and distance                                                   Personal connection
Resistance supressed                                                     Resistance out in open & explored

Leaders can create a new environment that enables people to feel safe speaking their minds. Leaders can act from love & respect rather than fear to free employees and the organization from the challenges and negative legacy of the past.

VISION AND VALUES OF DISCIPLESHIP IN “GROW AND GO”

Appreciative Inquiry facilitates the mission of an organization in this case a church. It discovers its abundance of strengths and values then finds a vision of the possibilities of the future. It asks how to make that future real with God's help then starts the journey. This is where they are journeying today.

Assurance is a church whose singular mission is to “Grow and Go”. Assurance is Growing Disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ so that we can Go serve Christ in the world. In “Growing and Going”, we emphasize the 3 S’s: Spirit, Serve, and Share. We grow our Spirit in worship, prayer, and small group connections. We grow by Serving others inside and outside the walls of our church. And we Share our gifts and the Good News that God loves us all. We are excited to be on this journey together.

SPIRIT

God desires above all else, to be in relationship with us! God calls us to grow spiritually. All active people in the Assurance community worships each week and prays each day. The Impact that Christ can have through the Assurance community is directly connected to how close we are to Christ and how deep we grow spiritually. The direct community impact we want to have starts in our heart. The changes that take place internally from spiritual growth kindle the desire for action in the world. We believe that we participate in the kingdom of God on earth through our faith in action.

“live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” Colossians 1:10

SERVE

Transform the world by serving. This is our chance to be Jesus’ hands and feet on the world. Serving means taking time to out others before self by teaching, feeding, building, clothing, and sharing hospitality. We serve because everyone needs love and God’s world needs to change for the better.

“Truly I tell you, just as you did to one of these members of my family, you did it to me”    Matthew 25:40

SHARE

Our role, as Christians and active participants in the Assurance community, is to be witnesses for Jesus Christ spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and God’s love to those who need to experience God’s transforming love. Assurance shares the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed. God has blessed us with an abundance of gifts and we are called to generously share our gifts.

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” Act 1:8

Dream and the Lean Future State – Visioning Success

Strategic Lean Six Sigma and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful change agents within organizations. Mapping the Future State and the Appreciative Inquiry process (4D) step of dream forms a vision of successful change. This new emerging process is called Appreciative Lean.

The Dream element in the 4D model focuses on identifying what the organization desires more of and how that might look. The dream phase of the AI change process is a powerful step. It facilitates clarity and ownership of the future state. This complements the lean six sigma process with focus on looping the change process continuously, creating successive modified future states. The dream questions and resulting broad picture of success affirm the organization and participating individuals.

Lean six sigma and business process mapping implementation can become event oriented causing organizations to lose sight of the vision for the change. Continuous improvement without this firm vision of the future results in organizations working the change process, creating more resistance while eliminating waste in non-strategic areas. Strategic lean and policy deployment are excellent tools to maintain an organization’s vision. Organizations utilizing strategic lean tools have an excellent opportunity to leap forward with the dream phase of AI.

Dream inquiries broaden and give strategic perspective to the plans and metrics of strategic lean organization. These added questions focus on:

•          What do we want more of?
•          How might the organization (business) look two years from now?
•          How might we know we have success in the future?

The deployment of stretch objectives from strategic lean bowling charts take on a broader strategic viewpoint with the asking of these dream questions. The challenge within an organization during this phase is for all voices to be heard and the dream to unfold over a series of sessions. This change results in greater ownership of the objectives and dream. The resultant strategic lean bowling charts allow management to hold the organization on task throughout the year.

The 4D appreciative model during the change phase of dream offers an opportunity to create a vision for the application of lean change. Through the 4D Dream appreciative questions noted above, an organization comes to know success in the future. This leads to a definition of success forming a vision to achieve long lasting continuous improvement.

Future state and strategic objectives used in lean six sigma improvement processes and business process mapping remains a powerful set of change tools. 4D Dream questions and the resulting vision provide depth to the process. This increases the ownership and excitement surrounding the collective vision.

DISCOVERY and VALUE STREAM MAPPING: Powerful Change Foundation

Strategic Lean Six Sigma and Appreciative Inquiry are powerful change agents within organizations. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and the Appreciative Inquiry process (4D) step of discovery forms a sustainable change foundation. This new emerging process is called Appreciative Lean.

The Discovery element in the 4D model focuses on identifying the strengths and successes of an organization, This complements the lean tools of value stream/business process mapping. The appreciative questions provide recognition of strengths and confidence within the teams, This affirmation creates ownership during the value stream mapping process while maintaining a perspective of the larger picture throughout the organization.

Value stream mapping discovers and identifies each of a process from inception to completion. Each process step contains specific elements:

• What work is being done? (value added & waste)
• Who is doing the work? (people)
• How is the work being done? (machine, process)

These process steps are then mapped out in a visual manner and utilized throughout the continuous inquiry process (5 whys) to determine value added and waste. These "5 Why" questions focus on discovering a root cause problem and identifying an optimum solution. Analytical tools and measures along with lean and six sigma tools are applied to imrpove and stabilize the process.

The challenge within an organization during this discovery and problem recognition process is the committment of the people to the inprovement opportunity. Often the value stream mapping is seen as a direct threat to individual security and competence. Complaints arise regarding the recognition of the value of their work and the individual performing the tasks being reviewed in the value stream. Organizations desire maximum buy in from associates during this value stream mapping process, Generally this buy in is sought to be attained through training on the competitive purpose and an understanding of the methodology. Often this leaves an organization feeling unrecognized and in a constant state of being unsettled. This leads to a general resistence to change.

The 4D appreciative model during the change phase of discovery offers an opportunity to create a more positive environment for the application of lean change. In the 4D Discovery appreciative questions using how questions such as "How has this process benefited the organization?" Or a people / relational inquiry such as "How has this team achieved successful results through utilizing this process under evaluation?" This leads to affirmation of success and forms a solid base to achieve long lasting continuous improvement.

Value stream mapping used in lean six sigma improvement processes and business process mapping remains a very powerful set of change tools. 4D Discovery questions and stories provide depth to the value stream mapping process. This increases the ownership and excitment surrounding the results, creating sustainable change.